The talk this week has been about the tradition, the rivalry and the bitterness. There's also been talk about the hope that this would be a game between two undefeated teams, both ranked in the top 25, both looking to grab a lead in the Rose Bowl race, both looking to secure state bragging rights.
Many students view the intrastate rivalry as serious business.
The players have been saying many of the same things. This is the first really big rivalry in the season. A lot of people call us rivals, but this one is bitter. This is the game we've been looking forward to since the summer. Putting such talk aside, the focus is shifting to the game at hand, to the strategies and especially to the defenses that could single-handedly dictate which way the game sways.