Heading into this game everything just felt a little different. Four straight football wins, a convincing basketball win and Shabazz freed - things seemed to be breaking our way.

The Southern Cal fans at the Rose Bowl were the most docile I’ve ever seen. There was only one near-fight, and it was amusing to hear trogans already starting to hedge their bets: "If we can’t contain Franklin this will be a close game"; "This is the first time I can remember being nervous that USC might not win"; "Either USC wins or Lame Kiffin gets fired - win-win situation." Yes, trogans were actually calling him Lame Kiffin, and apparently they’ve NEVER liked him. Suuuure, guys, sure…

The most amusing part of the morning though had to be the trogan at our tailgate trying to argue (I use that word loosely), that Southern Cal was still in the National Championship race, AND that Barkley was still a viable Heisman candidate. I eventually had to walk way after his third straight retort of "Why not?" I guess his Beautiful Mind math was too much for me to comprehend. Maybe if UCLA_beer&mathematics was there...

This week, in what I’m hoping becomes an annual recurrence, we get a double feature – UCLA victory + This Week in Schadenfreude. Check out those first four possessions; sigh, what a great start to a game…

FULL SCREEN VERSION

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#FinishedBusiness #SoundsLikeBOOM! #BarkleyFailsBARRexam