Page 4 December 5, 2013 The Battle For Los Angeles By Adam Serrao For the second year in a row, the battle for Los Angeles runs blue. Perhaps no one person deserves more credit for the second consecutive win by the college from Westwood than head coach Jim Mora. Since he has taken over the regime, the UCLA Bruins have been a completely different team than in years past. For USC, the days of Pete Carroll, Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush and the great recruits that have come and gone has seemingly come to an at least brief halt. As athletic director Pat Haden and the rest of the staff begin to figure out if Ed Orgeron, or some other highly-touted name with coaching experience, should lead their team into the future, the UCLA Bruins take solace in the fact that they have found a leader of their own. Jim Mora is the new face of the Bruins and his “Bruin Revolution” is giving recruits all around Southern California and beyond something to stop and think about before they commit to play the game of college football. The Bruin Revolution that Mora speaks of became more than real last Saturday night at USC’s Coliseum as the Bruins basically dominated the entire way through and ultimately defeated the Trojans by a final score of 35- 14. The win over SC was Mora’s (and the Bruins’) second consecutive victory over their cross-town rivals and marked a changing of the tides of sorts. “When you win two in a row in this town, things start to change,” Mora explained. “That’s going to help us in recruiting. If I’m a high school player, I want to play at UCLA right now. I don’t know if that’s legal. Is that legal to say?” Whether it is or it isn’t, Mora has said it both literally with words and figuratively with actions as he has certainly begun to catch potential recruits’ attentions. Two wins in a row may not be enough to capture complete dominance and overtake a decade of USC supremacy, but it certainly is a start and it has the high school players that Mora speaks of at least scratching their heads before they make any decisions. Mora’s exuberance is certainly understandable considering that the Bruins have not won a game at the Coliseum since the 1997 season. Nowadays 1997 seems just like yesterday, but in actuality that was a long 16 years ago. Likewise, it has also been since 1998 that the Bruins have won consecutive games against their rivals from the same city. To put things in perspective, the Bruins had beaten the Trojans only once since 1999 before Mora’s tenure. Since Mora has taken over, however, the team has not lost in the series. “It’s nice to have it now for two years in a row,” Mora stated. Those two years haven’t just been your run-of-the-mill victories--they have both been victories by double-digit margins. “It tells you what’s going on at UCLA,” Mora continued. “It’s an exciting time at UCLA. It’s an exciting time to be a UCLA Bruin. You want to play for a fun, tough, hard-nosed football team that can go and win games everywhere? Come to UCLA because it’s brewing over here.” Some might say that Mora could be getting ahead of himself with that quotation. After all, the Bruins have lost three times this year already to powerhouses in the BCS standings. If UCLA wants to be a team that can go anywhere and win, they will have to first turn the losses against Stanford, Oregon and Arizona State into Ws. But Mora is certainly right that he has a winning formula brewing and in the works. More than anything, the second consecutive win over USC validated a turnaround of fortunes for the UCLA Bruins. One victory over their rivals last year meant a lot in the moment, but didn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. Two wins in a row, however, proves that this revolution, as Mora puts it, is not a fluke. “Last year after the win over SC, nobody gave us credit for it,” Bruin starting quarterback Brett Hundley explained. “This win really validated what we did last year and what we’re doing this year. The one thing that’s funny to me is that I’ve never thought of this as a battle. I thought of this more as a takeover. UCLA runs L.A., and let’s have some fun saying it because we have another year to say it.” Perhaps Hundley is right, but for his sake and for his school’s sake, he had better hope that the winning ways continue with such lofty comments. Before Mora arrived in Westwood, however, nobody on the team could even fathom making comments like that. Since he has arrived, all of a sudden such confidence doesn’t necessarily seem so far-fetched. • Harry’s & McCoy’s Moving Moves Time starts at your door Free use of boxes & wardrobes Short notice moves Home-Office-Apartments Local and Long Distance Licensed & Insured – CAL-T-160-989 Family Owned & Operated for 66 Years “Moving handled with patience and kindness!” Free Estimates 310.329.3493
Manhattan 12_05_13
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