Why USC Football Is Lame

Because it isn't UCLA football. There isn't much to say other than that. College football has kicked off once again, and like every other Bruin I have to put up with yet another season of Trojan banter. I get to watch every citizen in this great city jump on the Trojan bandwagon once again as well. I feel as though I'm the only person who is completely uninterested in watching a winning team continue to win. Seeing Trojan gear at Wal-Mart yesterday just reinforced what I already believed: USC's success in football is repetitive and boring.

Which is exactly why Bruin football is better. You see, UCLA rocks at everything else; basketball, water polo, volleyball, tennis, and oh yes – academics! Watching Bruin football begin to take shape last year felt rewarding for all Bruins because it felt like we were building something. And UCLA students love to build things – when we're not calculating other things. Dorrell and the fans together took the team to 10:2. But the celebrations hit a bump when we lost the Victory Bell...again.

Every year that we lose the Victory Bell to USC, a little bell of my own rings up inside my brain. And then a little voice in my head reminds me, "It's going to be sweet when we finally win that friggin bell back." The voice is right. I mean, when we eventually win it's going to be bona fide B-list movie material. Who wouldn't watch the movie about how UCLA beat the unstoppable Trojans and all of their mass-marketed glory? Kurt Russell would play Pete Carroll, Denzel would play Dorrell. I'm getting jazzed just thinking about it.

Photo: AP/Kim D. Johnson