Reggie Bush: A Bruins’ Worst Nightmare

For starters, we’ll leave this right here:

And then I’ll leave this angle here:

And then the original angle here:

For the better part of three years, Reggie Bush was the thorn in many team’s side. For the UCLA Bruins, Bush was even more than that, he was truly a nightmare.

He ran for over 200 yards in both of his starts against UCLA and even totaled well over 100 yards in his first game as a true freshman against UCLA, despite just a handful of snaps on offense. He truly couldn’t be stopped against UCLA.

It didn’t matter the year. It didn’t matter the venue. It didn’t matter the time of day or the circumstances of each game. It didn’t matter whether a trophy was on the line or not.

Bush just destroyed the Bruins in each of his contests against them

In the 2003 meeting, Bush saw just six carries on the ground, totaling 10 yards but caught two balls for 32 yards. He had just eight total plays on offense in that game behind LenDale White and Hershel Dennis.

His biggest impact came when he turned the last play of the third quarter into a 96-yard kickoff return that pushed the USC lead to a whopping 47-6.

Bush went for 147 total yards on just 11 touches in that game with one touchdown.

Then there was the 2004 showcase game for Bush.

There was this moment:

Here — we’ve made every angle into an easily watched moment in time for you all, enjoy:

He wasn’t done, though. Remember this against UCLA in ‘04?

I mean, come on.

For that game, Bush needed just 15 carries to reach 204 yards and those two scores on the ground. He also led the team with six receptions for 73 yards and had three punt returns for 19 yards. In total, he had 24 touches for 296 yards and two scores.

And, of course, there was the 2005 classic where Bush once against totaled over 200 yards on the ground.

His demolishing performance against UCLA that year led to the 66-19 victory and saw Bush go for 260 on the ground on 24 carries with two touchdowns. He didn’t catch a pass because he didn’t need to and had one punt return for a single yard. He totaled 25 touches for 261 yards and two touchdowns.

His three-game career against UCLA spanned the highest of highs and saw Bush’s career totals against the Bruins finish as such:

Carries: 45
Rushing Yards: 474
Rushing Touchdowns: 4
Receptions: 8
Receiving Yards: 105
Returns: 7
Return Yards: 125
Return Touchdowns: 1
Total Touches: 60
Total Yards: 704
Total Touchdowns: 5
Average Touches Per Game vs UCLA: 20
Average Yards Per Play vs UCLA: 11.7
Average Yards Per Game vs UCLA: 234.6
Average Points Per Game vs UCLA: 10.0

Those numbers are absurd enough on their own, but when you isolate out his average yards per play and per game against UCLA, you see just how dominant he really was against the Bruins.

Reggie Bush truly was a Bruins’ worst nightmare.

And we wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Welcome back, Reggie. We sure did miss you.

UCLA sure did not.