Quite the gutty little upset

Dear Santa:

No need to come by the house this year. I now have everything I need:

UCLA 13, USC 9.

CARL E. OSSIPOFF

Newport Beach

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Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus and his name is Lane Kiffin.

Merry Christmas, Bruins fans.

JUDY THOMSEN

La Crescenta

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Bill Plaschke’s Dec. 1 article about George Achica was good, but I can’t wait for 20 years from now to read Bill Plaschke Jr.’s article about UCLA’s Eric McNeal and the amazing interception that ripped the Trojans’ heart out and knocked them out of the BCS title game.

JONATHAN BRAUN

Los Angeles

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USC can still go to Glendale. The Trojans can check it out on the way to the Rose Bowl.

DANNY LEE

Studio City

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Arizona may still be in Pete Carroll’s future but not on Jan. 8.

JERRY SELBY

Pasadena

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Pete Carroll had a “difficult” day? Try walking to your car after the game with the obscenities and paraphernalia being thrown at anyone wearing Trojans colors.

That being said, it’s about time Carroll takes a long look at his offensive coaching staff. Forget that -- why mince words? Lane Kiffin has to go. Period! This game didn’t just cost a chance at the national title -- the Trojans are second best in their own city.

UCLA players weren’t the only ones who knew what plays were coming -- everyone in the crowd did as well. Carroll got a pass for losing to Texas. He can’t get a pass for losing to UCLA.

And this talk of replacing Booty is a joke, but the next time he throws that side pattern without checking off, he should be benched.

GENO APICELLA

Burbank

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Thanks to the heroic play of the UCLA Bruins, everybody wins.

The Trojans will be in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, instead of playing in some trumped-up, media-driven bowl in the Arizona desert.

And for Bruins fans, hopefully an athletic victory can somehow help them overcome their innate sense of inferiority and low self-esteem when in the presence of their crosstown rivals.

DOUG HAYS

Glendale

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On behalf of myself and all Trojans fans, I would like to apologize to UCLA supporters for all the scorn and derision to which we have subjected them for the past seven years.

Furthermore, I believe that their great victory over SC proves that the Bruins are on the right track. One cannot argue with success. Coach Dorrell should be given a major contract extension, as should any UCLA coach who beats USC one time out of four.

ART LEAHY

Santa Ana

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UCLA and Karl Dorrell showed what they were made of when they took USC and their vaunted offensive machine and shut them down. Even when USC made a big play and you expected the Bruins to wake up and realize that they were in over their heads, they came back and flew to the ball.

For those USC rabid fans and hyper-ballistic letter writers out there, and you know who you are, who have crowed and crowed about what their team would do to the Bruins, maybe you should put your bibs on and chow down on that sorry black bird.

MIKE KILGORE

Los Angeles

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Isn’t it time the Pac-10 got the credit it deserved? After all, the only teams USC struggled against this season were Pacific 10 Conference teams -- and the only teams to beat them (Oregon State and UCLA) -- were Pac-10 teams. When the Trojans went outside their conference and played schools such as Arkansas, Nebraska and Notre Dame, they dominated.

Also, unlike Michigan, Florida and Ohio State, USC didn’t have the luxury of a Ball State, Western Carolina or Bowling Green, respectively, on its schedule. Arguably, if Alabama played in the Pac-10, the Crimson Tide would finish a distant seventh.

DAVID MACARAY

Rowland Heights

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With such a sorry matchup in the title game, we may as well give Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith the BCS trophy when he’s picking up his Heisman today and save us all the trouble of whatever false drama Fox Sports will try to drum up in the month ahead.

ELI STOKOLS

Irvine

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John David Booty said that he didn’t know before he arrived in Los Angeles from Shreveport how intense the USC-UCLA rivalry was. He said that he would go about preparing for this game as he would any other. Well, Mr. Booty, consider yourself a USC-UCLA expert now.

AARON BAKER

Gardena

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Even with the “Curse of the Bambino” being eliminated by the Boston Red Sox, there are still the Chicago Cubs’ “Billy Goat” curse at Wrigley Field and USC’s “fourth-down” curse at the Rose Bowl.

JOHN BRUNEL

Tustin Ranch

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Karl Dorrell for president in 2008. Then, UCLA can hire a real coach.

SCOTT LORENZ

La Canada

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To Petros Papadakis:

In reference to your recent almighty sermon claiming that it would take a miracle parallel to changing water into wine for UCLA to beat USC, well, water was changed into the whine of you and your followers.

RICHARD MARGETTS

Huntington Beach

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Gutty Little Bruins, sour grapes take: UCLA is still a 7-5, fourth-place team that was playing to go nowhere for nothing except to possibly save the coach’s job.

In the sense that they prevented the five-time Pac-10 champions from going to their fourth consecutive national championship game, it was a great win. Revenge wins are always priceless for programs steeped in mediocrity looking up with envy.

RICHARD KARLISS

Malibu

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The USC-UCLA game wasn’t over more than a couple of minutes when my phones started ringing and every Bruins-loving family member called to rub it in on this loyal Trojans fan. How immature. I’ll never stoop that low.

Oh, by the way, did anyone else notice that the mighty Gauchos of UC Santa Barbara knocked off the UCLA men’s soccer team Sunday and won their first national title?

LUPE IBARRA

Downey

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I have one thing to ask the UCLA football players: Where was that same effort the rest of the year?

KEVIN HOLTEN

Manhattan Beach