As the clock ticked down on a long cold Pasadena night, a small but sturdy cheer rose from the shivering Rose Bowl masses.
“We Are … SC!”
For the longest time in this 92nd meeting with UCLA, they weren’t.
The Trojans stumbled. They botched. They stunk.
But then, in this street fight’s final breaths, they found themselves.
Lincoln Riley became an SC coach. Jayden Maiava became an SC quarterback. Ja’Kobi Lane became an SC receiver.
And when it was finished, a group of hugging young men in cardinal and gold bounced out of the blue-dyed Rose Bowl with a 19-13 victory and a renewed definition of self.
For one of the few exhilarating times in this desultory season, they were truly SC.
“Awesome, awesome win,” said Riley.
While this sixth victory for the 6-5 Trojans qualifies them for a bowl game, they are still clearly not as good as they should be. But watching them in the scarf-biting pressure of late Saturday night, they just might be tougher than anyone thinks.
And while they will rightfully be huge underdogs to playoff-bound Notre Dame at the Coliseum in their regular season finale next week, the dramatics of Saturday’s victory showed that they may still be capable of marching to midfield and planting that Trojan sword.
While they’re essentially finished — they missed the playoffs, and that’s all that matters around here — this team is actually not done yet, and the last weeks of this disjointed dance could still be interesting.
“Winning breeds confidence, it breeds excitement, it’s confirmation of the things that you do,” said Riley. “For us to win one, especially in this fashion, obviously this is a massive win for us.”
Things got massively interesting with 11:13 left in the game and the Trojans trailing13-9.
They had already blown three separate earlier possessions from inside the UCLA five-yard line, settling for three field goals after lousy runs and misdirected passes.
They had also failed to take advantage of three unsportsmanlike conduct penalties assessed to UCLA at the end of the first half, resulting in the Bruins kicking off the second half from Alhambra.
The overmatched hosts had seemingly given USC the game on a platter, yet for the longest time the Trojans refused to take it.
Then, at the start of that fourth quarter, USC basically tore it out of UCLA’s hands.
The rally started, as these things have often done later, with a punt by the great Eddie Czaplicki that pinned UCLA on the one-yard line.
“It’s almost like a zen thing, there’s no doubt about anything I’m doing right now,” said Czaplicki, who has been arguably their best player in recent weeks.
The Bruins went three-and-out and their own punter, Brody Richter, shanked one to midfield. One play later, Maiava flipped a backfield pass to Makai Lemon, who then completed a 39-yard pass to a wide-open Kyron Hudson, who carried it down to the four-yard line.
It was a great call by Riley of a play that the weakened Trojans — 27 players called in sick on Tuesday — had barely tested.
“We hardly repped it,” said Hudson. “It’s having trust in each other.”
He was asked if Lemon threw it that well in practice.
“He threw it even better, that’s the crazy thing,” said Hudson. “Makai, he’s an amazing athlete, an amazing player.”
This time, for once, the Trojans finished, Maiava running away from two Bruin defenders to find a leaping Lane in the back of the end zone.
The only better finisher Saturday was a former Bruin who was introduced after the first quarter to a roaring standing ovation. Yeah, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was here.
As for Maiava, he’s still very much a work in progress. In his second game after taking over the starting job from Miller Moss, he wasn’t great, going only 19 of 35 for 221 yards while making several questionable decisions, but he made the one throw that counted.
“We’ve got a great group,” said Maiava. “We’ve got a resilient group.”
They’ve got a group that is slowly finding itself, better late than never, finishing the game by stopping the Bruins on a fourth-and-one failed quarterback sneak by Ethan Garbers.
“It was huge for us to give us that confidence again that we’re really, to us, the best team in the nation,” said safety Akili Arnold.
If nothing else, on a revelation of a Saturday night, they once again became the best team in Los Angeles.
They were, once again, SC.