Trojans in the Pit

Pete, Me and Mason at the Stanford Game, originally uploaded by drtaxsacto.

One of the oldest rivalries in college football is the one between Notre Dame and USC. There is a joke among Trojans (and probably the Irish) that your second favorite team in college football is who ever is playing the Irish. But playing in South Bend is extra special. On Friday night they produced more than 45,000 fans for their pep rally. The field is designed to intimidate opponents - there is no space between the fans and the field and the sides are high - so the noise can be intense. This year the Irish didn't cut the grass which slows down the run. All of their tactics in the pit are to move the advantage to the Irish side. Yesterday the whole game was more intense than I have ever heard it.

As a USC alum (Doctorate there) I have watched lots of games for the last twenty five years in this rivalry with great interest. We were there when USC broke the streak of losing to ND in the early 1990s. That was a good game. One also says that in a USC season the coach is made or broken on one game (possibly 2 - UCLA).

This year is special for any Trojan - we have won two national championships in football in a row. (Although at some point I will argue that the whole system of national championships is absurd). So everyone is gunning for the Trojans. We've got a coach who has a genuine gift for coaching college kids - when you go by the training field in the fall on campus late in the evening you can see him working on individual skills with players well after practice. We''ve got an array of offensive (Bush, White, Leinart) and defensive weapons (Jarrett, Rucker and a few more and a couple who have been sidelined) that are pretty impressive. We've got a QB who decided to stay in school and finish his degree just to come back for this year (in most of the football powers of the south he would have been in the NFL - that is another story - most of the powerhouses of the south don't bother to care about graduating their "student" athletes.)

As a Trojan fan you are used to second half finishes. The Trojans (or more correctly Matt Leinart) won the game in the last 3 seconds by a mere 3 points. It was the last play of the game and we were at the goal line. We could have tried for the field goal to tie it and go into overtime. But that is not the way the Trojans play. According to at least one news report, Leinart and Reggie Bush talked it over - Matt was supposed to spike the ball to stop the clock and give them a bit more time (although according to press reports Coach Pete gave him the choice)- but Matt and Reggie decided to go for it.

SC has a lot riding on this season. They have a long (one game longer now) winning streak. They have a good shot at a third national title. So the win was extra special.

The picture is of my son and his son and me at the Stanford game last year. Last January Pete and I also went to the Orange Bowl and had a great time. Our hotel was Soonerville and the night before the Sooners were quite boastful. Pete and I went into the bar and heard a lot of trashtalk about how powerful the Sooners were. (I kept wanting to make the pun about the laters - but that is another story). The morning after the game there were two changes in the hotel - the Sooner fans were very quiet and the only jerseys and sweat shirts were Burgundy and Gold. That was quite an experience. But so was this game.

One other odd thing about yesterday. We had to leave the game at halftime (we were watching it on TV) to go to a memorial service for a good friend. It was a warm reflection on a guy who made a tremendous contribution to making college possible for millions of students by developing and growing a scholarship program for the State of California. In the background and inside the house, because one of his son in laws is a Trojan, was a TV. The service ended with about 7 minutes left in the game. We sat by the window, about a half dozen of us of varying ages like children outside a toy shop. At 5 minutes one of us said, lets go in and watch the last 5. We evidently made a bit of noise so that in the last two minutes the crowd had doubled. Those last two minutes were some of the most exciting I have ever seen in college football.

There are still a couple of tough games ahead including UCLA and Cal. And there are several games where our rival will simply be pumped up to knock off our streak (28) games or our hope for the chance at the third title. But yesterday was worth savoring.