October 26, 2026

The Rams remember how to play football, the Lakers are banking wins, UCLA is chasing perfection, USC is chasing its tail, and the Dodgers are watching the World Series from the couch.

Good morning, Southern California!

Grab your coffee, settle into your favorite chair, and enjoy the rare October Monday when we actually have a few things to feel good about in Southern California sports. The Rams are starting to resemble the team we thought they were, the Lakers haven’t lost a game, and UCLA football is undefeated. Yes, you read that last part correctly. UCLA football. Undefeated. In late October.

Of course, USC is having an existential crisis, the Clippers are apparently rebuilding both their basketball team and their reputation, the Kings can’t score, and the Dodgers are home watching two teams play in a World Series that desperately needs them.

Welcome to another edition of Monday Morning Coffee, where optimism is encouraged, pessimism is usually justified, and somewhere in Los Angeles, Lincoln Riley is probably updating his résumé.

THE RAMS: FINALLY, THE TEAM WE ORDERED

Well, look who finally decided to show up!

The Rams looked like the Rams against the Raiders, which is something we haven’t been able to say nearly enough this season. They moved the ball, played physical defense, and generally looked like a team that understands the objective of professional football is to score more points than the opponent without finding increasingly creative ways to lose.

Here’s the remarkable part: The Rams rank third in the NFL in total offense and third in total defense. THIRD IN BOTH! That’s not the statistical profile of an average football team. That’s the profile of a legitimate Super Bowl contender that occasionally suffers from temporary insanity.

They should be 5-2. They know it. Sean McVay knows it. The rest of us know it. Unfortunately, the NFL doesn’t award victories for games you should have won, which is a shame because the Rams would be absolutely dominating that category.

But here’s why I’m optimistic. Their next four games are all very winnable, and this is precisely the stretch where good teams separate themselves from the mediocre ones. The talent is there. The coaching is there. The statistical dominance is there. All that’s missing is the consistency.

My expectation? The Rams are about to get considerably better. Not because they suddenly discovered some revolutionary new offense, but because they’re too talented to keep making the same stupid mistakes.

Then again, I’ve said that before. Usually right before they make another stupid mistake.

THE LAKERS: THREE WINS, ZERO APOLOGIES

The Lakers are 3-0!

Are those three victories against lousy basketball teams? Absolutely.

Do I care? Not even a little.

One of the great misconceptions about the NBA regular season is that you’re supposed to apologize for beating bad teams. Nonsense. In the Western Conference, where seemingly every other roster has two All-Stars and a seven-foot European who shoots 43% from three, beating bad teams is practically a survival skill.

You know what happens when you lose to bad teams in November? You spend April trying to figure out how to avoid the play-in tournament.

The Lakers look more cohesive, they’re playing better defense, and for the first time in what feels like a decade, they have a legitimate center in Walker Kessler. A real center! Someone who rebounds, protects the rim, and doesn’t require Luka Dončić to perform a minor miracle every time an opposing guard enters the paint.

And please, can we finally stop complaining about the draft capital the Lakers surrendered to acquire Kessler? Draft picks are wonderful. They’re also theoretical basketball players. Kessler is an actual basketball player who solves an actual basketball problem. I’ll take that trade every day of the week.

Meanwhile, Cameron Carr and Adou Thiero remain intriguing athletic reinforcements if and when they can actually get on the court. Imagine that. A Lakers team with size, athleticism, defensive versatility, and a functioning center. What a concept!

The key now is taking advantage of the schedule. I want eight or nine wins in their first 12 games. Bank the victories, build the chemistry, and give yourself some breathing room before the Western Conference turns into its annual knife fight.

Nobody hangs a banner for starting 3-0.

But nobody ever regretted starting 3-0, either.

THE CLIPPERS: A REBUILD, A SCANDAL, AND A VERY STRANGE DEDICATION

Only the Clippers could begin a new season with their former franchise player traded, their presumed leading scorer unavailable, their billionaire owner absent, and somehow still find a way to make their opening victory weird.

Welcome to the 2026-27 Los Angeles Clippers, where the rebuild has apparently begun and the organizational drama remains undefeated.

No Kawhi Leonard. No Brandon Ingram. No Steve Ballmer.

At this point, the Clippers’ opening-night introductions must have sounded like a substitute teacher taking attendance in a classroom where half the students have transferred.

And yet, they beat Sacramento!

Good for them. Seriously. Ty Lue deserves credit for getting his players ready under circumstances that would make most coaches consider a career in commercial real estate.

But then Lue dedicated the victory to Ballmer.

Um, okay.

Look, Ty, I understand he’s your boss. I understand loyalty. I understand that when the guy signing your checks is embroiled in controversy, you’re probably not eager to criticize him publicly.

But dedicating a basketball victory to an owner facing a suspension for misconduct and salary circumvention? That’s certainly a choice. Particularly when the controversy involves allegations serious enough that nobody should be confusing a season-opening win with some sort of personal vindication.

The Clippers are rebuilding their roster, their identity, and perhaps their public image.

The good news is they have an incredible arena.

The bad news is the arena might be their most reliable asset.

UCLA FOOTBALL: UNDEFEATED, UNDERAPPRECIATED, AND UNDERATTENDED

There are only three undefeated teams remaining in college football.

One of them is UCLA.

I’m going to repeat that because I still don’t entirely believe it myself.

ONE OF THE THREE UNDEFEATED TEAMS IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS UCLA!

The Bruins dismantled Michigan State over the weekend, continuing a remarkable season under Bob Chesney that has transformed UCLA from a football program people occasionally remembered existed into a legitimate playoff contender.

But now comes the difficult part: being undefeated isn’t enough. You have to look undefeated.

UCLA’s schedule isn’t particularly intimidating, and in the age of playoff committees, computer rankings, and television executives pretending they don’t influence anything, style points matter.

The Bruins have developed an annoying habit of starting games slowly. They did it again against Michigan State. Against mediocre opponents, you can survive that. Against better teams, you can find yourself down two touchdowns before you’ve finished your first Gatorade.

And when your schedule lacks marquee victories, you can’t afford to spend the first half looking like you’re still waiting for your pregame coffee to kick in.

Then there’s the Rose Bowl attendance problem.

Folks, this team deserves better.

I understand the challenges. UCLA’s campus is in Westwood, its stadium is in Pasadena, and the commute between the two can occasionally take longer than the actual football game. But at some point, if your team is undefeated and chasing a playoff berth, you’ve got to show up.

There are five games remaining, all against unranked opponents. But don’t mistake unranked for harmless. Road trips to Minnesota and Michigan will be difficult, and USC would love nothing more than to ruin UCLA’s dream season.

Especially because USC might not have much else left to play for.

The Bruins control their destiny. Win convincingly, avoid the slow starts, and make the playoff committee’s job impossible.

And UCLA fans? Fill the Rose Bowl.

You can’t complain that nobody takes your football program seriously when the television cameras show 30,000 empty seats.

USC FOOTBALL: THE LINCOLN RILEY EXPERIENCE IS GETTING EXPENSIVE

Meanwhile, across town, USC is discovering that having a famous football program and having a good football team are two entirely different things.

The Trojans suffered a disastrous loss to Wisconsin over the weekend, dropping to 6-2 and sending their fan base into the familiar stages of Lincoln Riley grief: denial, anger, bargaining, checking the buyout, and anger again.

And things are about to get considerably worse.

Three of USC’s final four opponents are ranked in the top ten. That’s not a schedule. That’s a disciplinary hearing.

Suddenly, a thoroughly pedestrian 7-5 season is very much on the table. For a program that recruits like a national championship contender, spends like a national championship contender, and promotes itself like a national championship contender, that’s a problem.

Naturally, Trojan fans are already demanding Riley’s dismissal.

In October!

With four games remaining!

Look, I understand the frustration, but firing Riley in the middle of the season accomplishes absolutely nothing except guaranteeing that whatever slim hope USC has of salvaging the year disappears completely.

The bigger issue is that the complaints about Riley’s teams haven’t changed. They aren’t tough enough. The defense isn’t good enough. Special teams remain an adventure. And every year, we’re told those problems are being addressed.

At some point, you have to stop addressing the problems and actually fix them.

Lincoln Riley was hired to turn USC into Oklahoma with better weather, better recruiting, and better real estate.

Instead, he’s created a program that occasionally looks like Oklahoma on offense and frequently looks like a high school team trying to tackle Oklahoma on defense.

And here’s the truly painful part for Trojan fans: UCLA is undefeated.

UCLA!

The school whose football program USC fans have spent decades treating like an extracurricular activity is now chasing a national championship while the Trojans are trying to avoid the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

That’s not just embarrassing.

That’s the kind of thing that gets coaches fired.

Just preferably not before Thanksgiving.

THE WORLD SERIES: BASEBALL’S PURISTS ARE THRILLED. EVERYONE ELSE IS LOOKING FOR THE REMOTE.

Let me begin by saying I respect both teams playing in the World Series.

They earned their way there. They play fundamentally sound baseball. They execute, they compete, and they deserve every bit of success they’ve achieved.

But let’s not pretend this is the World Series the casual baseball fan was hoping to watch.

Casual fans want 100-mile-per-hour fastballs, towering home runs, superstars with international followings, and preferably at least one team they absolutely despise.

They want drama. They want villains. They want somebody hitting a baseball 475 feet and then flipping the bat like they just conquered a small country.

What they don’t necessarily want is a beautifully executed sacrifice bunt followed by a productive groundout and a sacrifice fly.

Baseball purists love that stuff. They call it manufacturing runs.

Casual fans call it a good opportunity to check their phones.

And that’s where the Dodgers come in.

You don’t have to like the Dodgers. In fact, it’s probably better for television ratings if you hate them.

But you watch them.

You watch Shohei Ohtani. You watch Mookie Betts. You watch Freddie Freeman. You watch a billion-dollar roster try to justify its existence while half of America roots for its spectacular failure.

The Dodgers have become baseball’s version of the New York Yankees, the Dallas Cowboys, and the guy who shows up to your neighborhood barbecue driving a Ferrari.

Everyone wants to see them lose.

But everyone wants to see them.

And after their disappointing playoff exit, I can guarantee you one thing: There are plenty of baseball fans enjoying a Dodgers-free World Series.

There just might not be as many of them watching it.

THE LA KINGS: TWO REGULATION WINS AND A WHOLE LOT OF QUESTIONS

The Kings have finally discovered the win column!

Unfortunately, they’ve only managed two regulation victories through nine games, which is not exactly the kind of start that inspires people to start planning a Stanley Cup parade down Figueroa.

The Kings have two significant problems: They don’t score enough, and they don’t defend well enough.

Other than that, everything is terrific.

At least they’ve apparently figured out that Cody Ceci is more helpful to the team when he’s not actually playing for the team. That’s an awkward development for a defenseman, but sometimes addition by subtraction is the most effective roster move available.

The problem is that the Kings need more than lineup adjustments. They need additional offensive firepower, better defensive execution, and probably a little more speed.

And how exactly are they supposed to acquire those things?

Their trade assets aren’t particularly attractive, their flexibility is limited, and nobody around the NHL is lining up to donate talented young players to Los Angeles out of the goodness of their hearts.

This is what happens when a team spends years trying to squeeze one more playoff run out of a roster that keeps proving it isn’t quite good enough.

The Kings aren’t terrible.

They might actually be something worse.

They’re mediocre, expensive, and running out of obvious ways to improve.

On the bright side, hockey season is still young.

On the less bright side, so far the Kings are playing like they wish it were already over.

THE LAST SIP

So where does that leave us?

The Rams are talented enough to make a serious run if they can stop sabotaging themselves. The Lakers are banking exactly the kind of early victories they’ll desperately need in April. UCLA football is living its best life, and USC football is making sure UCLA enjoys every second of it.

The Clippers have more questions than available players, the Kings are searching for goals like they’re hunting for buried treasure, and the Dodgers are learning that watching the World Series on television is considerably less enjoyable than participating in it.

But here’s the most remarkable development in Los Angeles sports right now:

UCLA is undefeated, USC fans want their coach fired, and the Lakers might actually have solved their center problem.

If I’d written those three predictions in August, somebody would have suggested I switch to decaf.

Enjoy the week, everybody.

And remember: In Los Angeles, championships are expected, rebuilding is unacceptable, and if your football team loses to Wisconsin, you might want to avoid social media for a few days.

Until next Monday, keep the coffee hot, the expectations unreasonable, and the faith in your teams just irrational enough to make it fun.