Bruins Senior Leader Preparing For Sixth Rivalry Game

The UCLA Bruins' offensive lineman Josh Carlin is gearing up for his sixth Crosstown Showdown rivalry game of his long career at UCLA. He spoke to the media about the definition of this rivalry and his experiences within it.

Oct 21, 2023; Stanford, California, USA; UCLA Bruins offensive lineman Josh Carlin (54) blocks Stanford Cardinal linebacker Lance Keneley (right) during the first quarter at Stanford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

The UCLA Bruins (4-6) are set for a Saturday night showdown at the Rose Bowl, taking on arch-rival USC (5-5) for the Crosstown Cup. Senior offensive lineman Josh Carlin will be playing in his sixth rivalry game against the Trojans and has never lost his excitement for the biggest game of the year.

"No, every single year, it's going on my sixth SC and UCLA game," Carlin said. "Every year, it's special. I mean, you always talk about it years before, even in the offseason. I was like, 'I just can't wait for the SC game, so no, it doesn't get less exciting every year that I play in it."

Carlin is one of the longest tenured players on the team and was asked how he is able to prepare the young guys for this game that may have limited experience or never been immersed in this matchup previously.

"I would say you would try to prepare them throughout the week," Carlin said. "Obviously, no wearing red, don't even talk about them, you know what I'm saying. Try to like hype them [teammates] up throughout the week and understanding the scout team guys, they gotta have that type of energy out of practice. But yeah, telling the young guys, you don't really know until you really step on and see that on the field and kind of see that rivalry and the energy and stuff on the field. It's kind of hard to describe, but they're going to experience it come Saturday, so that's going to be a great thing for them."

As all rivalry do, the trash talk this weekend will be early and often. The hatred and bitterness towards each program is reciprocated equally and neither one of these teams wants to be on the losing end of it due to the conversations that will be had amongst players, coaches and fans until next season.

Carlin mentioned his position group doesn't participate in the chatter as often as other skill positions, but when the time comes, and it's crunch time in the fourth quarter, everything is on the table for both sides.

"I know usually there's a lot," Carlin said. "From my years recently, there's always usually the wide receivers and the DBs, they always love to talk back and forth with them. We kind of have a program with the O line and D line where we don't really see a lot of them before the the game. But everyone makes plays on the field and you're trash-talking there, so it's a heated game. That's the aspect of the rivalry though."

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