USC Coach Pete Carroll, the coolest coach in college football, just got a little bit cooler.
Carroll announced on Monday that the Trojans will wear their home, cardinal red jerseys against UCLA this Saturday at the Rose Bowl. This is in violation of the NCAA rule which mandates visiting teams must wear white jerseys. As a result the Trojans will sacrifice one timeout.
It is an homage, Carroll says, to the days when USC and UCLA shared the Coliseum. The last time both squads wore their home colors was in 1982. Carroll wanted to bring back this tradition earlier in his stint with USC, but thought again.
The fact that UCLA (3-5) has been horrible this season, I’m sure, helped convince Carroll to pull the trigger this year. Shortly after Carroll’s announcement of the resurrected custom, many thought it was a slight to the Bruins, a show of confidence that the Trojans won’t need a timeout against their hated rival.
UCLA Coach Rick Neuheisel quickly brushed off these assumptions and even shared excitement for Carroll’s idea. It is reported that UCLA, in a nod of sportsmanship to offset USC’s disadvantage, will immediately call a timeout to start the game.
Less than 10 miles separates the USC and UCLA campuses, so it pretty much is a home game for both sides. If the Bruins were hoping for their home crowd to be their 12th man on defense, they should think otherwise. UCLA’s marketing director Scott Mitchell says USC was given 25,000 tickets for the game, twice the usual amount given for this rivalry game.
With the home jersey tradition now intact, it’s unfortunate that the customary competition won’t be there. The Bruins, who hover near the bottom of most Pac-10 offensive statistics, won’t find much daylight against a Trojans squad that leads the nation in points allowed (a stingy 7.8 per game) and total defense (210.5 yards per game). UCLA will look every bit the 32.5 point underdog and will be outclassed in all facets of the game.
5 comments Last one added 4 months ago — Leave a Comment
Kent Moore 7 months ago
Here is a question:
What would USC do to Pete Carroll if by some chance UCLA wins by two because USC couldn't stop the clock to kick the game winning field goal because they gave up a their timeout? All because he wanted USC to wear their home jerseys.
Would that be considered to most foolish call in the history of football?
If that happens, I don't know when I would stop laughing. It could be several days.
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Chris Le 7 months ago
I believe USC will have all of their second-half timeouts intact, so it won't have any final-minute implications. Plus, there's no way UCLA should even be competitive in this game.
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Lisa Horne 7 months ago
Great article, I wrote about the same thing...it's good for the rivalry.
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Scott Pusich 7 months ago
The tradition is based on sharing a home field; that's why is hasn't happened since 1982 (when the Trojans wore their home jerseys to the first rivalry game at the Rose Bowl, which was (and still is) UCLA's home field alone.
Per the fact the two no longer have the same home field, the NCAA rule is meant to give the home team priority in choosing its jersey color (think of LSU choosing to wear white and the other team not being able to wear white and you get the idea). Assuming the home teams does not choose white, the NCAA rule requires that the visiting team wear white.
Hence the strange situation when Georgia Tech or Central Florida (for example) wear their "gold" jerseys which don't offer much contrast from white; yet the other team HAS to wear white.
That's the way the NCAA works, and I expect that unless both teams choose to take a timeout every year from now on, the "home vs. home" jersey trend won't last--unless the Trojans move to the Rose Bowl and the two teams share the same home field again.
Which could happen. Weren't there rumors to that effect a year or two ago?
Scott Pusich
B.A. UCLA '88
P.S. I left a longer comment on Lisa's article, which I don't want to duplicate. ;-)
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anika alora 4 months ago
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anika
Real Estate Search
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