Westwood, Ho!

For most of the last six years, those helmeted kids from a basketball school have improbably bullied opponents, wowed fans and impressed voters nationwide.

But now the UCLA football team has done the impossible.

It has won the neighborhood.

When it comes to college football, Los Angeles clearly belongs to the Bruins.

Not USC, not any more, not even close, and not only just this year.

This is a Bruin football town, and has been a Bruin football town, and will continue to be a Bruin football town as long as the Bruins continue running the consistent, directed program so lacking across town.

Certainly, there are some USC alumni who will disagree.

But surely not even that constant digital recording of "Conquest" blaring from their dashboard can distract them from the facts.

The Bruins have the rankings.

In the last four years, UCLA is the only Pacific 10 Conference team to finish in the top 10 twice.

In the last decade, USC is the only Pac-10 team to never finish in the top 10.

The Bruins have the fans.

In three of the last four years, UCLA has outdrawn USC, including holding a nearly 15,000-person edge this season in average attendance.

This disparity became strikingly clear on Oct. 13, when UCLA drew 70,377 against Washington in the afternoon, while USC drew 43,508 later that day against Arizona State.

The Bruins also have the cold statistics.

Remember Nov. 23, 1996, when the Bruins beat the Trojans, 48-41, in the only overtime game in the history of the rivalry?

Since then, including that moment, the Bruins have gone 37-17 while USC is 27-29.

That's an 11-game difference.

Don't know if that qualifies as a magic number, but how UCLA reached it has nothing to do with hocus pocus.

Five reasons UCLA has taken the town.

1. The hiring of Bob Toledo.

Remember how he wasn't even their first choice? Remember how, in the first days of 1996, everyone was talking about that Northwestern coach, Gary whatsizname?

Toledo remembers. He was in the Bay Area with his in-laws when Pete Dalis called to offer him the job.

"Did I say yes right away?" Toledo said. "Heck, I jumped through the phone."

He was not a former pro coach, he was a no-name offensive coordinator. He didn't come with a big salary or big reviews.

"Everybody was saying, 'Who was this Bob Toledo guy?"' he remembers.

The Bruins soon found out.