PAC TRACKS/USC vs. UCLA: Two Lousy Teams Headed In Opposite Directions

USC plays at UCLA’s satellite-campus stadium on Saturday in the brightness of daytime,12:30, network time slot God always intended it to play.

Even if HE never intended the schools to be a combined 7-13.

The best game-day uniforms in college football clash under color-coordinated, resplendent, glistening sunshine and whatever else Grantland Rice would have typed to finish this sentence.

That said, the “battle” for Los Angeles is over. It has been claimed by two other Pac 12 teams, Arizona State and Utah, which have already defeated both L.A. schools this season.

Stanford can make it a three-sweep if it beats UCLA next week on the same day Notre Dame is defeating USC.

So, what is USC at UCLA?

It’s about hope, doubt, perception, attitude, projection and belief. It is two fan bases walking into a ground-floor elevator and pushing two different directional buttons.

The game is this Saturday, but it’s also about two years from next Saturday.

Devotees of UCLA, the 2-8 team, think it has the program on the rise while fans of USC, the 5-5 defending Pac 12 champions, have already mentally moved on to their next head coach.

The first year of lousy Chip Kelly seems much better than the filthy fourth-year of Clay Helton.

Why?

UCLA and USC are similarly disjointed but only the Trojans still have a chance to be bowl eligible. Both are undisciplined outfits with sputtering offenses still trying to master the basic center snap. The Trojans rank No. 115 nationally in penalties-per-game, at 7.9, while the Bruins are No. 102 at 7.4.

UCLA “boasts” the nation’s No. 94 offense, averaging 370.4 yards per game, with USC at No. 96 at 369.7.

See how close they are?

Not really, at least in the "futures" market.

Saturday’s game is more about where UCLA and USC fans see their schools two years from now.

Belief is everything on a college football campus, even if it ends up to be hooey and the coach walks off a multi-millionaire without ever beating Stanford. It just happened at UCLA with Jim Mora.

UCLA, rough-shod as it is, has a clear perceived direction under Chip Kelly, who has been willing to sacrifice a year to put his plan in place, root out the undesirables and build a foundation.

Some of this optimism doesn’t make sense. USC won the Rose Bowl two seasons ago and the Pac 12 title last year. UCLA hasn’t won the conference since 1998 and the Rose Bowl since two years after a famous George Orwell book title.

But it doesn’t matter—perception IS reality.

The ever-growing sense is Clay Helton is a nice guy who is not going to not going get it done. Most USC fans hit eject after Saturday’s 15-14 home loss to Cal. They are tired of false-promises Pollyanna.

Helton after Stanford loss: “They competed like warriors.”

Helton after Texas loss: “Put it on me.”

Helton after Utah: “It’s my job to make sure over these last games that we are in a position to win the South.”

Helton after Arizona State: “There’s a bunch of warriors in there.”

Helton after Cal: “We’re not going to get over-emotional and say the ship is sinking.”

Two years from now, like a Springsteen song, maybe we’ll look back on this and it will all seem funny. Helton could miraculously rebound and Kelly could famously flop.

But that is not the way it looks NOW.

UCLA has a captain and USC is rudderless. UCLA, even as it loses, is establishing a beachhead.

USC doesn’t know what it is, or wants, and it’s been like this since Pete Carroll left the program in sanctions hell.

Stanford, under Jim Harbaugh, swiped Tailback U from Trojans and David Shaw isn’t giving it back.

Do the Trojans fire Helton and pay top dollar to lure Bob Stoops out of retirement? The same Stoops who Carroll throttled, 55-19, to win a national tile. But what does Stoops know about Trojan tradition?

Should USC wait it out for Urban Meyer, who is only 54 but in poor health, to step away from Ohio State and recharge his batteries for his 14th comeback in 2020?

Maybe USC turns inward and keeps it in the family? You know, like family members John McKay and John Robinson, two Oregon graduates.

USC could reach out to one of its own, Jeff Fisher, or Jack Del Rio, even though they have zero college experience.

Should that matter, given that NFL-lifer Herm Edwards is closing in the Pac 12 South?

I have no dog in the hunt but sometimes wish USC had the courage to go identify the NEXT great young coach.

How could we in the media know, but USC not know, that Lincoln Riley was the next rising star when he was OC at East Carolina?

Does USC AD Lynn Swann even know where to look? Is Matt Wells of Utah State on his radar?

Are the Trojans too big-city arrogant to hire the head coach in Boise, or Ames, Iowa?

Maybe USC, despite all its riches, just doesn't want to pay.

When USC went trolling in 2001, it literally perused the top of the Pac 12 standings and made offers to Mike Bellotti (Oregon) and Dennis Erickson (Oregon State).

When that didn’t work, management back-slid to a former Trojan assistant, Mike Riley, and when that didn’t work USC lucked into unemployed Pete Carroll.

Truth is, administratively, from the president’s office on down, USC is lost.

Swann may think the best bet is giving Clay Helton another year and hoping JT Daniels turns into the next Sam Darnold.

My friend Dylan Hernandez wrote in the L.A. Times on Monday that USC should break "all ties" from the Carroll legacy. But what if Seattle tanks this year and Carroll wanted to come back?

What’s clear is this: USC has to junk its discombobulated offense and get to something more 21st Century. Go watch West Virginia, or Oklahoma, or even Syracuse and tell me there are not more dynamic, sophisticated schemes out there.

It shouldn’t be like this for the Trojans, but it is.

It’s not a good look when the 2-8 team you’re facing this week—your crosstown rival no less--appears to have a handle on the future.

While you, the defending conference champion, seem to be losing grip