UCLA to take on the USC Trojans at the Rose Bowl

In what has been a season of highs and lows for both teams, the UCLA Bruins will host their crosstown rival, the USC Trojans at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena this Saturday Night, November 23. The game will start at 7:30 pm and will be televised nationally on NBC.

It is the 94th meeting between the two schools. USC leads the series 52-34-1, while UCLA has won two of the last three meetings between the two schools, both blowouts and both on USC's homefield, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The Trojans have a record of 5-5 on the season and have led in the fourth quarter of every game this season. The highs on the season for USC were the victories over LSU in Las Vegas to open the season, and the 38-21 victory over Wisconsin. The lows have been the five games they lost with fourth quarter leads. The Trojans have never been blown out of a game; they just find different ways to collapse late in games.

The Bruins are 4-6 on the season after a 31-19 loss to the Washington Huskies in Seattle last Friday Night. The Huskies never trailed in the game, led 14-10 at halftime and opened up an 18-point fourth quarter lead in the victory. The victory extended the home winning streak of Washington at Husky Stadium to 20 consecutive wins.

This game was won at the line of scrimmage by the Huskies, with the Huskies rushing for 124 yards on the ground on 29 carries, a 4.3 average, while the Bruins rushed for just 52 yards on 33 carries, a 1.6 yard per carry average. UCLA head coach DeShaun Foster was disappointed with the performance.

"I always tell these guys, you've got to be at your best when your best is needed and that wasn't the case in the second half," Foster said. "We didn't really execute the way that we wanted to, just continued to shoot ourselves in the foot and when you're playing teams like this at home and they had that win streak that they have, you can't give them opportunities to continue to come out and make some plays on us, so we're still working on finishing and we played an okay first half but that second half just wasn't our ball, just not our brand of football, so that's how the game got away from us."

The Bruins have had their highs and lows. The high for the Bruins was the three-game winning streak, with victories at Rutgers, Nebraska, and at home against the Iowa Hawkeyes. The lows were the five-game losing streak and the struggles of the running game. When the Bruins have been able to run the ball, they have been competitive. When they struggle to run the ball, it puts more pressure on quarterback Ethan Garbers and the defense.

Linebacker Carson Schwesinger had another terrific game against the Huskies with 17 tackles, 10 of which were solo tackles. Schwesinger leads the nation in solo tackles with 69 and is tied for third in the nation with 109 total tackles. Linebacker Kain Medrano had an interception and a tipped pass that led to another interception in the game.

The Bruins need two more wins to qualify for a bowl game, so the game against USC is a must win situation for the Bruins. Their final game of the season is against the Fresno State Bulldogs at the Rose Bowl on November 30. The Trojans need one win to qualify for a bowl game, either against the Bruins or next week against Notre Dame at the Coliseum.

A quote from Foster this week will certainly grab the attention of the Trojans. "A lot of families," Foster 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?" The rivalry is never boring and despite the mediocre play of both football teams this season, this should be another classic.