<p>SAN FRANCISCO ? This season was a success for UCLA football.
<br/>It might be a strange lead for a column after the team fell 44-27 by giving up 31 second-half points, but it?s true.
<br/>In a rebuilding year, the Bruins finish at 7-6, one game above .500, and did the one thing that anyone associated with UCLA wanted them to do, beat ?SC.
<br/>They not only beat the Trojans, but thanks to Eric McNeal, they put a new entry into the top-five plays in the entire history of the rivalry.
<br/>When the linebacker tipped John David Booty?s pass and then dove to snag the interception, he forever put the 2006 Bruins into the highlight reels.
<br/>?We probably could have gone 0-10 and the win against ?SC would have made the season,? McNeal said. ?That game alone, what it means to everyone associated with the program, to end the losing streak, it was huge. It?s still sour to not get a bowl victory, but people will remember the season for when we beat ?SC.?
<br/>It?s true. No one likes seeing their team lose by such a big margin, especially when they were favored, and especially when they were leading 20-13 at halftime, but you won?t tell your kids about this game. If you?re a student you probably won?t even talk about this game with your roommate when you get back from winter break.<br/>You will on the other hand, talk about this team, and how it ended the losing streak and kept the Trojans out of the national title game. <br/>This team is a perfect example of the beauty of sports. There are moments on the field that don?t get forgotten. Moments that become a part of schools? histories. Moments that sustain the pageantry of college football, that people own and take pride in. <br/>For the Bruins that moment was the moment the clock said 0:00 and the scoreboard said 13-9.<br/>The Emerald Bowl was for all intents and purposes, a victory lap. Granted they tripped, but the loss doesn?t hurt their season as much as some might think.<br/>For Florida State coach Bobby Bowden and his team, this game was huge. Bowden could not have handled a sub-.500 season. Ending at 7-6 in some sense salvages a season that could have sent shockwaves through Seminole country.<br/>It?s not as if UCLA did not want to win at AT&T Park, but it did not need to the way Florida State did.<br/>So here?s my idea. I say we flash forward five to 10 years. <br/>The current-day conversations surrounding the game will be about the letdown after the USC game and the letdown in the second half that let the bowl victory slip away.<br/>The conversations once time and nostalgia have had their ability to work their magic will go something like this: <br/>?The Bruins rebounded from losing their starting quarterback against Arizona and losing their next four games, to win their next three, including a win over USC. It was amazing.?<br/>?Did anything happen after that??<br/>?I can?t remember, you??<br/>?Nope.?<br/>Like I said, this season was a success.<br/><hr><i> E-mail Gordon at .</i></p><br><br><a href='; target='_blank'>;