Instant Analysis: UCLA-USC

The USC Trojans didn't play all that well against the UCLA Bruins on a shady Saturday afternoon in the L.A. Coliseum. They didn't suffer, though, because their opponent played a lot worse. As a result, the Trojan Empire of College Football--depending on your point of view--is one win short of a Six-Pack.

The quality of the latest battle for the Victory Bell was nothing to write home about, as a somewhat competent USC team held off a thoroughly incompetent bunch of Bruins who are now staring at the loss of head coach Karl Dorrell. The story of this game had little to do with anything that transpired on the field. What mattered was the bottom-line result, as this ugly affair produced a sweet sight that has been replicated yet again in the City of Angels: the USC song girls wearing rings of Roses as a Coliseum crowd roars in approval. Yes, for the fifth straight year, the Men of Troy are undisputed Pac-10 champions, a staggering feat in a college football climate of cutthroat competition. Some will say that USC has technically registered six straight Pac-10 crowns, but since Washington State reached the Rose Bowl after the 2002 campaign, the verdict here is that the Trojans are still one season short of that Six-Pack alluded to earlier.

Of course, with the way Pete Carroll is coaching up a storm and matching the magic of a man named McKay, it seems quite likely that USC will secure that sixth conference title next season. Despite a flood of injuries and a torrent of turnovers, Carroll guided the 2007 Trojans through a number of minefields. In particular, the USC coach managed to have his backup quarterback--Mark Sanchez--ready to play in a season when conference foe Oregon crumbled after Dennis Dixon got dinged. The ability of Sanchez to lead USC through October ultimately made the difference for a ballclub that, against UCLA, put the finishing touches on another season as the best in the West.

Next year, there's a chance that USC might leave the Coliseum and play its home games in the Rose Bowl. Whether that scenario emerges or not, one thing is certain: Pete Carroll's crew will get to borrow the big bowl in the Arroyo Seco on the afternoon of January 1, 2008. The opponent might be Ohio State. It could be Georgia. It might even turn out to be Illinois. It won't matter too much to the USC Trojans, however: they've accomplished a great deal just by returning to the Granddaddy after surviving a season that offered the mother of all challenges to their Pac-10 prominence.