Here They Go Again

Keith Brown, UCLA’s backup tailback, shrank five inches this week.

Jermaine Lewis, the starter, grew.

Flanker Freddie Mitchell secretly rejoined the Bruins, showing great mobility on the broken leg that was supposed to have kept him out all season but will obviously allow him to play today at the Rose Bowl.

Either that, or this is USC-UCLA week and several Bruins switched jerseys during one workout to fool potential spies. Split end Brian Poli-Dixon donned Mitchell’s No. 3 and Lewis and Brown swapped.

That was just in case any 007s got past the 10 security guards stationed every day around Spaulding Field, two on each of the parking structures that overlook the campus practice site that was closed for rivalry week, one on the door, the rest on perimeter patrol.

But this afternoon in Pasadena, all the secrets will be revealed in the 68th game of this great rivalry that again carries massive postseason implications. Brown will again be a 6-footer and Mitchell in street clothes as the Bruins try to remain undefeated and keep their Fiesta Bowl hopes alive.

And the Trojans will again be trying to win in the series for the first time since 1990. In case anyone had let them forget.

What comes to them today, though, is a special opportunity, different from last year’s or any before it. They have a chance not only to win and break the streak, but to win and cost the Bruins a possible national championship.

Grand redemption.

“To them, maybe,” UCLA defensive end Kenyon Coleman said. “I think that might be what they’re thinking. They might be thinking that a win this year, it makes up for all seven.”

Bruin Coach Bob Toledo, for one, isn’t so sure, noting, “You don’t make up for seven years in one game.”

But there is no doubt that the 1998 version, expected to be played out before 90,000 at the sold-out Rose Bowl, does bring a unique chance to the Trojans.

USC hasn’t cost UCLA anything in 10 years, since 1988, when a Bruin victory would have meant another bus ride to Pasadena on Jan. 1. Instead, a 31-22 win sent the Trojans. Ten years.

The teams tied in ‘89, a pseudo triumph for a UCLA team that finished 3-7-1. The 1990 victory for USC merely meant UCLA finished 5-6. Then, the streak began.

USC hasn’t even been in position to cost the Bruins so much as a spot in the Rose Bowl, let alone the national championship, since 1993.

In 1994, UCLA had a 4-6 record at game time.

In 1995, UCLA had already lost four times in the Pac-10 and would end up in the Aloha Bowl.

In 1996, UCLA again was 4-6.

Last year, Washington State clinched the Rose Bowl berth by beating Washington in the Apple Cup on the same day, so UCLA wasn’t playing for Pasadena.

But now look. In 1998, UCLA, having clinched the Pacific 10 Conference title by winning in Seattle a week ago, is 9-0, No. 2 in the bowl championship series ratings, No. 3 in the polls and in contention for the national title. Imagine the lifetime of suffering USC could inflict by winning this one.

“I would think there is clearly a lot more at stake for UCLA,” Trojan Coach Paul Hackett said. “But there’s an asterisk over here, and that’s the number 7. I think what happens is, that begins to creep into the mind-set of everybody, both on the UCLA and USC side. You’ve got the USC group that says, enough is enough.

“I think there’s a real concentration and zeroing in. We all understand what’s at stake.”

A possible No. 1 is at stake, that’s what. Not to mention No. 8. Not to mention UCLA’s 19-game overall winning streak, longest in the nation.

USC is 7-3 and in position to make major gains in its bowl future the next two weeks, knowing that victories over the third-ranked Bruins and then 10th-ranked Notre Dame on Nov. 28 at the Coliseum would be obvious factors in a postseason destination.

But the Trojans will also be heading into their most emotional games, those that can stir more passions than anything that comes to them in December, with a true freshman at quarterback who has started all of two games in his college career.

One was at home against Washington and the other at Stanford, hardly heated territory. Today, Carson Palmer steps into the lion’s den for the first time.

“Carson Palmer is a great quarterback,” UCLA linebacker Tony White said. “He’s got a strong arm. He’s leading that team in the right direction. But he is a freshman. So we can try to disguise things, try to move around, try to keep him guessing. We want to keep him off balance.

“I think we could take advantage of that, playing in these conditions, with that many people in the stands, with everything that’s at stake. I don’t think a guy can really understand, as a freshman or any player, what it’s like to play in the USC-UCLA game until you’ve been there.”

Palmer has been there--the last two years as a spectator. At least he’ll know the sights.

“The most important thing that he has is a calmness,” Hackett said. “He is a very composed, very poised 18-year-old. That is something you would expect of someone who has played for a long time, or someone in pro football. I know he played a lot of big high school games. Carson is very relaxed.

“The only guy that’s more excited about this game than me is probably Carson. This is what he came for.”

For the big game. For the chance to beat UCLA.

Maybe even the chance to hurt UCLA in a big way.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

THE RIVALRY

UCLA (9-0) vs. USC (7-3)

Today 12:30 p.m. at Rose Bowl Channel 7

TRIVIA TIME

(Answers on Page 8)

1. Who caught the winning touchdown pass from Gary Beban when UCLA beat USC, 20-16, in 1965?

2. Who caught the winning touchdown pass from Jimmy Jones when USC beat UCLA, 14-12, in 1969?

3. Who holds the UCLA opponent record for the longest touchdown run from scrimmage?

4. Who was the reserve quarterback who led UCLA to a 14-7 upset victory over USC in 1966?

5. What is the UCLA opponent record for most yards gained rushing in a game?

TRIVIA ANSWERS

(Questions on Page 1)

1. Kurt Altenberg.

2. Sam Dickerson.

3. USC’s Eddie Saenz, 86 yards in 1943.

4. Norm Dow.

5. 723 by USC in 1929, which is also a conference record.