ESPN Pac-10 Blog

Posted by ESPN.com's Ted Miller

It's right there in front of you in black and white: Hopeless, non-negotiable numbers that spell certain doom for UCLA.

USC owns the best defense in the nation. It yields 211 yards and 7.8 points per game, both tops in college football.

UCLA's offense ranks 110th in the nation in yards per game (295) and 107th in scoring (18.6 ppg). Just for good measure, the Bruins also rank 111th in turnover margin (minus-11).

USC's defense is this. UCLA's offense is that. A team has to score to win, and the Bruins almost certainly won't do much of that Saturday in the Rose Bowl.

So the Bruins might as well abandon all hope.

And yet...

"We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope," said President-elect Barack Obama. "But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope."

Or, as Dale Carnegie famously offered through his never-wavering grin, "Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all."

UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel has preached "relentless optimism" all season, even after an inglorious 59-zip debacle at BYU on Sept. 13 and a 35-9 defeat last weekend at Arizona State that featured an are-you-kidding-me FOUR defensive touchdowns from the Sun Devils off Bruins turnovers.

FOUR!

Bruins defensive tackle Brigham Harwell clearly belongs to the Obama-Carnegie-Neuheisel school of hope and optimism.

"This is a big task for us, but we know that any team is beatable," he said. "We're going to have to shut them down on defense to have a chance. That's the key. Lights out on defense and for the offense to have no turnovers."

Recall that just two years ago another lost-cause UCLA team shocked the nation with a 13-9 victory over then-No. 2 USC, a defeat that knocked the Trojans out of the national title game on the final day of the season. Recall that that win came a year after the Trojans had rolled the Bruins 66-19.

USC coach Pete Carroll wouldn't bite when asked whether that loss was particularly painful. He has only lost nine games over the past seven seasons, so every loss resonates.

"They've all been the same," he said. "I think any time you have an experience like we had when we lost to those guys, with everything that was going on riding on it, that fits every situation that comes at the end of the season. I mean, all of these games, anybody can beat you. No matter what everybody thinks is supposed to happen, you got to go play the football game."

A USC win means it earns its seventh consecutive Pac-10 title and a Rose Bowl berth opposite Penn State. While such a prospect would sound sensational to most teams, that would be the Trojans' fifth Rose Bowl in six years.

And Carroll and his players believe they should be a candidate for the national title game.

"We talk about it, if different things happen and teams lose, we've got a chance," safety Taylor Mays said. "We'd love to get a chance to play whatever team. We'd like to go out and show what 'SC is about. But whatever opportunity they give us, that's where we will prove our point.

"But it's frustrating because we realize what the potential of this team is and what we are capable of and how hard we worked. We want to be recognized as the best. But we can't control that right now. We knew at the beginning of the season if we went undefeated that would give us our best chance. We'd love to have the first half of that Oregon State game back."

And, of course, if the Trojans should lose, they will find themselves stewing in the Holiday Bowl, with Oregon State joyously walking through the Rose Bowl's backdoor.

For that upset to happen, one thing absolutely must occur: UCLA quarterback Kevin Craft has to play well.

That's a big if. Craft has thrown 12 interceptions in the past four games with no touchdowns. His post-pick trudges to the sidelines for another harangue from Neuheisel have provided must-see moments for the television audience.

"Kevin Craft has been tougher than nails and has been a try-hard kid," Neuheisel said. "Unfortunately, we had to put too much on his shoulders."

As in, Craft has had little help on an offense that can't run or block or get open very well.

The offensive ineptitude is why a pretty solid defense doesn't have great numbers, but Harwell says he only has love for Craft.

"I told him we believe in him," Harwell said. "Yeah, it's frustrating when he throws interceptions. But we're a team and we have his back. If he gives great effort, we can't ask for anything more."

It figures to take more than just great effort or relentless optimism for the Bruins to prevail.

When asked what concerned him from UCLA's offense, Mays seemed to stifle a laugh and then, after a pregnant pause offered, "They run the ball downhill."

UCLA ranks 116th in the nation in rushing.

Hope for the Bruins? The numbers seem to suggest their plight is less Obama and Carnegie and more Friedrich Nietzsche, who opined, "Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torments of man."