Taxing season for Bruins to culminate with rivalry game

Members of UCLA’s football team trudged to the locker room moments after falling short in a final, desperate push to extend a shot at a BCS bowl game. Some Bruins began the walk with their faces in plain sight during a walk to the exit tunnel. But as they neared the end zone, a handful of players, senior linebacker Anthony Barr and freshman interior lineman Scott Quessenberry among them, obscured their facial expressions in putting on their helmets as they left the field after a hard-fought 38-33 loss to Arizona State.

Roughly an hour after his Bruins squandered any chance of a Pac-12 South title, Barr made no effort to conceal his feelings about the importance of No. 22 UCLA’s (8-3, 5-3 Pac-12) regular season finale at No. 23 USC (9-3, 6-2) this Saturday, saying everyone needs to play with emotion and energy to defeat the Trojans.

Given how USC has come on down the stretch, a UCLA win may well require the best efforts of every single Bruin. The Trojans did their part in setting up what would have been a Pac-12 South-deciding season finale between the Los Angeles schools. USC owns a five-game winning streak that includes a Nov. 16 defeat of Pac-12 front-runner Stanford with a last-minute field goal at home.

In all, Ed Orgeron enters the UCLA showdown with a 6-1 record as interim head coach. He took the reins of a team that seemed headed for a lost season when a 62-41 loss against Arizona State cost former head coach Lane Kiffin his job on the morning of Sept 29. The loss to ASU capped off a turbulent 3-2 start highlighted by a loss to unranked Washington State, as well as a quarterback competition that bled into the first few games of the year.

Ever since the coaching change across town, the Bruins have suffered their three losses on the season and a wealth of battles to the injury bug. Four days after Kiffin’s ouster, UCLA beat Utah 34-27 in a win that altered the complexion of the Bruins’ season.

Starting redshirt junior running back Jordon James suffered a lingering ankle injury that has limited him to six carries and one game played since leaving during the second quarter in Salt Lake City. James’ absence, as well as eventual injuries to four out of UCLA’s top five opening-night running backs, helped pave the way for freshman linebacker Myles Jack’s increasing reps out of the backfield over the last three weeks.

UCLA lost redshirt sophomore tackle Torian White for the season in Utah, the first domino to fall in an overhaul for an offensive line that had to also accommodate the mid-October loss of fellow starting tackle Simon Goines against Stanford. Goines returned to the field briefly against Arizona State, but got injured again Saturday. As has often been the case over the last month, junior left guard Xavier Su’a-Filo moved slid over to tackle, while three true freshmen took care of the other guard and tackle spots. By the end of the Arizona State game, redshirt sophomore center Jake Brendel remained as the only season-opening starter still at his original spot.

Offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone admitted that the decimation along the line had its impacts on his play-calling, which took on a conservative look in the middle of the season, with a 64-yard passing effort against Oregon serving as the lowest point.

In the month since losing with a 10-point effort in Palo Alto, Calif., and a 14-point performance in Eugene, Ore., UCLA has experienced a rejuvenation on offense. The Bruins have scored an average of 37.5 points in their last four games, thanks in large part to expanded playcalling to go with a developing offensive line. Because of the way his team has responded to adversity this year, redshirt senior Shaquelle Evans harbors no doubts over the Bruins’ mental preparation for the Trojans.

“After we lost those two back-to-back (games) against Stanford and Oregon, we regrouped every week and we won three games in a row, so … it’s not hard for us,” said Evans, a wide receiver. “We have a 24-hour rule, whether it’s a win or a loss, so tomorrow around 8 o’clock, we’ll be over this loss and be moving on to ‘SC.”

The Bruins and Trojans started the season neck and neck, and for everything the programs have been through this season, the same holds true three months later.

No. 22 UCLA came into the season as the No. 21 AP Poll team, while No. 23 USC enters the regular season’s end up one spot from the start of the year. A UCLA win would even up the teams with nine wins on the season.

Where the teams would stand right now had a coaching change happened sooner or had injuries played out differently remains guesswork. But a win in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum does not end with just bragging rights or head-to-head superiority. Claiming the Victory Bell would serve the best interests of schools looking to build year-round by giving recruits a clear look at the direction of their program. Last year’s 38-28 UCLA win left a lasting impression on freshman Y-receiver Thomas Duarte, who was recruited by USC and Oregon.

“It showed me how much this coaching staff has done in one year … what they can do over these next years,” Duarte said. “Coming from the year before that, the progression they made … just to beat ‘SC was amazing to see. … It just showed that UCLA wasn’t a fluke, that they’re here to stay.”