Bruins take the fight to Trojans
BILL PLASCHKE
USC wins the game, of course, but Neuheisel's team shows promise of better days ahead.
It was the most striking beauty to hit this town in years, a Rose Bowl bathed with vivid blues and striking reds, from field to stands to sky, a rivalry as a painting.
Oh, and purple.
UCLA brought the purple.
In a game that will be remembered for the return of the crosstown colors Saturday, USC scored most of the points, but UCLA applied all the welts.
The Trojans outplayed, outclassed and outscored, by a count of 28-7.
The Bruins, however, outfought.
"Man, from start to finish, we did fight them," said Bruins linebacker Reggie Carter, still sweating in a T-shirt and uniform pants nearly an hour after the game.
The Bruins outworked.
"We were huge underdogs, but that didn't matter to us, we never stopped playing," said cornerback Michael Norris, his eyes still wide.
The Bruins out-and-out burned, from the marching band's knee-pumping opening act to Rick Neuheisel's resilient final speech.
Moments after the game ended, as is his custom, the UCLA coach grabbed a microphone to address the fans.
Only this game had long since been lost, and most of the UCLA fans had departed, leaving the Rose Bowl to a patch of blue surrounded by waves of cardinal, and the booing began with Neuheisel's first syllable.
He didn't care, he kept talking.
"We're going back to work!" he shouted through the distant jeers. "We'll see you in September. We'll make you proud."
I believe him.
Watching the Bruins hustle where they once walked, watching them care where they once didn't, watching a team win two fewer games but experience a complete turnaround, I believe him.
They finish 4-8, no bowl, sitting home when Karl Dorrell was usually not, but their ceiling is higher, sitting atop a room that is far more charged.
Watching them run out to midfield to challenge the Trojans at halftime Saturday, I became convinced.
USC was dancing and shouting as the third-quarter kickoff approached, the entire team moving toward the center of the field, bouncing together like a giant red trampoline.
It was similar to the way both teams bounced here two years ago, during a late television timeout, a dance that brought the teams helmet-to-helmet in a memorable moment in UCLA's upset win.
"We thought USC was doing it because the last time it happened, they lost, so they were making up for it," Carter said. "We thought they were disrespecting us."
