LOS ANGELES — They were on a three-game losing streak when Nico Falah’s Signing Day came around.
They had just been shredded by Georgia Tech in the Sun Bowl, and by the media covering it. They had lost their five-game winning streak over UCLA, which had the new coach and the style and the promise.
Falah’s dad had gone to UCLA. Now Oregon, coolest of the cool and the Pac-12’s resident bigfoot, was calling.
USC was selling memories and faith. Those usually go through one earphone and out the other.
The big day came and the fax machine beckoned and the St.