The Bush Push revisited: A time capsule of the iconic Notre Dame-USC matchup, 20 years later
This year’s matchup between USC and Notre Dame is set to be a landmark moment connecting both the present and past of the rivalry game. With regard to the present, this could be the last time the two historic programs meet in Notre Dame Stadium for the foreseeable future — the two teams haven’t agreed…
This year’s matchup between USC and Notre Dame is set to be a landmark moment connecting both the present and past of the rivalry game.
With regard to the present, this could be the last time the two historic programs meet in Notre Dame Stadium for the foreseeable future — the two teams haven’t agreed on a schedule past this season. USC head coach Lincoln Riley said he was hopeful the series continues in July, but there has been a seeming ambivalence from the Trojans on the rivalry’s current setup (rotating annually between mid-October games in South Bend and late November meetings in Los Angeles) with the school’s transition to the Big Ten.
With regard to the past, Saturday’s matchup represents an important milestone: the 20th anniversary of the 2005 Bush Push game, one of the most iconic editions of the Trojan-Fighting Irish rivalry in the 21st century.
The Bush Push lore is relatively simple. In 2005, USC was the preeminent dynasty in the college football landscape. The Trojans had won two consecutive national titles and rode a winning streak that dated back well over a calendar year. They had also steamrolled to a 5-0 start to the season. During the Trojans’ trip to Notre Dame, however, they would meet a resurgent rival — the Fighting Irish had gotten off to a 4-1 start under new coach Charlie Weis and risen to No. 9 in the AP Poll.
The game — which brought out “College GameDay” and Notre Dame’s exclusive green jerseys — came down to the final play, with USC trailing 31-28 and possessing the ball at the Fighting Irish 1-yard line. Trojan quarterback Matt Leinart attempted a game-winning quarterback sneak, where he was initially stonewalled, before being pushed into the end zone by star running back Reggie Bush.
The push was, officially, against the rules. But no flags were thrown, and USC extended its winning streak. The 34-31 Trojan win proved to be a notable moment in multiple college football timelines — from both teams involved, to the 2005 postseason, to the rules of the sport at large.
With 2025 marking the two-decade anniversary of the Bush Push, we looked back at what things in college football were like around the time of the game, as well as the aftershocks it prompted.
USC at the peak of its dominance under Pete Carroll
On Sept. 27, 2003, the Trojans dropped their Pac-10 opener to California in a surprising 34-31 upset. They wouldn’t lose another game for the next 830 days, a stretch that lasted until the conclusion of the 2005 season and included back-to-back national championships in 2003 and 2004.
A contest even coming down to the final whistle, as the Bush Push game did, was a rarity during USC’s winning streak. Across the Trojans’ 34 consecutive wins, the 2005 Notre Dame matchup was one of just two games that was decided by a margin of three points or fewer. Just five of those 34 wins were one-score contests.
The list of NFL talent rolling through the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum during Carroll and USC’s three-season run was unsurprisingly impressive: Reggie Bush, Steve Smith, Lofa Tatupu, Clay Matthews and more were among the future professionals to suit up during the winning streak.
The first instance of a damning trend for Charlie Weis in South Bend
Hired the offseason prior, Weis enjoyed a strong debut campaign as Notre Dame’s head coach in 2005. The Fighting Irish finished 9-3 and ended the season ranked in the top 10 of the final AP poll for the first time since 1993. But his squad’s near miss against the top-ranked Trojans in October would prove to be the first instance in what would become a major problem in his tenure: an inability to beat USC.
In Weis’ five seasons leading Notre Dame, the Fighting Irish went 0-5 against their rivals out west. That winless drought included a three-year stretch from 2006 to 2008, where the Trojans’ margin of victory in the Jeweled Shillelagh game averaged out to 31 points.
The defeats to USC would also become emblematic of another problem that would rapidly emerge in Weis’ tenure. He entered the Bush Push game 3-0 as Notre Dame coach against opponents ranked in the AP Top 25. Including that season’s loss to USC, he would finish 1-12 in his next 13 games against such opponents across the rest of his tenure. Weis was fired at the end of a 6-6 campaign in 2009.
Trojans’ win helps ensure an all-time classic championship
Widely regarded as one of the greatest college football games of all time, the eventual 2005-06 national championship game between USC and the similarly undefeated Texas Longhorns at the Rose Bowl proved to be an instant classic with a legendary ending.
The Trojans scored with 6:42 remaining in the fourth quarter to amass a 38-26 lead, but the Longhorns didn’t go away. Texas scored two touchdowns in the game’s final six minutes — the second being quarterback Vince Young’s iconic game-winning run with 19 seconds remaining — to come out on top 41-38.
The loss marked the end of USC’s 34-game winning streak.
Bush goes on to win hardware that would be discussed years later
Though he wasn’t actually the player who scored, the play named for Bush was just one memorable moment among many during a dominant 2005 campaign by the running back.
Bush posted 160 yards and three touchdowns in South Bend, part of an overall regular season in which he amassed over 2,000 combined rushing and receiving yards and 17 total touchdowns. The Trojans’ star saved his best performances for the season’s end — eclipsing 250 rushing yards and finding the end zone twice in back-to-back outings against Fresno State and UCLA during the final two games of USC’s season.
In 2010, Bush would forfeit his Heisman in the wake of significant NCAA sanctions for the Trojans, which included Bush receiving improper benefits during his time at the school. But in 2024, amid “enormous changes in the college football landscape,” the running back’s trophy was reinstated.
The path to a relevant rule change begins
A large part of the Bush Push’s notoriety stems from the fact that the play was, technically speaking, illegal. As the NCAA’s official rules went at the time, no player was allowed to assist — by means of “grasp[ing], pull[ing], push[ing], lift[ing] or charg[ing]” — a teammate forward. But the rule, rarely relevant and nearly impossible to legislate in goal-line situations, was almost never invoked.
“You were teased if you made the call,” said former NCAA official and current ESPN analyst Matt Austin. “It was such a rare occurrence.”
While the Bush Push put a national spotlight on the obscure rule, any changes to the letter of the law didn’t come until years later. In 2013, the NCAA Rules Committee tweaked the rules’ wording, removing the “push” element. This would make future Bush Push-type plays legal… as well as a new form of short-yardage play that Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder would pioneer soon after that NFL fans might recognize.
