Some of the players who will take the field at the Rose Bowl on Saturday will wind up playing on Sundays, but not very many relative to years past. It’s unusual for both Los Angeles schools to be in a simultaneous down cycle, but that’s the case now, with no marquee talent causing pro evaluators to stare at their stopwatches and blink back disbelief.
Even with the glory days of USC’s Pete Carroll a fading memory, the schools have produced their fair share of NFL talent in recent years, from Trojans Sam Darnold, Adoree’ Jackson, Leonard Williams and Robert Woods, to Bruins Josh Rosen, Takkarist McKinley, Eric Kendricks, and Anthony Barr.