{"id":75246,"date":"2025-11-30T06:12:26","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T06:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/75246\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T06:12:26","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T06:12:26","slug":"whats-in-a-rivalry-ucla-newcomers-now-know-after-watching-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/75246\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s in a rivalry? UCLA newcomers now know after watching video"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Red Sanders, the legendary UCLA<\/a> football coach, once said the rivalry with USC<\/a> wasn\u2019t life or death, it was more important than that.<\/p>\n

Now, some 70 years later, almost half the Bruins\u2019 roster needed a primer on what it means to play the Trojans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have so many transfers and things,\u201d interim coach Tim Skipper<\/a> said, \u201cso I wanted to make sure everybody knew how significant this game was.\u201d<\/p>\n

That could make Ciaran Dooley, the team\u2019s creative content producer, a rivalry hero rivaling John Barnes<\/a>, Anthony Barr<\/a> and Dorian Thompson-Robinson<\/a>. Dooley produced a video that tried to pack the essence of a nearly century-old rivalry into about five minutes.<\/p>\n

Putting aside any worries about where college sports are headed when one needs to explain anything about his biggest rival, the video had its intended effect, sparking cheers nearly a week before kickoff.<\/p>\n

Starting with a minute-long hype reel narrated by Barr, the video explained some of the rivalry basics, such as both teams wearing their home uniforms and the winner getting to take possession of the 295-pound Victory Bell before painting it in their primary school color \u2014 preferably blue.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of it was like clips I\u2019ve already seen being from L.A. and around the game,\u201d freshman linebacker Scott Taylor said, \u201cbut a lot of the guys who haven\u2019t been here don\u2019t understand how big a deal this is to L.A. and how special this win can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rivalry lexicon such as \u201cIt\u2019s always 8:47 in Westwood\u201d \u2014 a reference to the Bruins\u2019 13-9 upset of No. 2 USC in 2006 \u2014 and \u201cEight more years!\u201d \u2014 a chant that broke out at the Rose Bowl in 1998 at the end of the Bruins\u2019 eighth consecutive victory over the Trojans \u2014 might need some explaining to a roster that includes 57 newcomers, 52 transfers and 42 players from out of state.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made this video to show what the rivalry is really about \u2014 the history, the passion, the bragging rights,\u201d Dooley told The Times. \u201cI know everyone on the team already knows what it is, but if there\u2019s anything that I can do to motivate the guys just that much more for the game, I\u2019m going to do it every time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linebacker Isaiah Chisom, a transfer from Oregon State, said the coaching staff also brought in several former players to explain the significance of the rivalry before the Bruins (3-8 overall, 3-5 Big Ten) face the No. 17 Trojans (8-3, 6-2) on Saturday afternoon at the Coliseum. Veteran offensive lineman Garrett DiGiorgio and defensive back Cole Martin also talked about what the rivalry meant to them.<\/p>\n

\"Utah <\/p>\n

Utah quarterback Devon Dampier (4) holds the ball and pushes Bruins linebacker Isaiah Chisom (32) on Aug. 30 at the Rose Bowl.<\/p>\n

(Allen J. Schaben\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019ve done a pretty good job at kind of bringing everybody together,\u201d Chisom said, \u201cso we all know how important this game is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chisom didn\u2019t need a refresher, having grown up in Southern California and played for Bishop Alemany and Chaminade. He said he\u2019s already attended a rivalry game and learned about the Bruins\u2019 hatred for the Trojans from Chaminade assistant coach Reggie Carter, a former Bruins linebacker.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t like anybody wearing any red,\u201d Chisom said of Carter. \u201cIt\u2019s been something I\u2019ve been told for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skipper said he grew up watching the rivalry no matter where he lived \u2014 his father, Jim, was a coaching lifer who moved from one city to another and his older brother, Kelly, was DeShaun Foster\u2019s running backs coach at UCLA. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s awesome to finally be part of this thing,\u201d Tim Skipper said. \u201cYou watch it so much, I\u2019ve never been to one of these games, and to be able to work it and coach it is going to be awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Signs of rivalry week have greeted anyone who walked past the boarded-up John Wooden and bear statues on campus, though it\u2019s been a little quieter than the Bruins would have preferred. That\u2019s because they haven\u2019t been able to ring the Victory Bell that\u2019s residing across town after USC won last year\u2019s game<\/a>, 19-13, at the Rose Bowl.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to get it back, we want to ring it after the game,\u201d DiGiorgio said. \u201cThe [USC] guys, they planted flags on our field last year. I don\u2019t know if we\u2019re going to reciprocate that energy because I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s going to start anything, but we\u2019re definitely looking forward to getting that bell back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bruins have won their last two trips to the Coliseum, giving DiGiorgio motivation to make it three in a row and end his college career 3-2 against the Trojans. There was a consensus at the team meeting Sunday that a victory over USC would make up for all the frustrations the team has endured during a season in which Foster was fired after only three games.<\/p>\n

\"UCLA <\/p>\n

UCLA offensive lineman Garrett DiGiorgio (72) is confident a video the Bruins\u2019 staff produced helped his teammates understand the importance of winning the USC rivalry game.<\/p>\n

(John McCoy \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cBeating \u2018SC would undo every wrong that has happened this season \u2014 that and the Penn State win [over the then-No. 7 Nittany Lions],\u201d Chisom said. \u201cI don\u2019t think we could ask for anything more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even those making their rivalry debut will know what they\u2019re getting into thanks to the handiwork of a content creator whose video might help produce an upset.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that it enlightened, lit a fire under the guys,\u201d DiGiorgio said, \u201cto be a little excited for this week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Sanders, the legendary UCLA football coach, once said the rivalry with USC wasn\u2019t life or death, it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[43745,43740,43743,43742,423,6135,48,52,51,47,50,49,43741,18158,39464,427,23138,43744,3533,5050,430],"class_list":["post-75246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-anthony-barr","tag-bruins-roster","tag-chisom","tag-ciaran-dooley","tag-game","tag-guy","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-many-transfer","tag-no","tag-rivalry","tag-team","tag-trojans","tag-ucla-newcomer","tag-usc","tag-video","tag-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}