LOS ANGELES — The final dress rehearsal was dragging, the last kinks still being ironed out ahead of next week’s consequential crosstown showdown, when Tuli Tuipulotu burst around the edge and closed the curtains on Colorado himself.
Little about the past month, outside of the No. 8 affixed next to its name, had suggested USC was ready for the bright lights and the big expectations that awaited next week at the Rose Bowl. In consecutive games, California and Arizona had pushed the Trojans to the brink. Now Colorado, a Pac-12 doormat and one of the worst teams in college football, was pushing them around, too.
It wasn’t until Tuipulotu forced his way into a collapsing pocket early in Friday’s second quarter and flung the football loose that USC found it could push back. It kept pushing and pushing and pushing from there, until its backups applied one final shove for good measure in a 55-17 victory.
