USC Was Way Late For The Sun Bowl Dinner, So Georgia Tech Got Pissed And Left

You think USC is excited to be spending New Year's Eve in El Paso, Texas, playing Georgia Tech in the Sun Bowl? Oh, sure, Lane Kiffin might have arrived yesterday wearing a sombrero and something less than a smile, but two Trojans players have already apologized for insulting the city, and now the entire Trojans football team has angered pretty much everyone else in town by essentially blowing off a dinner function for both teams.

Various reports say USC was anywhere from an hour to 90 minutes late for the Sheriff's Posse Dinner, an annual event at which both teams dine together and perform comedy skits. Those reports all agree on this, though: Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson got tired of waiting around for the Trojans, so he rounded up his team and headed back to the hotel sometime before USC bothered to show. Those sad balloons in the photo above were all that was left of the Yellow Jackets.

USC is already putting it out there that it was delayed by yesterday's practice, at which there might have been some sort of injury, though Kiffin notoriously won't discuss those. Anyway, there's also this: A few weeks ago, after learning where they'd be headed for their first bowl game in three years, USC linebacker Tony Burnett tweeted a series of insults about the host city and later apologized. And yesterday, just after the team blew into town, Trojans defensive tackle Leonard Williams tweeted the following, though he later took it down and said he was sorry:

Needless to say, the locals are just thrilled with the Trojans. Leave it to Lane Kiffin and USC to make El Paso look good.