Sorry, Bruins fans. Kiffin has a point. From 2006-07, I covered Pete Carroll’s USC teams for a Southern California newspaper before switching to cover the 2008 season at UCLA. You didn’t have to be the world’s most insightful observer to see that different kinds of players showed up for practice on the two campuses. You just had to show up with eyes and ears.

I remember being shocked when I talked to a UCLA offensive lineman about losing his starting job and hearing him say he was just happy to be getting a good education. At USC, I saw players resort to fisticuffs while they competed for the same spot.”