The USC football team, fresh off a close 28-23 win over cross town rival UCLA last Saturday at the Coliseum, will play for the Pac-12 championship on December 1, at 5 p.m.at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara. Their opponent will be Washington State or Stanford.

USC will have to play better than it did against UCLA if they expect to win the Pac-12 championship. Although the 10-2 Trojans won the game over the 5-6 Bruins it appears the Trojans are missing something that is not allowing them to be a great team.

Good teams win close games but great teams dominate games. UCLA is a good team despite its record so not dominating the Bruins is not the problem. The Trojans have the talent to play at an elite level yet they find ways to keep games close.

"It was a hard fought game with a lot of good players on that field and to come out on top was very rewarding and we have the opportunity to keep the victory bell," said USC head coach Clay Helton after the win over UCLA.

"UCLA is a good football team and they have good players like Josh Rosen, Theo Howard and Jordan Lasley. We went into the game knowing we would have to play our best game to win."

UCLA actually outplayed USC but the final score is the only thing that counts. The Bruin's quarterback Rosen threw for 421 yards and three touchdowns while USC's signal caller Sam Darnold passed for 264 yards and no touchdowns.

The Bruins had 27 first downs and the Trojans had 24. "The game was not perfect but I thought our players did what they needed to do win a hard fought game," said Helton.

USC's running back Ronald Jones ran for 122 yards on 28 carries and two touchdowns and UCLA's receiver, Lasley caught 10 passes for 204 yards.

Although the victory did not look good USC's Darnold was happy to get a win. "To be able to win 10 games this season and to be undefeated in the Coliseum for the second straight year means a lot, especially on senior night. It's a huge accomplishment."