Since the 1998 UCLA football season, I’ve been pretty successful at keeping my hopes in check. This season poses greater difficulty. After I quit the band, I barely followed the games, rarely watched, and never actually attended. Despite the difficulty, I still think 1998 a lot and this morning picked out an old 1999 Rose Bowl tshirt with “‘98 PAC-10 Conference Champs” and the Tournament of Roses emblem.

Watching today’s game against the University of Arizona Wildcats feels almost like the infamous Miami game 7 years ago. I’m not even really watching. I’m following the online updates. That might be better. I’d be yelling at the TV wondering why the hell UCLA’s offense can’t get a f****n’ first down and why the defense seems to let Arizona score on every single possession.

Yikes.

I have to admit, watching listening to all the fourth quarter comebacks this season has been pretty exciting, but I’m over the excitement. That was cool when I was 18 and at every home game and we thought we were on track for a national championship. Now, I don’t really care for the kind of game you talk to your kids about and never forget.

You know what games I remeber? The losses. The ones that crushed my hopes — and my trombone.

There’s 6:43 left in the 3rd quarter. Arizona has possession, 1st and 10 on their own 37. UCLA has scored one touchdown. Arizona has six… and a field goal. If you don’t know football, that makes the score 7-45.

I wonder if any UCLA team has ever come from behind from a deficit of 38 points. Probably not.

You know what makes this feel even worse? Arizona is 2-6 and thus far UCLA is undefeated.

With 2:19 left in the game, the score is now 7-52.

I feel sick.

Edit: Final score was 14-52. After re-thinking this, I figure that even if UCLA loses the next two games (Arizona State and USC), we’ll still have an 8-3 season, or even better. It’s not the end of the world. I guess.