LOS ANGELES—Ralen Goforth is a standout linebacker at Southern California. His older brother, Randall, was a star cornerback at UCLA.
With both of Los Angeles’ college football teams unbeaten midway through a season for the first time in a generation, the Goforth family group chat is an exciting place to be this fall.
“He just sends [UCLA’s] scores in every week,” Ralen Goforth said with a sly grin. “And then he’ll send the eye emoji, the ‘look’ emoji. I know he’s talking to me. But I don’t even reply.”
It’s a vibe playing out across Southern California among families, friends and just about anybody who loves sports. Excitement is high on both sides of this crosstown rivalry for the resurgence of two long-prominent football programs that spent far too much of the past decade-plus in irrelevance….