Houses Divided, and Two Teams United

Line up, kids. Recess is over. Time to get serious.

Even if it means Tyler Ebell and his sister must tussle.

UCLA players thoroughly enjoyed their bye week, going on a team paint ball excursion, switching jerseys at practice and cutting back on meetings.

Now the Bruins must strip away distractions, make every minute count and thoroughly prepare for their biggest game of the season.

Even if it means Ebell and his sister must tussle.

The Bruin tailback squirmed through a family photo session Sunday. Jennifer wore a T-shirt that read, “I love SC.”

“I told her that if she wore it, I wouldn’t get in the picture,” he said.

He relented, not her.

But he did counter by wearing a UCLA T-shirt.

“Got to represent my school,” he said, “even if she has to represent hers.”

Jennifer is a USC senior and a friend of several Trojan players. She and her brother have always been close, and will continue to be -- 51 weeks of the year.

“It’s been a family rivalry, and there is a lot of smack talk in our house,” said their mother, Karen Hewlett. “Jen cheers for her brother but is a true Trojan fan. Tyler has made a lot of friends at USC through his sister.”

This week he won’t admit to that.

Ebell, a redshirt freshman, has been true blue and gold since moments before he made a phone call to Jennifer in February 2001.

“She was the first person I called when I committed to UCLA,” he said. “She wanted me to go to USC and she was kind of mad.”

Every year this rivalry causes fissures in families, even when it is mostly in fun. Tyler and Jennifer are a microcosm of a divided city.

Long Beach Poly, the top high school football program in the Southland, sends players to both schools. A year ago, Marcedes Lewis, Winston Justice and Hershel Dennis were teammates.

Now Lewis is a UCLA tight end. Justice, an offensive lineman, and Dennis, a running back, are Trojans.

“We’ve known this day was going to come,” Lewis said.

The wait is beginning to wear on UCLA. The players are getting antsy.

“Time off was good for everybody,” quarterback Matt Moore said. “We’ll pick up the pace [this week]. We are anxious.”

An open date can be a bane as easily as a balm.

Yes, injuries have time to heal. Batteries recharge. Everybody needs a break once in a while.

But the momentum the Bruins (7-3, 4-2) gained in winning three Pacific 10 Conference games in a row is felt less acutely than in the afterglow of the 37-7 victory over Arizona on Nov. 9.

Intensity can’t be turned off and on like a light switch, can it?

“It is a concern, but I’m not too worried about it,” Coach Bob Toledo said. “Everybody knows what this game means.”

Toledo knows how to pace a team through a bye week -- the Bruins are 6-0 in home games after open dates in his tenure.

The secret, he believes, is to avoid whipping the players into an emotional frenzy too soon. USC film was kept to a minimum last week and USC references were not posted in the locker room.

“If guys get fired up too soon, they end up getting burned out,” he said.

This week, though, the stops are pulled out on all forms of motivation. Expect former players to make impassioned locker-room speeches. Any comment that can be construed as a lack of respect will be copied and placed in lockers.

“We haven’t beat USC, that’s a big thing to me,” senior Marcus Reese said.

The Bruins have lost three in a row to the Trojans, a 17-7 yawner in 1999, a 38-35 nail-biter in 2000 and a 27-0 debacle last season that marked a low point under Toledo.

Two driving-under-the-influence convictions that quarterback Cory Paus tried to conceal came to light two days before the game. Tailback DeShaun Foster was suspended for an NCAA violation and did not play.

In fact, it’s not a stretch to say that few Bruins came to play. The game left such a sour taste that Toledo refuses to discuss it.

“I don’t want to talk about last year’s game,” he said. “The past is the past. I’m looking forward to this game.”

Toledo won his first three games against USC before the tide turned in 1999. This is something of a rubber match. For him it is Game 7 of a series that has no end date in sight.

There is heightened interest, and there are conflicting agendas, especially in families with allegiances to both schools.

Jennifer Ebell will root for USC. That’s to be expected. But she also bet a friend that Tyler will rush for 100 yards.

For his part, Tyler will avoid contact with Jennifer’s friends with the same determination he will avoid contact with Trojan defenders Saturday.

He’s already learned that cross-town civility is forgotten this week.

*

THE RIVALRY

USC vs. UCLA

Saturday, 12:30 p.m.

at Rose Bowl, Ch. 7

USC LEADS SERIES, 37-27-7

After losing eight straight to the Bruins,

the Trojans have won the last three,

including 27-0 last year.