UCLA wins Pac-12 South, and Los Angeles

• No. 16 UCLA took a 24-0 lead in the first half
• The Trojans rallied back to make it 24-20 and 31-28, but UCLA managed to hold on
• UCLA claimed the Pac-12 South and will play in the conference championship game

PASADENA, Calif. – A year after it could do fired UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel any good, there is indeed, as he once predicted, no more college football monopoly in Los Angeles.

The Bruins thumped their haughty cross-town rivals 38-28 Saturday, jumping to a 24-0 lead amid a frenzied atmosphere at the Rose Bowl, where UCLA fans were brimming with optimism over their team entering the matchup ranked higher than USC for the first time since 2001.

The Trojans andquarterback Matt Barkley, largely disappointing this season after opening up No.1 in the polls and the Heisman Trophy charts, fought back but not well enough.

Barkley threw for 301 yards but also threw two costly interceptions and was knocked out of the game with just over two minutes left after taking a big hit on a sack. He spoke briefly to reporters after the game with his right arm bent inside his sweats, possibly in a sling.

How bad is it?

"We don't talk about injuries," Barkley said, stone-faced.

For the fourth time this season, USC also didn't talk about a victory.

The Bruins had lost five in a row and 12 out of 13 to USC and were clinging to a three-point lead in the fourth quarter when tailback Johnathan Franklin, hard to tackle all game, delivered a dagger with a 29-yard touchdown run. Franklin's TD gave the UCLA a 38-28 lead with 4:02 left.

Franklin, a senior and the school's all-time leading rusher, is as humble and as Bible-quotin' as they come, but even he had to admit it would have been tough going through life never having beaten the Trojans.

"A great feeling," he said. "It was my last chance against these guys."

The Bruins (9-2) clinched the Pac-12 South title and will play in the conference title game Nov.30, presumably at Oregon. Before that, however, they host Stanford next week.

The Trojans (7-4) will play in a lesser bowl, befitting a team that failed badly to live up to expectations. But they have one last big game to look forward to next week in the L.A. Coliseum – a chance to spoil Notre Dame's unbeaten season and national championship hopes.

"That's pretty much our only goal now," USC receiver Marqise Lee said.

Neuheisel, a former Bruins quarterback, came to town in 2008 with gums blazing, claiming that "the college football monopoly in Los Angeles is over."

After losing in his first three tries to coach the Bruins past the Trojans, Neuheisel said before last year's game that UCLA had "closed the gap."

When the gap ended up being Trojans 50, Bruins 0, Neuheisel was fired.

Along came first-year Bruins coach Jim Mora, in resume (though not in demeanor) a similar hire for UCLA to the hire USC made when it tabbed Pete Carroll a decade earlier – middle-aged, twice-fired NFL coach looking for a fresh start.

Neither Carroll nor Mora was their school's first or second choices.

But Carroll established a dynasty at USC and, now, Mora has re-established competence and competitiveness at UCLA.

"I understand what this rivalry is about," Mora said. "But this is one game. Until we can string some together, then it will have significance for me."

If there were any doubts that the Bruins' 8-2 record and No.16 ranking were legit, they were put to rest early Saturday afternoon when the Bruins jumped to a 24-0 first-half lead built on efficient play on both sides of the ball and taking advantage of more – yes, even more – errors by Lane Kiffin's error-prone 2012 Trojans.

Turnovers by the Trojans aided the Bruins' cause from the beginning.

Barkley's first play was an odd, wobbling, off-target pass that intended target Lee hardly saw and Bruins cornerback Aaron Hester caught. Five plays later, UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley ran it in from the 1-yard line and the Bruins were ahead 7-0.

"I saw something and Matt saw something else," Lee said. "That's the way it goes sometimes. We just made too many mistakes."

Hundley, a redshirt freshman, showed early he could make plays with his feet against the Trojans. Then, on a fourth-and-13 from the Trojans 30, he showed he could make a play with his arm, threading the needle on a deep sideline pattern to set up another score, and UCLA led 10-0.

"He made some great throws, some critical throws," Mora said. "We're just now beginning to see how great he can be."

Bruins receiver Joseph Fauria, who caught four passes, including one for a touchdown, said he sees "the eyes of a leader, the eyes of a winner" when he looks at Hundley.

Hundley completed 22 of 30 passes for 234 yards and a touchdown. Franklin carried 29 times for 171 yards and two touchdowns.

The cavernous Rose Bowl, often about half-empty for Bruins games in recent years, rocked with a party vibe. The crowd of 83,277, Bruins fans a large majority, anticipated the opportunity of payback for past Bruins debacles, including the 50-0 laugher last year.

The same people weren't laughing Saturday.

And some weren't even smiling.

"We dug ourselves a hole," Barkley said. "I played up and down. I felt like we could have broken it open, but it just wasn't happening."