You don't want us to get really good or you wouldn't discourage us from using y'all as a yardstick and make beating y'all our top priority. You know that, if we could get back to doing that, a lot of other things might fall into place for us.
See, this "soft" idea of rivalry doesn't resonate with me. The rivalry lost some heat for two reasons: (A) we left the league y'all are in, which I hate we did because it distracted the contemporary USC fan from the hatred a rivalry needs, and (B), y'all went to another level in terms of national relevance and left us behind.
But people of my vintage understand what instate arch-rivalry means. When you have an instate rival and you have to live with those people and their abuse 365 days a year, winning that game takes top priority. Nothing is more important than beating UPC and no season is successful when we don't do it.
Again, some people are going to want to posit scenarios about winning this championship or that championship. Not winning the state championship would mar any other championship that might be garnered in the same year. I'm not even going to bandy words about it with anybody. It is a bedrock fundamental with me. Otherwise, there's no compelling reason to even play the game anymore, minus the conference connection.
