Where’s the buzz? USC has it and UCLA doesn’t heading into spring football showcases

The cross-town rivals will maintain their spring showcases Saturday.

One intends to run its occasion like a apply, the opposite says it’s going to play a half of soccer.

Each showcases will likely be held a brief stroll from campus dorms.

One will likely be staged at a raggedy monitor stadium, the opposite at a renovated Coliseum.

One will likely be televised solely on the Pac-12 Community. The opposite will likely be obtainable to 77.4 million households nationwide as the one spring sport broadcast by ESPN.

5 months after absorbing a 62-33 beatdown by its arch nemesis, USC seems to have scored a runaway victory over UCLA in publicity and pleasure.

The Trojans proceed to bask within the buzz of latest coach Lincoln Riley, who has captured a metropolis’s creativeness earlier than profitable his first sport.

“There’s numerous power round this program proper now, numerous pleasure,” Riley mentioned lately. “I believe we mentioned it from the opening press convention: It takes everyone.”

Throughout city, Chip Kelly stays centered on having a very good Saturday. The UCLA coach’s stranglehold on trivia earned him a brand new four-year, $22-million contract in January after having gone 18-25 in his first 4 seasons on the faculty.

Kelly’s tenure is a cautionary story involving outsized expectations. He arrived at UCLA in late 2017 as the most popular school coach available on the market regardless of some NFL stumbles after posting a 46-7 document in 4 seasons at Oregon.

Riley arrived at USC late final yr as the most popular school coach not identified to be available on the market after having negotiated a sneaky exit from Oklahoma, the place he went 55-10 in 5 seasons, together with two victories over Kelly’s Bruins.

Kelly has proven that historical past doesn’t all the time repeat itself. He wanted 4 seasons simply to nudge his crew above .500, the Bruins ending 8-4 in 2021 after withdrawing from the Vacation Bowl within the wake of a COVID-19 outbreak on the crew.

One vital distinction between Kelly and Riley is that the previous has by no means generated a lot of a frenzy at his present put up. In Kelly’s first sport at UCLA, the Bruins drew solely 54,116 on the Rose Bowl … and misplaced to Cincinnati. They went on to set a document low for common attendance in 2019 and haven’t come near promoting out a single dwelling sport.

USC officers received’t enterprise a guess for attendance at their spring showcase Saturday. Riley acknowledged his function as a salesman for a program that went 4-8 final season whereas additionally implying that the Trojans have been properly on the best way to filling the Coliseum as soon as extra.

“Individuals, as you study, significantly on this city, they need to help winners,” Riley mentioned. “They need to help excellence. They need to help success. We perceive that. We don’t shrink back from that. … Should you can’t get excited proper now about what’s occurred up to now, I don’t know if there are magic phrases to get that finished.”

Having labored as an ESPN analyst through the 2017 season, Kelly understands the attract of the publicity his Bruins loved final fall whereas being featured on the community’s “Faculty GameDay.” However he doesn’t know whether or not snagging a springtime spot on nationwide tv qualifies.

“Publicity is who watches it,” Kelly mentioned, “so I don’t know the way many individuals are watching a spring sport, so I couldn’t inform you yea or nay on that.”

UCLA’s showcase ought to be thought of an improve over final season, when the crew accomplished a apply at Spaulding Discipline with out followers. The Bruins agreed to carry this yr’s showcase Saturday at Drake Stadium on the request of the Pac-12 Community, with three spring practices remaining.

The crew is anticipated to finish particular person and situational work, giving Kelly an opportunity to dictate what it could possibly accomplish.

“Typically when you simply scrimmage, and the ball doesn’t get to the purple zone,” Kelly mentioned, “you then’re not getting purple zone [work], so we’ll particularly transfer the ball situationally to totally different spots on the sector after which attempt to get in some totally different conditions whether or not or not it’s third down — all of the issues in soccer which are actually the distinction between profitable and shedding, we’ve been emphasizing by the entire spring, so it’s simply a chance for us to try this.”

Kelly mentioned an autograph session afterward ought to enable gamers to have interaction with followers and “get again to normalcy” after two years of pandemic disruptions. Throughout city, the Trojans will attempt to get again to their very own form of normalcy, drawing a large crowd and a nation’s curiosity whereas reemerging as the highest Saturday story on the town.

Occasions workers author Ryan Kartje contributed to this report.