Los Angeles Times

Bill Plaschke: On improbable night, Trojans live up to their motto and silence critics

LOS ANGELES_The starting quarterback was flattened. The head coach was fired. The season was cooked.

The penalties were dumb, the defense was disintegrating, and a football team was on the verge of a collapse that would have plunged a desperate program into the deepest of chaos.

But then, in front of a half-filled Coliseum on a Friday night lined with dread, something remarkable happened.

The USC football team fought on.

The Trojans still know how to do that. They can still find strength from that tradition. They can still live those words.

Utah knows it. Utah felt it. Utah dragged itself from the field while reeling from it.

The previously unbeaten Utes came undone in the fourth quarter

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