This is not an exercise in academic rigor. I did not have someone sitting with a note pad writing down literally the first 10 facts I could recall pertaining to sports in 2017. But … it is a fairly accurate recreation of a fairly quick trip through my brain to see what stuck from the […]

[Read more →]

Two of the top quarterbacks potentially available for the 2018 NFL draft attend Los Angeles schools. UCLA’s Josh Rosen and USC’s Sam Darnold. Each has college eligibility remaining — one year for Rosen, two for Darnold. Each is mulling whether to make himself available for the draft or to stay in school for another year. […]

[Read more →]

We don’t see much college football, in France. Our TV package includes stations with college matchups, but the West Coast games rarely begin before 10 p.m., Paris time, ending at 2 a.m. or so … and night games on the West Coast? Well, it’s an up-all-night thing, over here. But we happened to find Army […]

[Read more →]

You would think the NCAA knew better. That the sturm und drang that accompanies the 68-team college basketball playoffs would have prompted them to leave football alone — ending the season with bowl games and letting collections of journalists and/or coaches and/or cranks with a trophy to figure out who ranked where. But then some […]

[Read more →]

Scott Wolf has been covering USC athletics seemingly forever. He writes for the L.A. Daily News/Los Angeles News Group, and in an era where nearly everyone else lost their jobs, Wolf kept his. Mostly because he generally breaks all significant news coming out of his alma mater’s athletic department. Readers, and editors, have picked up […]

[Read more →]

Elite college football programs are allowed one pratfall in the national-championship chase. USC’s Trojans just took theirs. Heisman Trophy candidates can maybe — maybe –  get away with one stinker and still aspire to pick up that famous trophy in New York. USC quarterback Sam Darnold just had his forgettable game. It was already Saturday […]

[Read more →]

UCLA trailed Texas A&M 44-10 late in the third quarter at the Rose Bowl in a season-opening intersectional football game tonight. And won 45-44 with touchdowns in their final five possessions, including the winner with 43 seconds left. It was the second-biggest comeback victory in the history of major-college football. When it was over, UCLA […]

[Read more →]

In 24 seasons leading four college football programs, Ara Parseghian‘s teams won 170 games, lost 58 and tied six. Improbably, he is best-remembered for one of the six ties. In what was widely described as The Game of the Century, Parseghian’s top-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish made a point of running out the final 90 […]

[Read more →]

Ah, memories. This collection seeped into my consciousness when prompted by the discovery that the Oakland Raiders are playing at Houston on Sunday … and remembering I had covered an NFL game in Houston. At the Astrodome. While covering the Los Angeles Rams. In 1978. A long, long time ago. And I was pretty sure […]

[Read more →]

Wow. It had been that long? I covered at least 15 Rose Bowl games, maybe 20, and  should have known this. But I may have mentioned I’ve been away. What I know for sure is that USC is supposed to 1) be in the Rose Bowl more often than this and 2) win the Rose […]

[Read more →]