Twenty years ago today, college football fans were witnesses to one of the biggest and most controversial wins in the sport’s history. Pete Carroll’s 1st ranked Trojans entered the game on a 27-game winning streak. Charlie Weis’ 9th ranked Fighting Irish hoped to play spoiler to USC’s would be 28th win in a row. This was a game that saw many Notre Dame legends return adding weight to the matchup. Tim Brown, Joe Montana, and even Rudy Reuttiger the real-life inspiration behind the acclaimed movie Rudy all returned to South Bend for this game. Long before the Eagles’ Tush Push, there was the USC Bush Push.
On the final drive of that game, Notre Dame led by 3 with just under two minutes to play. Early in the drive, Matt Lienart would get sacked feeding a sense of a momentum shift. Shortly thereafter, Lienart from his own 15 would hit an open Reggie Bush who slashed his way forward but was 9 yards shy of the first down marker. On 4th and 9, Lienart saw something he didn’t like an audibled out of the called play. Lienart’s pass found Dwayne Jarrett at about the 50 yards line and Jarrett would run it down to the Notre Dame 13-yard line. Setting up an advantageous situation down by 3, inside the redzone, with a little less than 90 seconds to play. Pete Carroll, courtesy of Sports Illustrated recounted that play.
“We were calling Y option, going to the tight end,” Carroll recalled. “And as he started to walk away, Kiff in the box says, ‘Hey, remind him about the Blitz. If they Blitz, we got a check that we are going to go to.’ I mean, Matt actually was walking away, and we called him back, and Sark reminded him," Carroll said. "So, we lined up and its fourth down, game's over. They are ahead and they are going to win the game. And the place, I can remember so clearly, was as loud as the stadium could be, is what it felt like."
On the subsequent 3rd and 4 from the Notre Dame seven-yard line, Lienart handed off to Reggie Bush who ran inside the left tackle and gained enough yardage for the first down. With only 23 seconds remaining in the game, USC set up for a play that would be remembered long after this game ended. Lienart dropped back and almost immediately rolled left with a lane to the endzone. Just as Lienart leaps for the endzone he is abruptly met a yard short of the goal line by Notre Dame’s Corey Mays. At the point of impact, the ball is popped out of Lienart’s arms and flies directly out of bounds. The clock continued to run. When the clock read 0:00 Charlie Weis, some of the Notre Dame players, and a selection of Notre Dame students had made their way onto the field in celebration.
The officials convened and determined the clock should have stopped with 0:07 remaining. Positioned at the one-yard line with seven seconds to go, Pete Carroll seemed to signal for Lienart to spike the ball. There was some pre-snap confusion, but the ball would get snapped and the rest became college football history. Lienart attempted to sneak through the line between the center and left guard. He was immediately met by a short wall of Notre Dame defenders. Lienart then spun left of that wall of defenders and was still short, but there was room to operate. Just then as it seemed Lienart would be stuffed again, Reggie Bush would file in behind Lienart a give him a push into the endzone giving USC a 34-31 win and preserving their 28-game winning streak. Pete Carroll also recalled that aspect of the game winning drive.
"We tell him to sneak it. So, he points at the line, and he looks at the line of scrimmage, and he goes, ‘there's no way, they're all jammed up.’ And he looks back at us, and Reggie [Bush] yelled something at him, ‘Go for it. Go for it.’ And so, he sneaks it, and we get totally stuffed," Carroll said. "We make no yards at all. And as he started to slide, that's when Reggie was involved and he helped knock him in the end zone and kind of change the fortunes. It was such an amazing finish because the whole stadium thought they won the game," Carroll said. "They rushed the field and all that, and then they had to clear the field, and then we came back and won the game after that. So, it was about as sweet a finish as you could have in a great situation to keep the streak alive and all that too.”
The record shows USC won that game. However, that win is still highly contested by fans and enthusiasts due to a little rule that no longer exists. At that time in college football, NCAA rules prohibited aiding a runner by pushing him forward. Which was exactly, to the letter, what Bush did to ensure that win. Yet no flag was thrown, allowing the touchdown to stand.
Reggie Bush finished the game with 160 yards, three touchdowns, and the status of a new USC legend for his part in securing that win. This would not be the last historically relevant game USC would play in 2005. After this win, USC would go onto play Vince Young’s Texas Longhorns in the Rose Bowl for the National Championship while Notre Dame’s season all but fell apart after this regular season game. While USC would find themselves on the losing side of that Rose Bowl, it is widely regarded as one of the single best college football games of all time.
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