Bruin Streak Makes This a Meeting of Mind Games

A sense of calm settled over the Bruin huddle.

It was late afternoon on Nov. 20, 1993, shadows cutting across the Coliseum floor, and USC stood three yards from a go-ahead touchdown. But UCLA had a two-game winning streak against the Trojans.

“We just felt like we had their number,” said George Kase, a nose guard on that UCLA team. “It was one of those moments in life when everything slows down.”

The former defensive lineman recalls a surreal feeling as he and his teammates stopped two runs up the middle. On third down, they expected a pass and got one, intercepting in the end zone to preserve a 27-21 victory.

“A clarity comes through,” Kase said. “It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.”

It was, experts suggest, an example of athletes playing with the relaxed confidence that comes from a winning streak. And now that UCLA’s string of victories has reached seven--the longest by either team in the history of the cross-town rivalry--a specific kind of psychology surrounds Saturday’s annual rematch.

“You have a long streak, it becomes a state of mind,” said Leonard Zaichkowsky, a Boston University professor who specializes in sports psychology. “Your thoughts and your feelings impact on your ability to play football.”

For USC, those thoughts and feelings loom too large to ignore.

Coach Paul Hackett said, “You have to face the fact of what has happened. Does it scare you off or does it motivate you?”

The psychological baggage is made heavier by memories of games decided by last-second UCLA touchdowns or, worse, Trojan miscues. An incomplete two-point conversion pass left USC one point short in 1992. Four years later, a fumble and a blocked field-goal attempt figured into a 48-41 double-overtime loss.

Such endings could come back to haunt Trojan players, giving rise to doubt in the waning moments of this weekend’s game. Muscles may tense. Concentration may waver.

“They’re worrying about what they are doing and not staying tuned in,” said Thomas R. George, a University of Michigan kinesiology professor who has witnessed this dynamic in the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry.

“It’s especially prominent if there has been a pattern of one team rising [to the occasion] and the other team crumbling,” George said. “Players catch themselves thinking, ‘Here we go again.’ ”

Just ask USC cornerback Daylon McCutcheon, who was beaten on a 52-yard touchdown pass two years ago.

“Some people let that get into their heads,” McCutcheon said. “It’s like, ‘Man, they always make the big plays.’ ”

Coaches can fall prey to a subtle brand of defeatism too.

Zaichkowsky explained, “In a timeout, the coaching staff will tell the players something like ‘The one thing we don’t want to do is fumble the ball.’ A statement like that is negative thinking. You plant a seed in the players’ minds.”

Even newcomers can be affected by the streak, if only through osmosis. Petros Papadakis, who played his first USC-UCLA game last season after transferring to USC from California, sensed his teammates’ worry before the 1997 loss.

“I’m not sure we had the psychological approach to win that game,” Papadakis said.

On the other side of town, the Bruins have passed a winning attitude from one football generation to the next.

“They believe in themselves,” said John Callaghan, a USC associate professor of exercise science. “There is no question that UCLA must be confident.”

Confident players are likely to be relaxed, and relaxed muscles react more quickly than tensed muscles, experts said. Confident players also think more clearly in pressure situations.

“You are less tentative,” George said. “You’re willing to gamble on a particular play, to make a good smart gamble.”

Like the end-zone interception by strong safety Marvin Goodwin in 1993.

Kase sensed his team would prevail: “You get a good look at the person across the line and know that you can come through at crunch time.”

There is a less pleasant side to winning seven consecutive games, however. It’s known as fear.

“It’s in the back of our minds,” said Shawn Stuart, a senior offensive lineman at UCLA. “Every senior class before me has gone out beating SC. I don’t want my last game in the Rose Bowl to be a bad memory.”

But the pressure can be turned to an advantage. It can become a source of motivation in practice.

“We have to win,” said Shaun Williams, a former Bruin now with the New York Giants. “It makes you play harder.”

The trick is finding a balance between high emotions and calm, clear thinking. The Trojans have ample reason to play hard, staring uphill at seven years of disappointment. They seem to be focusing on keeping loose.

“[The Bruins] are one of the top teams in the country, so we have nothing to lose,” McCutcheon said. “We can go in there and destroy their whole season.”

Hackett wants his players to take a shortsighted view of history, one that experts say can help a team break a losing streak against a rival. The coach is dwelling on recent victories over Arizona State and Washington, games in which USC excelled in the fourth quarter.

“You have to hope the progress we’ve made this season, the strength we’ve had finishing games, overshadows [bad memories of UCLA losses],” Hackett said. “You have to hope that’s the most recent thing in your mind.”

There is one more thing both teams must remember: History doesn’t put points on the scoreboard.

“We’re not thinking, ‘Hey, we’ve beat this team seven times so we’re going to win again,’ ” Stuart said. “You play each game individually.”

So, come kickoff time on Saturday, no matter what the psychological undertones, players must make plays. Take the 1996 double-overtime thriller in the Rose Bowl, for example.

The Trojans held a seven-point lead with 1:27 remaining in regulation. Then-coach John Robinson grabbed running back LaVale Woods and said, “Go in there and hold onto the ball.”

“That should be considered a positive thing,” Zaichkowsky said. “You’ve given the player a simple, positive task to focus on.”

Woods fumbled the next time he touched the ball.