There’s familiarity and then there’s the UCLA-USC crosstown rivalry.

With the campuses just 12 miles apart, and with local players who grew up playing against and alongside one another in high school, the Bruins and Trojans are far from strangers.

But the 94th installment of the battle for the Victory Bell that will be played Saturday night at the Rose Bowl has another wrinkle. The men scheming up the defenses worked together just last season, with the UCLA offense seeing defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn and his “obnoxious communication” defense at work.

Now, Ikaika Malloe, the former defensive line/outside linebackers coach who was elevated to the position when Lynn left for rival USC prior to last season’s L.A. Bowl, will look to match wits with a scheme that he’s maintained isn’t too far removed from what the Bruins used to great success in 2023.