My Tucson buddy: USC’s going down

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One of my greatest weekends as a college student came 20 years ago this fall, when my good friend Jeff Wilson from Tucson invited me over for a weekend of debauchery, football and a curfew-busting run past security to another friend’s campus dorm.

Wilson’s still living in Tucson, so I checked in with him Friday to get a postmortem on Lute Olson’s abrupt retirement. But the conversation quickly changed to the excitement on campus surrounding homecoming and a Saturday night football date with No. 5 BCS entry USC that could propel the host Wildcats to their first Rose Bowl.

(By the way, the game has a 7:15 p.m. kickoff. As a family man routinely committed to AYSO, winter-baseball games and household duties during the day, the most enjoyable television game of the week is the late-night Prime affair called by Barry Tompkins and cast, no matter who’s playing. Our TV expert Steve Springer reminded me that the World Series will be on too.)

Anyway, Wilson described a hornet’s nest of activity around the Tucson campus. ‘People have been here since 8 a.m., setting up tents, drinking ... we’re ready to roll,’ he said.

Predictably, he’s calling for an upset over the Trojans, who stand as a 16-point favorite.

‘Take the points and run with it, go to Vegas right now,’ he said, although The Times endorses no such behavior. ‘This could be a trap game.’

Well, USC’s playing an awful Washington team at home next week, so ‘trap’ doesn’t apply here, but my friend was on a roll and eager to move past the end of the Olson era, so why stop him?

‘We’ve beaten a ranked team every year since [Coach Mike] Stoops has been here ... well, we beat [top-25] Cal last week, but now we want another,’ he said.

I can vouch that the Arizona fans can become an important factor, with their ‘Bear Down, Arizona,’ song/chant, but clearly the desert heat may be getting the best of my buddy. He wasn’t even bothered by the Trojans’ 69-0 rout at Washington State last week.

‘We beat Idaho, 70-0,’ he said.

Trojans, beware.

-- Lance Pugmire