As the clock ticked away on a long, cold Pasadena night, a small but powerful cheer rose from the shivering Rose Bowl crowd.
“We are… SC!”
They have been absent for the longest time in this 92nd meeting with UCLA.
The Trojans stumbled. They messed up. They smelled.
But then, in the last breaths of this street fight, they found themselves.
Lincoln Riley became coach of SC. Jayden Maiava became SC’s point guard. Ja’Kobi Lane became a SC receiver.
And when it was over, a group of hugging young men in cardinal and gold bounced out of the blue of the Rose Bowl with a 19-13 victory and a renewed sense of self.
In one of the few exciting times in this unfortunate season, they were indeed SC.
Read more: USC overcomes early mistakes to defeat rival UCLA and become eligible
“Awesome, awesome win,” Riley said.
While this sixth win for the 6-5 Trojans qualifies them for a bowl game, they are still clearly not as good as they should be. But watching them in the tight squeeze of a late Saturday night, they can be tougher than anyone thinks.
And while they’ll rightfully be huge playoff underdogs to face Notre Dame at the Coliseum in the regular-season finale next week, the drama of Saturday’s win showed they may still be capable of marching into midfield and planting a Trojan sword.
While they’re basically done — they missed the playoffs, and that’s all that matters here — this team isn’t really done yet, and the final weeks of this disjointed dance could still be interesting.
“Winning gives you confidence, it gives you excitement, it’s a validation of the things you do,” Riley said. “For us to win one, especially in this way, it’s obviously a huge win for us.”
Things got very interesting with 11:13 left in the game and the Trojans trailed 13-9.
They had already blown three separate possessions from inside UCLA’s five-yard line and settled for three field goals after poor runs and misdirected passes.
They also failed to capitalize on three unsportsmanlike conduct penalties given to UCLA at the end of the first half, which resulted in the Bruins starting the second half from Alhambra.
Read more: Plaschke: Can USC’s dynamic new quarterback Jayden Maiava revive Lincoln Riley?
The seemingly outmatched hosts handed USC the game on a platter, but the Trojans refused to accept it for the longest time.
Then, early in that fourth quarter, USC basically ripped it out of UCLA’s hands.
The rally began, as these things often did later, with a punt by the great Eddie Czaplicki that pushed UCLA to the one-yard line.
“It’s almost like a Zen thing, there’s no doubt about anything I’m doing right now,” said Czaplicki, who has arguably been their best player in recent weeks.
The Bruins went three-and-out, and their own player, Brody Richter, pushed into midfield. One play later, Maiava threw a pass into the backfield to Makai Lemon, who then completed a 39-yard pass to a wide open Kyron Hudson, who carried it all the way to the four-yard line.
It was a great call from Riley in a game the depleted Trojans — 27 players who were sick Tuesday — barely got a try.
“We barely repeated it,” Hudson said. “It’s trusting each other.”
He was asked if Lemon threw it that well in practice.
“He guessed even better, that’s the crazy thing,” Hudson said. “Makai, he’s an amazing athlete, an amazing player.
This time the Trojans finished, Maiava got away from two Bruin defenders to find a leaping Lane in the back of the end zone.
The only better finisher on Saturday was the former Bruin, who was given a thunderous standing ovation after the first quarter. Yes, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was there.
As for Maiava, he still has a lot of work to do. In his second game after taking over the starting job from Miller Moss, he wasn’t great, going just 19 of 35 for 221 yards, making some questionable decisions, but making the one throw that counted.
“We have a great group,” Maiava said. “We have a resilient group.
They have a group that slowly finds itself, better late than never, finishing the game by stopping the Bruins on a fourth-and-one by Ethan Garbers.
“It was huge for us to give us confidence again that we’re really the best team in the country for us,” safety Akili Arnold said.
If nothing else, they were once again the best team in Los Angeles to open Saturday night.
It was SC again.
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.