College football

3-peat? Bush carries No. 1 USC into Rose Bowl

RB racks up 260 rushing yards as Trojans pummel No. 11 Bruins, 66-19

Chris Carlson / AP

USC's Reggie Bush leaps over UCLA defender Marcus Cassel. Bush ran wild on the Bruins, rushing for 260 yards on 24 carries in the Trojans' win on Saturday.

With that play, LenDale White, Bush’s running mate, said he “knew it was a rout.”

White ran for a 19-yard touchdown moments late to make it 17-0. He finished with 154 yards rushing on 14 carries as USC went over 300 yards rushing for the fifth time this season. White, the burly thunder to Bush’s lightning, scored three touchdowns to break Charles White’s school record with 54 for his career.

UCLA fumbled the ensuing kickoff away to USC and Bush, who carried 24 times, went back to work.

He hurdled over a tackler for a 13-yard score to make it 24-0, and later slipped a UCLA defender in the backfield and scored from 10 yards out to put USC up 31-6 at the half.

Bush’s latest jaw-dropping performance came two weeks after he set a school-record with 513 all-purpose yards, a career-high 295 rushing, in a thrilling 50-42 victory over Fresno State.

In an up-and-down season for the USC defense, the Fresno State game was a low point. On Saturday, defensive end Lawrence Jackson and his crew responded with their best performance of the season.

They had five sacks, three by Jackson, held an offense averaging 40 points a game out of the end zone for the first 56 minutes and even scored a TD when Justin Wyatt returned a fumble 38 yards to make it 45-6 in the third quarter.

“Our defense was on the field too long,” UCLA coach Karl Dorrell said. “We played catch up with our offense and that was a difficult task.”

Drew Olson, the nation’s leader in pass efficiency coming in, finished 14-for-32 for 146 yards and a touchdown, and the Bruins entered the fourth quarter with 166 total yards.

“I’m disappointed and embarrassed,” Olson said. “We came in to put up a good fight and the opposite happened.”

Meanwhile, what very well might be the best offense college football has ever seen racked up 679 yards — with its All-American quarterback having an off day.

USC called a timeout with its offense on the field early in the fourth quarter to give Leinart, who passed up big NFL bucks to return for his senior season, a chance to receive one more ovation and hugs from his teammates.

“It’s been perfect so far,” Leinart said. “This is everything I dreamed of coming back (for).”

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