All these years later, my son went to USC this morning, my alma mater, for a college interview, wearing a red shirt and his lucky tie bar. Around noon, he texted me: “Sitting right next to jurrell casey and nick perry in the student center. No big deal” Jurrell Casey is one of my favorite football players, not just because his last name is the same as my son’s first name. Every time we watch a game and he makes a good play, I yell “CASEY!” There are two major universities in Los Angeles but at the other one, UCLA, no one will talk to you. Literally. They won’t talk to you. It’s a government-run institution. Imagine the DMV operating a college. Or the IRS. Or the Post Office. UCLA is actually worse than any of them. At those other places, eventually you’ll get to talk to someone. You’ll take… Read more →
EppsNet Archive: UCLA
College World Series: USC 2, UCLA 1
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Whit Merrifield’s RBI single with one out in the bottom of the 11th inning gave South Carolina its first baseball national championship with a 2-1 victory over UCLA in the College World Series on Tuesday night. — NCAA.com It’s always a good bet to pick USC over UCLA. Read more →
John Wooden, 1910-2010
I thought John Wooden was going to live forever. I grew up here in Southern California watching his UCLA Bruin teams dominate college basketball. The main thing I learned from that is that success is a result of preparation. Coach Wooden was a teacher. After he retired, he used to say that he didn’t miss the games and he didn’t miss the tournaments, but he did miss the practices. College basketball today is unwatchable, in my opinion. The coaches are all bug-eyed lunatics, screaming, waving their arms, tearing their hair out. I’m sickened by these college basketball coaches and their look-at-me theatrics. Does that help the team win? I watched UCLA win 10 championships and I don’t think Coach Wooden even got out of his chair the whole time. Draw your own conclusions. Read more →
Twitter: 2010-01-18
Just Like Football: USC 67, UCLA 46 # RT @Lileks: To recap: if you drink in the morning, you're an addict. If you drink in the morning near an athletic facility, you're a fan. # Read more →
Mascots: Trojan vs. Bruin
USC’s mascot is a guy on horseback waving a sword. UCLA’s is a kid in a homemade bear suit. — Jim Murray, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 25, 1973 Read more →
It’s Not All Bad for USC Athletics
Okay, not a great season for USC football but on the bright side, the men’s water polo team won back-to-back national championships with a 7-6 win over UCLA in today’s title match. T-shirts are available! Read more →
USC 28, UCLA 7
It hasn’t been a great season for Pete Carroll and the Trojans — but they’re still three touchdowns better than UCLA. FIGHT ON! Read more →
The Path of Trojan Dominance
Steven B. Sample, president of the University of Southern California since 1991, announced on Nov. 2 that he will retire in August 2010. Sample is widely credited with bringing about an institutional rise at USC that is unparalleled in American higher education. — USC News I’m so proud of what USC’s been able to accomplish academically under the leadership of Dr. Sample. When I went to USC in the pre-Sample era, the conventional wisdom in Southern California was that the rich kids went to USC and the smart kids went to UCLA. (No one in my immediate family is or ever has been rich. I was able to attend USC on an academic scholarship, although it must be admitted that my wife and I both have rich but not overly bright cousins who also graduated as Trojans.) Since 1991 though, SAT scores at USC have gone up more than 300… Read more →
Neuheisel!
Optimism is still full. It’s a full trough here at UCLA. One thing that will keep us from it happening is if we start to believe it’s not on the right track. Those of us in the trenches, I expect everyone to fall in line with that. But the leader of the ship has to tell you it’s gonna land. That’s all I know how to do. — Coach Rick Neuheisel Read more →
Meanwhile Over in Westwood
Some highlights from Rick Neuheisel’s Sunday night conference call: It’s time for us to just keep fighting. I just believe it to be a journey that is necessary and we’re going to get there. I’m not pressing the panic button, even though there are a lot of naysayers who don’t want me to. I’m talking about the journey that it is. I don’t know when the end of it is. I know that where we’re going is an exciting place. That doesn’t mean people are going to be happy with how it’s arrived at. LOL! FIGHT ON! Read more →
Microblog: 2009-05-03
RT @USCTrojans_com: Track. USC Sweeps Dual Meet For The First Time Ever http://cli.gs/3sDpya # RT @Lileks: Swine flu now goes from person to pig. http://bit.ly/xHgwj Finally, one for our team. In! Your! Snout! # Read more →
The Best Counselor Ever
We were at Northwood High today for an academic planning session with my son and his counselor. One of the things the counselor went over in the college prep handbook was a section on interview tips. “At a private school like USC,” she told the boy, “you can schedule an interview with them if you think that will help your candidacy.” “UCLA won’t let you do that,” I added. “They don’t want to talk to you.” I went through the application process at both schools so I know all about it. “None of the UC schools will do an interview with you,” she said. “It’s very impersonal,” I said, “like if the DMV ran a university.” “It’s worse. At the DMV, eventually you’ll get to talk to someone.” “By the way,” I said, pointing to a “Joey Ramone, 1951-2001” poster on the wall, “do you think Joey Ramone is a… Read more →
Weeding Out Bruins on Facebook
Wednesday was national signing day for college football. Looks like UCLA got a good group of kids. One of my Facebook friends, a UCLA grad, updated his status to say that he thinks UCLA will now rule the city in basketball AND football. I posted a comment on his status: What about SAT scores? And within minutes he had dropped me from his friend list, after sending me an angry email saying that USC is getting smart kids internationally and out of state while UCLA has to take California kids and besides that they’re manipulating the stats and blah blah blah . . . To fully appreciate that, you need to know that traditionally the perception has been that the rich SoCal kids go to USC while the smart kids go to UCLA. In recent years though, USC has moved ahead in SAT scores, GPA, National Merit Scholars, etc., and… Read more →
A Tradition Returns
When I was growing up in Southern California, USC and UCLA both played home football games at the Coliseum. And every year, when the teams played each other, they both wore their home uniforms — the Trojans wore cardinal jerseys and the Bruins wore blue. That tradition ended in 1982, when UCLA began playing home games at the Rose Bowl, because NCAA rule 1-4-3-a states that “the visiting team shall wear white jerseys.” Twenty-six years later, the tradition returns. Pete Carroll announced today that when the Trojans come out of the locker room at the Rose Bowl this Saturday, they’ll be wearing cardinal jerseys, in violation of NCAA rule 1-4-3-a. They will then be assessed a penalty of one timeout per half. Wait, what — they lose two timeouts?! OMG, they might NEED those timeouts! Oh sure, USC is heavily favored but it’s a RIVALRY game! Throw the record books… Read more →
BYU 59, UCLA 0
OMG the UCLA bandwagon has crashed so hard, they’re still trying to identify the victims. Karl Dorrell must be high-fiving people till his arm hurts. FIGHT ON! Read more →
Rick Neuheisel
UCLA has hired Rick Neuheisel as its new football coach, replacing Karl Dorrell. UCLA people love this guy. They’ve been blowing Neuheisel’s meat whistle ever since the announcement. As a USC man, I say this: Great hire! Neuheisel will fail for all of the reasons listed here. Excerpt: “Neuheisel’s one great genius turns out to be his ability to make people think he’s a genius.” FIGHT ON! Read more →
50 Years Ago Today
According to the Los Angeles Times: Red Sanders decided to stay on as football coach at UCLA instead of pursuing the football coach/athletic director job at Texas A&M, a job recently vacated by Paul (Bear) Bryant. (Sanders would have a heart attack and die before the start of the 1958 football season anyway.) A father of three killed himself in front of his wife after losing his job on Christmas Eve. Silent-screen star Norma Talmadge died in Las Vegas. The Times gave her age as 60; according to IMDB, she was actually 62. Read more →
Why There’s No UCLA Store
My son and I stopped by the USC Store at South Coast Plaza today. As you might expect, it was packed with people buying Christmas gifts, Rose Bowl gear and other branded merchandise. I wonder what a UCLA Store would look like, if there were a UCLA Store. A handful of angry, miserable people milling about, checking out the Las Vegas Bowl runner-up merchandise. FIGHT ON! Read more →
A Missed Opportunity
USC coach Pete Carroll and UCLA assistant Eric Scott were both at Thursday’s Crenshaw game. — Scott Wolf inside USC Interesting . . . I would have thought Eric Scott would be out robbing the houses of people attending the Crenshaw game . . . FIGHT ON! Read more →
UCLA Coach Makes a Home Visit
The Orange County Register has an update on last week’s arrest of UCLA assistant football coach Eric Scott on suspicion of felony burglary: UCLA officials said Monday that the background check on receivers coach Eric Scott was conducted by the university and not an outside agency, as previously stated. But, again, Athletic Director Dan Guerrero and Coach Karl Dorrell were unaware that Scott had been arrested four times between 1996 and 2005. The Bruins coach, who was arrested for a fifth time last week on a charge of residential burglary, previously had pleaded guilty or was convicted of misdemeanor carrying a concealed weapon in 2005 and misdemeanor disturbing the peace in 2002. OOPSIE! UCLA: University of Coaches Looting Apartments. Coach Scott is on administrative leave at this time. I don’t want to jump to any conclusions regarding his guilt or innocence based strictly on his extensive list of priors. Read more →