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Update: The billboard has been removed.
Billboard of USC QB near UCLA campus is gone: A billboard showcasing USC Trojans quarterback Matt Barkley in UCL... es.pn/QQm7At
— Jeremy Crabtree ESPN (@jeremycrabtree) August 29, 2012
When UCLA poked USC earlier in the decade with a big billboard making bold and pompous claims about ending monopolies that no one claimed existed until UCLA put the words in USC's mouth, they earned a great deal of crow. That crow usually came because they got smashed almost everytime they faced each other on the field, turning what was once one of the most heated rivalries in all of college football into a variant of Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote. UCLA was always left chasing, always left looking up.
So when Matt Barkley and USC does the same thing right back (and in their own backyard nonetheless), how should we as a society treat it? Subversive? Clever? Poor taste?
You make the call.
Billboard of USC quarterback
— Scott Enyeart (@ScottEnyeart) August 28, 2012@mattbarkley put up in UCLA's hood- latimes.com/sports/college…
There's no doubt there's plenty of humor here in taunting UCLA with the quarterback that's destroyed their Bruins three years running. Additionally, this isn't a Barkley 4 Heisman billboard, so there's no real danger of getting that karmic payback. USC is backing up their words with actions, something UCLA was never able to do during the boisterous era of Rick Neuheisel. Jim Mora also has to be careful not to fall into these verbal feints with the Trojans, since he can ever really win these spats unless he wins the games.
The only way this can really backfire on USC is if UCLA beats them. Looks like it's time for the Bruins to do the one thing that will finally stop the Trojan mockery off the field--win the battles on it.