Bulletin boards inside USC’s McKay Center might come crashing to the floor with the weight of what the coach across town said this week.
Talking about the influence of the crosstown rivalry in homes across Southern California, DeShaun Foster could not help but take a jab at the school he wouldn’t call by name.
“A lot of families,” the UCLA coach said Monday evening, “the smarter one usually comes over here and the other one goes to the other school and then the family’s torn, you know what I mean?”
Uh-oh. Did a Bruin just unnecessarily poke a Trojan?
“Oh, I mean, it’s proven,” Foster continued, “this is the No. 1 [public school]. I’m not making up anything. This is proven fact, you know what I mean? But I was talking more of non-athletic [factors], not the athletes.”
Foster, who starred at running back for UCLA from 1998 to 2001, then said something that might irk a few Bruins: He’s close with at least one Trojan.
“Keary Colbert is one of my best friends,” Foster said, referring to the former USC wide receiver who was a teammate for four seasons with the Carolina Panthers. “We’ve got dinner riding on this” outcome of the game between the Bruins (4-6 overall, 3-5 Big Ten) and Trojans (5-5, 3-5) on Saturday night at the Rose Bowl.
As NFL teammates, Foster said he and Colbert bonded over a shared love of what was then the Pac-10, especially after they tired of hearing so much about the Southeastern Conference while playing in the South.
Foster said he’s also revived a friendship with former USC quarterback Carson Palmer now that Palmer has moved back to California from Idaho. Palmer won all three games against Foster when they were Orange County high school rivals before Foster got his revenge as a UCLA freshman in 1998.
Shaking off a nasty case of strep throat that had sent him to UCLA Medical Center the previous day, Foster rushed for 109 yards and tied a school record with four touchdowns — three rushing, one receiving — during the Bruins’ 34-17 victory at the Rose Bowl.
Might Foster be tempted to show his players some of those highlights this week? Probably not given that Foster said last week he pulled out footage of Maurice Jones-Drew running for 322 yards against Washington in 2004 and Foster rushing for 301 yards against the Huskies in 2001, only for the Bruins to stumble Friday during a 31-19 loss to Washington in Seattle.
“I doubt I’ll do that again,” Foster said.
Noting that he had been involved in the rivalry as a recruit, player and assistant coach, Foster said he was eager for his debut as a head coach.
“I’ve been in it for a long time, so I understand just the importance of it,” Foster said before looking toward his players on the practice field, “but it’s about them. I want to send my seniors off the right way.”
A win Saturday would be UCLA’s first in the rivalry game at home since 2018. The road team has won every game since 2020, when USC rallied for a 43-38 victory in an empty Rose Bowl during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Foster made a plea to fill the place Saturday.
“Bruin fans: Do not sell your tickets to those other people,” Foster said. “Keep ‘em. And let’s just have the stadium rocking and it should be a great game.”
An imperfect 10
Foster acknowledged his team had 10 players on the field when Washington scored the touchdown that put the Huskies up 24-13 in the fourth quarter because one player forgot to enter the game during a change in personnel to the defense’s “heavy” package.
“I’m not going to blame any players for anything, so it’s all [on the] coaches for us,” Foster said. “You know, you could say that that’s on me. But it was just an unfortunate situation at that time, and then instead of calling timeout we wanted to keep it for the offense to [use later]. But it just didn’t work out the way we wanted to.”
The theme of the team meeting Monday, Foster said, was for the Bruins to stop beating themselves with penalties and other mistakes. UCLA committed nine more penalties against Washington and ranks tied for No. 125 out of 133 major college teams with 82 penalties in 10 games.
“We’re not the type of [dominant] team that we can overcome that in the game,” Foster said. “So, we have to do better in playing well, being smart, being disciplined, being detailed and things will go our way. You know, we were able to figure that out for a three-game stretch [when the team went 3-0] and it’s just unfortunate that we weren’t able to do that in Washington.”
Etc.
Foster said offensive linemen Jaylan Jeffers and Michael Carmody, who were injured against Washington, would miss the rest of the season. … Left tackle Niki Prongos might be able to return after sitting out the game against the Huskies, though he was working off to the side with injured players during the portion of practice Monday that reporters were allowed to observe. … Wide receiver Rico Flores Jr. is expected to play against the Trojans after missing the last six games because of an unspecified injury. … UCLA’s game against Fresno State on Nov. 30 at the Rose Bowl will kick off at 12:30 p.m. and will air on Big Ten Network.