COLUMN: Rivalry win is latest example Trojans have built something special

PASADENA -- They were essentially competing against each other this season, for the same job and the opportunity to showcase themselves in this talent-rich USC offense, but running backs Travis Dye and Austin Jones always insisted there was nothing but mutual appreciation and support for one another.

Even as Dye's emergence as one of the Trojans' primary stars had eventually rendered Jones into a limited role player.

The veteran Stanford transfer received no more than 5 touches in any game over a month and a half stretch. A couple weeks ago, he played just 10 snaps vs. Cal while getting 1 carry.

Still, Jones reiterated, there was no tension among the Trojans' running backs -- quite the opposite, actually.

"It's a real tight-knit group. Before every single game I come to all of them and say, 'I love you all, let's go do this,'" Jones shared last week.

Before USC's highly-anticipated, immensely-important rivalry game with then-No. 16 UCLA on Saturday night at the Rose Bowl, it was Dye -- out for the season now with a lower leg injury -- who wanted to say something to his backfield mate.

"The biggest thing he was telling me was 'Remind them who you are.' That's the biggest thing he told me. He said, 'They forgot about you. They forgot about everything that you've done up to this point, so remind them who you are tonight,'" Jones shared afterward.

Jones rushed for a season-high 120 yards and 2 touchdowns, averaging a robust 5.7 yards per carry, and added 57 receiving yards in the Trojans' dramatic 48-45 win for his first 100-yard game since Week 3 -- in case anyone had forgotten.

His performance was integral to a victory that clinched now-No. 5 USC's spot in the Pac-12 championship game, but it was also intrinsic to what any Trojans player or coach will tell you is the identity of this team.

"He was huge, but like exactly what we expected him to be, exactly what he has been. There's not one person in that locker room surprised about the way he played," coach Lincoln Riley said. "Another great example of the unselfishness of this team, he comes in, [he and Dye are] mixing time in the beginning, we started to ride Travis a little bit more, he could have gotten down, he could have quit practicing hard -- not for one second."

Riley was asked what the resilient and tense-to-the-finish rivalry win showed him about his team's growth this season, and he said it was being down 14-0 to the Bruins "and not even flinching -- not even thinking about flinching."

And, he added, that other characteristic of this team that has surfaced far too often now to be coincidental.

Culture, DNA, identity -- nebulous cliches, sure, but that doesn't mean it isn't real.

"We keep talking about kind of the closeness and culture and togetherness of this team, and I think it was on full display tonight," Riley said.

There was Jones.

There was fellow running back Darwin Barlow, a redshirt junior and former four-star prospect who has been buried down the depth chart all season. He had just 7 carries through the first nine games before Dye's injury in the first half last week, after which Barlow capitalized on some late carries for 41 yards and a touchdown.

He scored again Saturday night, but it wasn't in the waning minutes of a blowout this time -- no, Barlow got the call on a key fourth quarter drive and reeled off back-to-back runs of 19 and 6 yards to score and put USC up 48-38.

"I just think it is a testament to how hard everybody works. Not everyone can see that, but we see that," wide receiver Kyle Ford said. "Darwin gets in the game, we know he's going to do that. It's not a surprise to anyone."

There was also Ford, himself, a former top-65 national prospect, who had persevered through two ACL tears over the last four years but even when healthy had been given few opportunities to show he was still the same impact talent college programs once coveted as a four-star recruit. Now a redshirt junior, Ford had just 2 catches for 27 yards through the first seven games, but when top targets Jordan Addison and Mario Williams were initially sidelined last month, he went to quarterback Caleb Williams and told him he was ready to be a playmaker for him.

Ford has 13 catches for 276 yards and 2 touchdowns over the last four games -- including a 49 yard reception Saturday along with one of the prettiest touchdown grabs for the Trojans this season.

"It means a lot, honestly. If you would have told me at the end of last season like I would be here now, [with] this group of guys and being able to play for a championship, I'd call you a dead liar. Just being completely honest," Ford said. "I'm just so thankful for everyone on this team. They all have confidence in me. Before that play, everyone was like, 'Come on Kyle, you're going to make this play.' Just like that type of stuff is what I'm really thankful for, and the coaches being able to put me in certain positions, and I've been working for it too. Just to see it all come together, I'm just really thankful for it, honestly."

And of course, there's sophomore rush end Korey Foreman, the five-star talent who was ranked the No. 4 overall national recruit in his class, whose commitment to USC made national headlines on ESPN.com.

The potential never fully manifested for him as a freshman last year, as he was relegated to a limited role on pass-rushing downs. Persistent injuries have seemed to bring more setbacks. His toughest moment probably came in Week 4 when he was in uniform and active for USC's road contest at Oregon State but never got in the game. After the Trojans won a nail-biter, the team had to walk out of the stadium and across to the building housing their locker room, with rowdy Beavers fans behind fences on either side. Foreman, who would share a long hug with father before making that walk, was heckled by pathetic grown men eager to take shots at the former top national prospect. Foreman kept his head up and his composure through that walk -- and apparently throughout what has been another quiet fall production-wise for him.

Just last week, after the win over Colorado, defensive coordinator Alex Grinch said of Foreman, "Our expectations have not been met, and I think his expectations for himself have not been met. And that's a good thing. He expects to play better."

Saturday night vs. UCLA, Foreman came through with not only the biggest play of his young college career but arguably the biggest play of the night, dropping into coverage against a certain look as he'd practiced all week and then jumping the route on Dorian Thompson-Robinson's pass for an interception at midfield with 1:26 remaining in the three-point game.

Of all the players who could have potentially made the decisive play to seal the outcome of a clash between two highly-ranked teams with a lot at stake, few if any would have predicted Foreman. Yet, he told himself it was his time, pacing on the sideline before taking the field on that final defensive series.

"I just knew at that moment a play had to be made. I was just going down basically telling myself, 'Let's do it, right here, right now.' I don't know if you all could see it, but I was pacing back and forth on the sideline like, 'Let's go. Right here, right now. Right here, right now. It's right now. Nothing can stop me but me in this moment,'" Foreman recalled afterward.

"Just being able to be around this team, I get the confidence being able to go to battle. I just love the energy this team brings because it allows me to just find myself ... in different levels I need to find myself."

Riley was beaming as he embraced Foreman on the field after the win.

"He's worked hard behind the scenes, a great example of don't worry about any outside expectations or what other people think, it doesn't matter. You just keep working, improving, good things happen and he's done a good job of that."

There are many other examples as well, of course.

Edge rusher Nick Figueroa, a sixth-year senior and former starter, playing a limited role off the bench the first half of the season before again emerging as a primary contributor ... Wide receiver Tahj Washington -- who made the highest-degree-of-difficulty catch of the game Saturday -- watching USC recruit four transfer receivers in the offseason, earn his way onto the field mostly for his blocking at first and then take over as the Trojans' No. 1 pass-catcher for a few weeks when Addison and Mario Williams were both out. ... Sophomore receiver Michael Jackson III battling hamstring setbacks through spring practice, fall camp and beyond, looking like he would be buried on the depth chart only to emerge as a key contributor the last several games. ... Ditto for safety transfer Bryson Shaw, who tore his quad muscle in his second practice here and had considered the reality he may just be stuck behind established players all season, only to emerge as a starter the last month with 30 tackles and an interception over four games.

Get the point?

These kind of stories didn't really exist on USC's 4-8 team last season, or in other recent lackluster seasons when it was clear something (or several somethings) was missing.

For the last few years ,really, with limited exceptions, the Trojans seemingly picked their starters and stuck with them, even when they ceased meriting the role. That, and in the two losing seasons that occurred over the last four years, there was a clear divide in the locker room and a lack of team chemistry acknowledged by players and other sources.

Nobody could appreciate the difference more than sixth-year center Brett Neilon, who has been through it all with this program and broke through his normal steady facade into a jubilant celebration Saturday evening, the first player to run over to the USC fan section and bask in the moment.

"It's a real brotherhood out there," Neilon said, adding another term for it.

On this USC team, roles and playing time seemingly change weekly based on performance in practice and who takes advantage of their moments in games. There does seem to be a shared belief that most every player is within reach of role -- if they earn it.

There is also clear leadership, direction and accountability set by Riley and his staff. Maybe it was made clear when Riley immediately purged a significant number of players from the roster he inherited, or maybe it's just because his track record -- now 65-11 in six seasons as a head coach and chasing his potential fourth College Football Playoff appearance -- earns that kind of unilateral buy-in.

Ask him and he'll say it's the veterans like Dye, Shane Lee, Neilon, Justin Dedich, Andrew Vorhees, etc., that have created whatever you want to call it that this team so clearly has now.

It's hard to explain it from an outsider's perspective. That's why we're left with generalities like culture and identity.

But Lee used the same term for it as Neilon.

"Kind of just thinking back to when we all got here, the main thing that we wanted to do was come together and have an unbreakable brotherhood," the veteran linebacker and Alabama transfer said after the win Saturday night. "Through our time here I think we all can agree that we've seen the growth, the bonds that we have with each other, our team. The energy and the passion we play with, we play for each other.

"It's something that you've got to be a part of it to feel, but to me, I think that's the biggest reason why we're here."

Here being 10-1, now ranked No. 5 in the AP poll, heading to the Pac-12 championship game in two weeks, still pushing for a playoff berth and, in general, pulling off the most drastic and compelling one-year turnaround college football has seen the last 11 months.

Before the game Saturday, Jones scrawled Dye's No. 26 somewhere on his wrist as a reminder that he wasn't just playing for himself under that big rivalry spotlight.

"We made a point that we were going to do it for 2-6. I had it written on my wrist -- 2-6 the whole game," Jones said. "... Most definitely, we had to step up for him."