UCLA's Step 2 for USC Usurpation: Blue Paint

Rick Neuheisel's campaign to knock Southern Cal off the top of L.A.'s college football power rankings is really coming together now. It started in August with a finger -- Neuheisel's finger, p ointing surreptiously at some wire copy in the Los Angeles Times, a finger that insisted USC's football monopoly was "officially over." Neuheisel's Bruins made good on Neuheisel's promise by ... losing to BYU 59-0 and racking up a 3-6 record heading into tonight's MUST-SEE match with the former Rose Bowl champion Washington Huskies.

The plan to dethrone USC (8-1, No. 6 in the nation) rolls on, as Adam Rose of the Times reports (via Deadspin). Those silly Southern Cal undergrads have fled Pasadena to invade Palo Alto for today's USC- Stanford game. Some creative UCLA students took up the opportuninty and masterfully ... poured some Bruin Blue paint on a statue of Tommy Trojan. (That photo at right is from the Times' blog All Things Trojan.)

It's a brilliant prank. USC students usually stand 24-hour guard in the week leading up to Trojans-Bruins. But Trojans-Bruins doesn't happen for two more weeks, on December 6! UCLA, you have work to do if you ever want to catch USC on the gridiron. But let no one question your mastery of Microsoft Outlook's calendar feature. Huzzah!

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.