This post was updated Nov. 25 at 12:23 a.m.

A well-kept secret eerily trots around Westwood – a whisper in the wind. 

J.Michael Sturdivant often seems positioned in the spaces between plays, where defenders count their blessings he wasn’t called upon, and his potential roams untapped. 

But the secret spilled Saturday night. The redshirt junior wide receiver was a roar waiting to be unleashed. His team just couldn’t release the chains.  

Sturdivant chose the 2024 Battle for Los Angeles to pull back the curtain on his talent – torching USC football (6-5, 4-5 Big Ten) for 117 yards on five receptions – and hauling in three 25-plus-yard catches. But UCLA (4-7, 3-6) left all of Sturdivant’s efforts hauntingly futile to fall 19-13 to its crosstown rival. 

“Yeah, sucks. Not much to it,” said redshirt senior linebacker Kain Medrano. “We really wanted this one. I know, for us seniors, to keep the bell at home, to break that streak of the home losing – that was kind of a big thing for us. So to not get that done, it sucks.”

Sturdivant – who mustered 597 receiving yards in 2023 – seemed to be the catalyst in stretching the Bruins’ field. Hype swirled around his name in preseason chatter, but that was before his season became a tale muffled by circumstance. 

After being held to single-digit performances and zero-reception outings, the redshirt junior emerged from the shadows, his routes precise and his hands magnetic against the Trojans. 

Balancing on a one-point lead in the middle of the third quarter, UCLA flirted with brilliance in a paydirt-seeming drive. The Bruins clawed their way out from deep within their own territory to reach the 50-yard line off a third-and-6. 

A bolt then cut through the haze of a dreary Rose Bowl sky. 

Redshirt senior quarterback Ethan Garbers connected with Sturdivant, streaking up the middle for a crowd-erupting 45-yard gain. 

It set the Bruins up on the Trojans’ doorstep – the 5-yard line – but then the hosts crumbled under the weight of their own missteps. A false start shoved the team back five yards, a sack dropped Garbers and company even further, and a frenzy faded into frustration. 

By the time UCLA limped to the USC 11-yard line, the only solace was sophomore kicker Mateen Bhaghani’s 29-yard field goal. The three points felt like a consolation prize for what should have been a statement. 

“Offensively, they just didn’t do their part in the game, and it’s a team sport, so I just need our offense to be at their best when their best is needed,” said coach DeShaun Foster. “We’re having problems in the red zone in certain situations where we’re just getting false starts or just not able to make a play.”

Brilliance again met a dead end in the ensuing quarter as Sturdivant’s 25-yard snag dissolved into another stalled drive and eventual punt. This time, though, the Trojans accepted the gift and marched to the end zone. 

So even as Sturdivant carved out his place under the Rose Bowl lights – and showers – the Bruin offense shook its standout wideout’s brilliance. His efforts lingered as ghostly echoes of what could’ve been for UCLA. 

There’s a very peculiar competitive element that accompanies rivalry games. They tend to awaken a distinctive animosity, clutching at both pride and tradition. 

The heated taunting and derision – though not enough to warm the 56-degree Rose Bowl – took its peak form after 30 minutes of play. A barrage of UCLA and USC players taunted one another on their ways off the field, the former getting awfully close to the Trojan tunnel and the unrelenting Trojan faithful. 

Flags were thrown all around the field, ultimately penalizing UCLA 15 yards for three unsportsmanlike calls on freshman wide receiver Kwazi Gilmer, Garbers and an unidentified third. 

“From what I was told, somebody might have punched Kwazi, and he might’ve retaliated from that,” Foster said. “And then it just escalated to the whole team was on the field. There was a lot of jawing going on. It happens in this game.”

The trio of punishments would be a mere fragment of UCLA’s total on the night – eight penalties for a loss of 70 yards – and a small reflection of what might be a larger truth. The Bruins have been ensnared by flags, surrendering 90 penalties for 757 yards of total loss this season. 

Those figures seem in direct contrast to the foremost principle of Foster’s mantra of discipline, respect and enthusiasm – discipline. What was to be the anchor that directed this Bruin team instead plagued it through its 4-7, bowl-less season. 

“I’m going to keep reiterating discipline,” Foster said. “That’s why that’s my first pillar; I didn’t pull it out of nowhere, it was my first pillar for a reason. I felt that that was something that we were lacking and missing, and we’re still missing it. So we’re going to just continue to strive in the direction of discipline, and eventually it’s going to get fixed.”

In the lead-up to Saturday’s Crosstown Cup, UCLA wore a curious silence – it didn’t once employ the words “USC” or “Trojans” in its discourse. It was as if the mere utterance of USC’s name would summon a ghost of rivalry games past. 

But as the clock wound down, silence didn’t appear to be the formula to stave off defeat. 

No matter how tightly the Bruins’ lips clamped, “Trojan” might’ve been the final word of relevance Saturday night. 

“Sucks,” Garbers said. “Really sucks.”