Column: USC can at least bask in glow of Notre Dame win 10 years ago

Memory lane can be a lonely road when the desire for nostalgia exaggerates the facts of the original event.

That isn’t the case on the 10-year anniversary of “The Bush Push” game between USC and Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind.

After the end of USC’s 34-31 victory on Oct. 15, 2005, quarterback Matt Leinart pegged it correctly: “I would imagine this will go down as one of the greatest games ever played,” he said.

Later that season, Leinart and USC would face Texas at the Rose Bowl for the national title in another short-list all-timer. The stakes were bigger at the Rose Bowl, but there was something magical about Notre Dame in 2005.

A couple of hours before kickoff, Joe Montana strolled through campus with his collar turned up. Joe Cool if there ever were one.

The game was epic, the first meeting between USC Coach Pete Carroll and Notre Dame’s Charlie Weis. We thought it would be the first of many memorable matchups between modern-day coaching geniuses.

It turned out there was only one genius and it wasn’t Weis, even though he reportedly recorded a perfect score on his SAT test.

One undercurrent was the macho-man, chess-match played out between Carroll and Weis.

Weis, at that time, was a successful former NFL coach. He called plays for Tom Brady in New England and loved to flash his Super Bowl ring and tell recruits “You want to play on Sundays?”

BUSH PUSH: Relive the famed play as told by coaches and players there

Carroll had just won two national titles at USC but was only available for the Trojans job after being fired at New England.

Notre Dame faced fourth and one at its own 29-yard line early in the game when Weis defied convention and went for the first down. And made it.

Later, Carroll upped the ante by going on fourth down from his own 19 … and made it.

The game was a cacophony of gasps.

What a cast of characters.

Notre Dame’s quarterback, Brady Quinn, was sent straight from central casting. He scored the go-ahead touchdown with 2 minutes 4 seconds left to cap an 87-yard drive.

Then came: The Drive.

USC faced fourth and nine from its 26 when Leinart, the prototypical-looking USC quarterback from Orange County, changed the play call and hit Dwayne Jarrett on a 61-yard strike down the left sideline.

Jarrett, his vision blurred from a previous hit, caught the pass over defender Ambrose Wooden Jr. Wooden chased Jarrett down at the 13.

Leinart then scrambled and fumbled on a run toward the left pylon. Some people thought the ball went through the end zone for a touchback. Game over.

Notre Dame fans streamed onto the field to celebrate victory. The officials ruled the ball out on the one and put seven seconds on the clock.

Leinart looked over the sideline for the call and basically got back: “Buddy, you’re on your own.”

Leinart then leaned toward the goal line, aided and abetted by Bush’s push, and a different kind of pandemonium erupted.

“I was in shock,” Leinart said then.

He wasn’t alone.

Notre Dame tight end Anthony Fasano said it felt like “a twisted dream.”

The Trojans left town as if they had just robbed the South Bend central bank.

Bush won the Heisman Trophy but also got USC in trouble with the NCAA.

Jeff Samardzija, Notre Dame’s star receiver, went on to a successful career in the pros — as a pitcher.

Tom Zbikowski, the hard-nosed Irish safety who returned a punt for touchdown that day, fought at Madison Square Garden the next year in a junior-welterweight bout. He kicked around in the NFL and is now on the rebound from a battle with alcoholism.

Leinart never panned out in the NFL but can say he was center stage for one of USC’s greatest wins and one of its greatest losses (Texas, 41-38).

Carroll’s USC dynasty eventually petered out as it maneuvered through NCAA sanctions. He was long gone by then, having bolted to the NFL and Seattle, where he has claimed one Super Bowl and lost another in stupendous fashion.

Weis is out of coaching. His best win at Notre Dame was the USC loss in 2005, which set off a chain-reaction of ridiculous contract extensions.

Notre Dame, which fired Weis in 2009 after he went 16-21 his final three years, is expected to cut the coach his final check, for $2,054,744, in December. He will have earned nearly $19 million after his termination.

Hard to believe it’s been 10 years since 34-31. It was a lot of time, memories, scholarships and dollars ago.

chris.dufresne@latimes.com