UCLA
USC
Crosstown Rivals to Battle for Victory Bell Saturday at Coliseum
November 16, 2021 | Football
GAME 11
Venue: United Airlines Field at L.A. Memorial Coliseum
Time: 1:00 p.m. PT
Television (FOX): Joe Davis, Brock Huard and Bruce Feldman
Radio (UCLA Sports Network from Learfield): AM 570/1150 - Josh Lewin, Matt Stevens and Wayne Cook
Broadcast also carried on XM Ch. 392 / SXM App 982 and by ESPN Radio (Jorge Sedano and Max Starks)
UCLA will travel across town to square off with USC in a Pac-12 contest set for a 1 p.m. PT kickoff on Saturday, Nov. 20. The game will be televised by FOX. The UCLA Learfield Radio Network will broadcast the contest, which will also be aired over ESPN Radio, SiriusXM and the Varsity App.
UCLA has four wins and USC has five over the course of the last nine series battles. The winning team has averaged 39.4 points in those nine victories and has scored at least 34 points in all but one game (2017 - 28 points). The Trojans have captured the last two meetings in the series with UCLA's last win coming in 2018 at the Rose Bowl. The most recent Bruin win in the Coliseum was in the 2013 season. UCLA has come up short in its last three trips across town, including a 52-35 setback in 2019.
This will be the 91st meeting of the teams. UCLA trails in the series 32-49*-7 (* - two USC wins in 2004 and 2005 have been vacated due to NCAA penalties). Both teams will wear their home jerseys, a tradition restarted for the 2008 game. The winner of the game will take home the Victory Bell.
In 2019 at the Coliseum, the Trojans defeated the Bruins, 52-35, in the highest-scoring series game in 23 years. UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson accounted for much of UCLA's offense, passing for 367 yards and three touchdowns and rushing for 64 yards and one touchdown. Tight end Devin Asiasi and receiver Kyle Philips each had career days for the Bruins, with Asiasi finishing with a team-high and career-best 141 yards, and Philips recording career-high numbers in catches (12) and yards (123). USC quarterback Kedon Slovis threw for a USC single-game record 515 yards, tossing four touchdowns in the game.
The last UCLA series win came in the Rose Bowl in 2018. In that Bruin victory, Joshua Kelley ran for a series-record 289 yards while dealing USC a 34-27 verdict. Trailing by six points in the fourth quarter, Kelley broke through the line and raced 55 yards for the go-ahead score with 10:39 to play in the game. JJ Molson added a pair of field goals for the final margin.
THE WATCHLIST
โข Victory Bell โ The winner of the UCLA-USC football game is awarded the Victory Bell. The 295-pound bell originally hung atop a Southern Pacific freight locomotive. It was given to the UCLA Alumni Association in 1939 and then, in 1941, it was taken by a group of USC students. A year later, the student body presidents of both schools signed an agreement that the winner of the football game would keep possession for the next year.
โข Crosstown Cup โ The winner of the UCLA-USC football game will register 10 points in the Crosstown Cup, a trophy presented annually to the school with the most successful year in athletic competitions against the other. UCLA leads the current race for the Cup by a 25-10 count.
โข At 3-1, UCLA is tied with Oregon for the best road record by a Pac-12 team ... only UCLA, Oregon and Utah have as many as threeย road wins in '21.
โข UCLA's 431 rushing attempts this season are the most among Pac-12 teams this season.
โข UCLA earned bowl-game qualification with a win last week over Colorado ... it last played in a bowl game after the 2017 season - a loss in the Cactus Bowl vs. Kansas State in Phoenix ... three current Bruins saw action in that bowl game - Mo Osling III, Quentin Lake, Martin Andrus, Jr.
โข On the ground, UCLA has racked up a 2,040-to-1,241 rushing yards edge on opponents in 2021 ... the Bruins average 4.7 yards per rush while opponents are at 3.8 ... per game, UCLA is at 204.0 (22nd nationally); opponents at 124.0 (29th nationally in rush defense).
โข Kyle Philips had eightย catches vs. Colorado to move into seventh on the all-time school list for career receptions (151) and has 23 catches over the last three games (sixth on the UCLA receptions list is JJย Stokes - 1991-94, at 154; fifth is Danny Farmer - 1996-99, at 159) ... his six scoring catches this season are tied for third most by a Pac-12 player in 2021 ... he has a reception in each of the last 27 games he has played in ... Philips led the team in catches the past two seasons (2020 - 38) and became the 27th UCLA receiver to reach the 100-catch mark for a career in 2020 ... in 2019, he topped UCLA in receptions (60), which was the most ever in a single season by a Bruin freshman/redshirt freshman ... he was the first redshirt freshman to lead the team since Craig Bragg in 2001 ... he was named Pac-12 Special Teams Player of the Weekย after his 82-yard punt return for a touchdown against Colorado.
โข Dorian Thompson-Robinson has completed 56-80 passing attempts in his two previous games vs. USC for 731 yards and sevenย TDs ... DTR is set to move up the charts and rose to fifth on the school list in career passing yards against Colorado (7,028); next on that list is Drew Olson (2002-05 with 8,532) ... DTR is up to fifth on the school career-total-offense list (8,061) with Drew Olson (2002-05) in fourth (8,324) ... Thompson-Robinson (54 - fifth) is also taking aim on Josh Rosen (2015-17) who holds down fourth on the school career TD passes list with 59 ... with 98 ground yards against CU, DTR became the fifth Bruin QB to reach 1,000 career rushing yards (1,033).
โข UCLA has rushed for at least 200 yards in each of its six wins in 2021. It ran for a season-low 110 yards against Oregon and has been below the 200 yard rushing mark in each of its three losses this season. The Bruins have averaged 244.8 yards on the ground this season in wins and 142.8 in losses.
โข UCLA is now 20 for 31 on fourth-down conversions this season (65%) ...ย only Air Force (26), Ole Miss-25, Southย Alabama (21) and Navy (21) have converted more fourth-down chances this season.
โข Transfer linebacker Mitchell Agude (Riverside CC) has 12 tackles over the past twoย games ... Agude recorded a career-best seven stops at Utah (his previous best was six vs. LSU). Ale Kaho (Alabama) has 16 tackles in theย last threeย games. Jordan Genmark Heath (Notre Dame) has 20 stops in the last threeย games.
โข UCLA has held four opponents under 100 yards rushing this season (26 by Hawai'i, 49 by LSU, 67 by Stanford, 83 by Washington) -- each wins.
