TROJANS ---fight on?!

It looks like this was NOT a winning weekend for USC. Their battle cry sounded more like “Fight what?” than “Fight on!” after losing to Stanford in an extremely close finish. I feel bad for the Trojans, especially since I have friends who are true-blue alums of SC. Living in the LA area, you can’t help but get caught up in the bitter/harsh rivalry between the Bruins (UCLA) and the Trojans. (Incidentally, the Bruins lost their game to the Fighting Irish this weekend, too…)

I can’t say that I understand how the rivalry between UCLA and USC seeps into so many facets of every day life here in Los Angeles. I guess it’s because the schools are extremely close (geographically), and they both belong to the PAC 10 conference. When I was an undergrad at Maryland, the closest (and fiercest) rivalry we had was actually with Duke ---but that’s for basketball. "The Terps vs. Duke" is completely a “fun times” rivalry, but Duke isn’t located just across the city. The hours-long drive from Maryland’s campus to Duke’s is way too long to foster the type of rivalry that the Bruins and the Trojans have for one another. Even in football, Maryland’s top competition was always between West Virginia and UVA. That, too, is a pretty bitter rivalry either way, but again… the schools are just too far (geographically) to make the contention a daily experience. (UVA is an ACC conference member like the Terps, but WVA is with the Big East.) The daily presence of the “Bruins vs. Trojans” experience is quite intriguing, I must say. In this case, it definitely helps to have been from a totally different school.

At the end of the day, it’s the love for college football that makes all the rivalries worth every drop of sweat, tears, curse words, shouts, screams, and cries. I, for one, find myself glued to the TV when my school plays. Even though Maryland has a less-than-stellar team this year, I still have to set aside my time and pride and watch them ---win or lose. This weekend was no different. I was all riled up when MD lead in the first half of their game against Georgia Tech. But then the Yellow Jackets came back in the second half with their awesome defense. Luckily, they failed at their two-point attempt after their last touchdown, and the game went to the Terps with only a 28-26 win. Not the best win for Maryland, but a win no less.

Let’s see what happens in the world of college football this week. I’m sure that USC will come back after this blow, and reclaim the top spot once again. And UCLA will surely do what they have to do to recover from their loss this weekend. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that UMD wins over UVA on the 20th… It’s homecoming in College Park, and I wish I was going to be there. Boo.


(Photo from flickr.com user, qivn)