As I stood in Trojan Nation with my quickly cooling coffee in hand, I began cheering “Beat the Wildcats”, at first I thought to myself, “Self,” because that’s what I call myself, “Self, we are up by 14 points, with only 1:30 left in this ball game, why not think to next week?” I cheered “Beat the Wildcats” during Conquest, but realized immediately what I had done. I had risked angering the football gods in my hasty decision. Weirder things have happened and will happen, especially during a rivalry game such as UCLA/USC. I could see it…1:30 left…UCLA possession…score a touchdown…Onside kick…another touchdown…now we are off to OT…
As the Bruins received the ball after the kick off, the USC students began cheering “We are… ‘SC.” I did not support this move of the student body, nor did I appreciate the pulling out of keys in the Bruin’s faces. If the Arizona/Oregon game has taught us anything…it is that jinxes do and will happen! As I watched that game last week, I saw students jumping the berm of the field anticipating rushing the field in a post-Wild Cat victory frenzy. The students made me feel appalled. I yelled at my television (as I will often do because I am a very interactive television watcher), “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!? You will ruin this!” Even the sportscasters calling the game joked that the students jumping from the stands will have a great seat to watch overtime. And what happened? Oregon got the ball back, scored with less than a minute left, and the game went into OT. Oregon ended up winning that game, leaving a sheepish feeling among the students for their premature celebration.
What I ask is this…If your team is up by 5+ touchdowns, and there are less than 5:00 left in the game, any of the “Hurry up and lose” type cheers are fair game. As the touchdowns dwindle, take more time off the clock. I.E. if you are only up by 2 touchdowns, 1:30 is not the time for celebration…especially when your enemy has the ball.
At notre dame this year, we were up by two touchdowns I think, with a few minutes left, and some freshman asked me when it was okay to switch to “Beat the [next team]” I told him, just wait, because weird shit happens sometimes. Next thing you know, nd interception which turns into a touchdown, USC has to punt, and then nd has a chance to tie it, which they almost do.
Best course of action: Wait til 0:00. Or in the case of that nd game, wait til the clock hits 0:00 the second time!