New UCLA player getting into rivalry spirit months before facing USC

Bob Chesney came in seeing red when it came to Cardinal-and-Gold.At his introductory news conference, the UCLA coach vowed to make his new outfit the team in town.“I promise that will happen here,” Chesney said in December, “in the very, very near future.”More recently, the coach has taken a more measured approach about USC.After the Trojans poked the bear by putting up a billboard — featuring an unidentified player holding up a two-finger Victory Salute alongside the slogan “THE TIME IS : NOW” — on the edge of Westwood, Chesney said he hadn’t seen it and didn’t have an opinion about it.“No,” he said in the spring when asked about the sign at Santa Monica and Sepulveda boulevards, “no real thoughts on it.”That’s not the case when it comes to one new Bruin.Tight end Josh Phifer, who followed Chesney from James Madison on this cross-country adventure, had a visceral reaction when informed of the billboard.“Ugh,” Phifer said, getting into the rivalry spirit three months before the teams meet on Nov.

28 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.“I’ve got to go out there and get some black paint or something — [put] a X over it or something.”That would be keeping in the spirit of rivalry revenge spanning back nearly a century.Perhaps the prank that sparked the biggest backlash was six USC fans taking UCLA’s “Victory Bell” — plucked from a Southern Pacific railroad locomotive and rung after every Bruins touchdown — after posing as UCLA fans and loading it into the back of a truck they drove off in.A peace accord was later reached, awarding the bell to the winner of the annual rivalry game, though the high jinks persisted.In 1957, USC students furtively distributed cards at the Coliseum in the UCLA student section that revealed a giant “SC” pattern when displayed during the game.A year later, Trojans loyalists seized a delivery truck meant to distribute UCLA’s student paper and replaced it with fake editions bearing “Beat SC...