Seattle will root hard for USC and Lincoln Riley in Pac-12 Championship Game

Matt Zemek
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Seattle and Los Angeles are two Western cities whose sports teams have regularly clashed over the years. The Sonics played the Lakers in multiple NBA Western Conference finals series in the 1980s. The Seahawks played the Los Angeles Raiders in the 1983 AFC Championship Game. The Raiders won and went to Super Bowl XVIII.

The Mariners play the Angels. Now the NHL Kraken face the Kings and the Anaheim Ducks. Washington would be in the Pac-12 Championship Game, not Utah, if it had beaten UCLA this season.

Yet, as much as Seattleites might want to beat L.A., the residents of that city will be pulling hard for USC this Friday night.

Husky fans will be shouting “Fight On!” when the Trojans face Utah in Allegiant Stadium. A USC win not only sends the Men of Troy to the College Football Playoff; it would send Washington to the Rose Bowl.

Washington needing a late-season USC win to go to the Granddaddy is not a new thing. This scenario has existed multiple times before.

Let’s dig into the historical archive:

1977

Washington went 6-1 in the 1977 Pac-8 football season, but its one loss was to UCLA. Therefore, when the Bruins — 5-1 in the conference — met USC, the Huskies needed a Trojan win to head to Pasadena.

USC PLAYS SPOILER

We recalled the backdrop to the 1977 USC-UCLA game:

The 1977 Trojans were immersed in a transition from the 1976 Rose Bowl team John Robinson inherited, to the 1978 team which would win the national championship. The 1977 team wasn’t a bad team, but its offense went through far too many fits and starts to be great. The defense didn’t smother opponents the way it would in subsequent years. The Trojans lived on the wrong side of small margins — against Alabama and California — and they also got obliterated by eventual national champion Notre Dame.

FRANK JORDAN

USC’s clutch kicker came through:

Frank Jordan made a number of huge kicks in his career at USC. He made a last-second field goal in 1978 to beat Notre Dame and keep the Trojans on course for a national championship.

On a late November day one year earlier — inside the very same Los Angeles Coliseum — Jordan booted UCLA out of the Granddaddy, and gifted a four-loss Washington team with a ticket to Pasadena. Jordan hit a 38-yard field goal with two seconds left to give the Trojans more than a 29-27 rivalry win over UCLA; it also made sure that USC remained in charge of this rivalry.

SLOWING TERRY DONAHUE'S RISE AS UCLA HEAD COACH

Terry Donahue eventually thrived at UCLA, but this win slowed his ascent in Westwood.

If the Bruins had won:

Donahue and UCLA might have gained an even firmer foothold in Los Angeles, changing the trajectory of this series in the late 1970s.

BEFORE JORDAN'S KICK

UCLA’s coach, Terry Donohue embraces a sideline companion and Brian Baggott (8) smile broadly as they watch UCLA make their last touchdown and conversion points putting them a point ahead of USC in the last minutes of the game on Friday, Nov. 25, 1977 in Los Angeles, left. Donohue, right, has just shaken the wining USC coach’s hand, John Robinson, after USC’s Frank Jordan kicked a 38 yard field goal with 2 seconds remaining in the game beating UCLA 29-27. (AP Photo/George Brich)

CHARLES WHITE

University of Sothern California’s Charles White is tackled by University of California Los Angeles’ Levi Armstrong in UCLA-USC football action Friday November 25, 1977 in Los Angeles. USC went on to win 29-27 by a field goal in the last two seconds of the game. (AP Photo/George Brich)

1981

From The New York Times on the 1981 Pac-10 football championship chase, in which Washington State, UCLA, and Washington were all involved heading into rivalry weekend:

Washington State entered the game (against Washington) as the surprising leader of the conference with an 8-1-1 record. If the Cougars won here, they would go to the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day, their first bowl appearance in 51 years.

 

WASHINGTON BEAT WASHINGTON STATE, WHICH MEANT USC-UCLA WOULD DECIDE THE PAC-10 CHAMPION

The New York Times:

There were 10 1/2 minutes remaining in the game when the loudest cheer of the day was heard. The Huskies were ahead, 20-10. But more important to most of the partisan crowd following the game in Los Angeles, the Bruins had just missed a field goal in the closing seconds. U.S.C. had won.

GEORGE ACHICA

USC’s brilliant interior defensive lineman blocked UCLA’s winning 46-yard field goal attempt at the end of regulation.

You can watch the game and that blocked field goal:

USC 22, UCLA 21 -- NOVEMBER 21, 1981

USC HEISMAN SEASON

Marcus Allen of the USC Trojans, poses with the coveted Heisman Trophy awarded to him at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York, Dec. 6, 1981. Allen, 21, who traversed more football turf than any other player in college football history, was the 47th winner of the Heisman Memorial Trophy. (AP Photo/Ron Frehm)

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THE BOTTOM LINE: PAC-12 NEW YEAR'S SIX BOWL SCENARIOS

If Utah beats USC, the Utes go back to the Rose Bowl and the Trojans go to the Cotton Bowl.

If USC beats Utah, the Trojans go to the playoff — probably the Peach Bowl against Georgia, possibly the Fiesta Bowl against Michigan — and Washington goes to the Rose Bowl.

Story originally appeared on Trojans Wire