UCLA playing to end USC's hold on Los Angeles

As Rick Neuheisel was preparing to coach his first game at UCLA, the school's marketing department rolled out an advertisement in the local newspapers of a photo of the coach during practice, pointing off in the distance, with big block letters declaring: "The Football Monopoly in Los Angeles is Officially Over." To which USC fans responded, courtesy of Photoshop, by sneaking in the word "there" at the end of the declaration. It was just another case of the Trojans having the last word in this rivalry. USC has lost just once in the last 10 meetings with UCLA and, much to the chagrin of the Bruins, the old saying about rivalries — you can throw out the records — doesn't apply. While the Trojans have been going to Rose Bowls and Orange Bowls, the Bruins have spent much of the last decade going nowhere — or worse, El Paso. In the last month, however, the teams have gravitated toward each other. The Trojans have had a collapse that has been stunning in scope — routs by Oregon and Stanford were the worst losses a Carroll-led team has endured since he left the NFL. Meanwhile, UCLA has bounced back from a five-game losing streak to win its last three games, though all were against the conference's bottom feeders. As unlikely as it might have seemed on the morning of Halloween, when the Trojans were ranked No. 4 in the nation and the Bruins were winless in the Pac-10, they can finish the season with the same record. Nobody is suggesting that the monopoly is over, but both teams are a lot closer to Marvin Gardens than they used to be. That both teams have had so many ups and downs speaks to the travails of playing a freshman at quarterback. UCLA's Kevin Prince and USC's Matt Barkley have taken their knocks, both mentally and physically — Prince suffering a broken jaw and Barkley a separated non-throwing shoulder. But Prince has managed a win at Tennessee, and Barkley has done the same at Ohio State and Notre Dame. Yet even Stanford's Andrew Luck, the best of five freshmen who have played quarterback in the Pac-10 this season, has had moments like Saturday, when his interception near the goal line with just over a minute left sealed the Cardinal's loss to Cal. "That's a huge part of it," Neuheisel said of the relationship between a freshman quarterback and each team's inconsistency. "That's not to slight either quarterback. I think both are going to be really good players. But it's a hard position to play without experience and you can't manufacture experience. They have to kind of go through it. "Offensive coordinators try to protect them with play calls, but sometimes you get in games where you can't. It's part of the growing pains of the position." Carroll concurred. "Both guys are going to be big factors," he said. "[But] there is a learning curve. There are going to be issues. There are going to be times when they had wished they had known something that they fell prey to and all that." Such an acknowledgement was rare from Carroll early in the season, when he surprisingly moved Barkley — a true freshman — ahead of a banged-up Aaron Corp, who won the starting job in the spring, and Mitch Mustain, who had won all eight of his starts as a freshman at Arkansas. He repeatedly praised Barkley as special, saying he was farther along at this point in his career than any other quarterback he had coached at USC — including three top-10 draft picks, Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart and Mark Sanchez. Lately, though, Barkley has slumped. He has not been helped by the absence of tight end Anthony McCoy and receiver Damian Williams to injuries, or a suddenly leaky defense. But the Trojans managed only a field goal in the second half against Oregon, Barkley was 7 for 22 against Arizona State, and turned the ball over four times against Stanford, including a fourth-quarter interception that was returned for a touchdown. "I loved the way it was going early in the year," Carroll said. Meanwhile, Prince appears to be hitting his stride. After missing two games with the broken jaw he suffered against Tennessee, Prince returned and threw game-changing interceptions that were returned for touchdowns against Oregon and Cal. But he rallied the Bruins from a 16-point fourth-quarter deficit against Oregon State with a pair of touchdown and 2-point conversion passes before the Beavers won late. Since the start of that fourth quarter, Prince is 64 for 101 for 885 yards with 4-to-1 touchdowns to interceptions ratio. "Mainly confidence," Neuheisel said of the area in which Prince has improved the most. "With confidence comes the ability to hang on and know something good is going to happen, rather than push that panic button too early." That is the position the Bruins find themselves in during Neuheisel's second season — turned in the right direction. It's a good thing, too. The Trojans should return seven starters on each side of the ball next season, meaning that their slip this season is not likely to turn into a fall. So, the Bruins, though they are nearly two-touchdown underdogs, have plenty to play for Saturday night. There is the reward of a bowl game, something that may be out of reach if they don't beat the Trojans. There is also something more — that if the monopoly is not officially over, then the Trojans can start expecting company on Park Place.