Reggie Bush Aiming To Avoid Post-Heisman Stumble

Leinart's experience helps USC star

USA Today | AZCentral.com

LOS ANGELES - As he prepared for a Heisman Trophy coronation last month, Reggie Bush of Southern California benefited from an act few winners of the award could claim: a block from his quarterback.

"I just told him, 'Get ready for a crazy experience right after you win,' " said Matt Leinart, Trojans quarterback, 2004 Heisman winner and Bush's tour guide.

When Reggie Bush enters the Rose Bowl on Wednesday to meet the Texas Longhorns, 3 1/2 weeks will have passed since he accepted the trophy - long enough for memories of his accomplishments to start to fade, even if the demands are as strong.

Reggie Bush and Leinart will become the first teammates to play in a bowl game after winning the Heisman. USC is the fourth school with winners in consecutive seasons, and the Trojans will showcase the first dual-Heisman backfield since Archie Griffin of Ohio State Buckeyes , the lone two-time winner, looked in the mirror at the end of the 1975 season.

If Reggie Bush helps extend a 34-game USC winning streak, he would continue the Trojans' reversal of misfortune that once frustrated a distinguished group of Heisman winners in title games throughout much of the past quarter-century.

"If there is any mystique about that," USC Trojans coach Pete Carroll said, "in our program we don't feel it."

Leinart and predecessor Carson Palmer, the 2002 Heisman winner and Orange Bowl Most Valuable Player, succeeded where so many - such as Chris Weinke or Vinny Testaverde - had stumbled.

"The facts are that guys haven't performed that well," Carroll said. "What would keep a guy from performing well? The fact that he won the Heisman?"

Carroll rejects that notion. His insistence on consistent effort, regardless of foe, stakes or stage, has created a sense of reassurance. In the program Carroll has crafted, a Heisman-esque performance when the lights are brightest is considered unnecessary.

"If you play like you're capable of playing and you don't try to do too much," Carroll said, "do what we've always asked you to do and play the game like you always were asked to play, then there won't be any issue at all. That's a very strong theme in our program in general, so it applies directly to the Heisman hype."

Even as Heisman winners have been presented as football royalty they have become the targets of coaches with weeks to prepare. Intensifying media requests and bad rubber chicken dinners have turned the experience of a lifetime into a potential trap.

For every Charles Woodson, who helped lead Michigan Wolverines to a share of the 1997 title with a Rose Bowl victory, or Danny Wuerffel, who threw for three touchdowns as Florida Gators won the 1996 championship in the Sugar Bowl, there were memorable disappointments.

But Leinart's five touchdown passes in the Orange Bowl victory against Oklahoma Sooners last January built upon Palmer's earlier success in the same stadium.

Reggie Bush says he was helped by observing the way Leinart handled the attention.

"Seeing what he did in the Fed Ex Orange Bowl last year was plenty for me to see how to handle it," he said. "It could get to you, but it's my job to make sure it doesn't happen."

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