Long after his players had cleared out of the visitors locker room at the Rose Bowl, Pete Carroll lingered by the showers, dressed in a shirt and slacks, but no socks or shoes.
"I don't have a lot of practice at this," the USC coach said in a voice barely above a whisper. "We're going to have to figure it out."
The Trojans were on their way to their third consecutive national championship game and had lost only three times in four seasons. They had defeated cross-town rival UCLA seven years running. Each fall, they had ruled the Los Angeles sports scene.
This extraordinary run ended Saturday afternoon in Pasadena as second-ranked USC lost, 13-9, to an unranked UCLA team that played stifling defense and just enough offense.
The defeat knocked some of the glitter off USC's image and, more important, nudged the Trojans out of contention for next month's Bowl Championship Series title game.
Long after the game, Bruins players remained on the field, hugging and leading their fans in cheers.
"We were trying to get our pride back," UCLA safety Dennis Keyes said. "Trying to get back the heart of the city."
Even as this game upended the local balance of power, it played havoc with the national football scene.
Now third-ranked Michigan will argue for its right to play top-ranked Ohio State in the Jan. 8 title game, even though the Wolverines lost to the Buckeyes, 42-39, two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, fourth-ranked Florida, a winner over Arkansas on Saturday night, also remains in the running to play Ohio State when the final regular-season standings are announced tonight.
Asked about losing out on a chance to play in the BCS title game, a discouraged Carroll said that even if his team had pulled out a last-second victory, "we might not have gone anyway."
The tone was set early, with USC driving into UCLA territory on its opening possession, then facing a fourth-and-one. Trojans tailback Chauncey Washington bulled into the middle of the line only to be stopped for no gain.
The Bruins, who had remade their defense into a more aggressive squad during the off-season, were even tougher against the pass Saturday. Coming into this game, UCLA, with a record of 6-5, decided to attack the Trojans by harassing quarterback John David Booty with blitzes and shifting coverages.
"As far as I was concerned, it was me against Booty," said DeWayne Walker, the UCLA defensive coordinator who previously coached at USC. "If I could get into his head, we could win."
