In 2005, when a team in the USC-UCLA game scored over 60 points, the result was much more a commentary about the greatness of the winning team.
That 2005 USC team which slapped a 66-19 beatdown on the Bruins was an iconically great team. It didn’t win the national championship, but only because Vince Young of Texas played one of the best games in college football history. The 2006 Rose Bowl will always be one of the classic college football games of all time.
2005 USC stood for greatness. It did what it wanted against UCLA that year because it was a bunch of bad dudes who knew they were elite and played like it.
This Saturday, 16 years later, another team scored over 60 points in a USC-UCLA game in the Los Angeles Coliseum, but this time, can anyone say it was more a commentary on the winning team?
It’s impossible to do that.
UCLA is limping to the end of a season which will be no better than 8-4. Chip Kelly was on the hot seat entering this game, and his future — while more secure — is hardly guaranteed.
UCLA lost by 19 at home to Arizona State. It lost by 20 to Utah. The Bruins struggled with Colorado and barely beat a bad Washington team.
UCLA scoring 62 doesn’t reveal a Bruin bunch which has found itself or is about to soar.
The Bruins hanging 62 in the Coliseum is far more a reflection of the opponent they easily defeated.
The 2021 USC Trojans would not have been good players to have in World War II, because they have mounted very little resistance. That’s something the late, great college football historian Beano Cook might have said.
It has been the case all season long. USC comes to the Coliseum in a Pac-12 game and doesn’t put up a fight.
Stanford, Oregon State, Utah, the unimpressive win over Arizona, and now this ultimate humiliation against UCLA. Not once has USC played an authoritative Pac-12 home game in 2021.
Every game was flawed — we always knew that would be the case — but “flawed” and “toothless” are not the same thing.
USC wasn’t just a bad team this year; it was a punchless, lifeless team. Are there reasons for that? Yes … but it doesn’t make the reality any more tolerable or acceptable.
This is what the next head coach has to clean up. This is what 2022 Trojan players have to look at and reflect upon.
This is not a result to “get over” or “move past.”
No, this has to sit in the pit of the stomach for every USC player. The new coaching staff needs to study this and do a lot of homework to explore.
Before USC moves into the future under a new leader, it has to come to grips with its past, specifically this annus horribilis known as 2021. In Roman numerals, MMXXI.
The Fall of Troy has been dramatic this year. Stinging defeats don’t serve a purpose unless they are learned from.
