Stream of Unconscious

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Reggie Bush sits down at the computer and taps the space bar. The screen jolts awake in reds and golds, commencing, well, an awful lot of him. An abundance of him. A cavalcade of him.

His most dramatic runs of the season have been edited together, all that snap-your-fingers speed to the corner, tacklers flailing as if they were mere accessories to his spinning and hurdling and flipping through space. All of it set to a driving musical beat.

Athletic department officials assembled this highlight reel last month to send to sportswriters and Heisman Trophy voters across the nation, but first they wanted Bush’s approval. So, the USC tailback sits in an office, looking boyish with a bright red Phillie cap tugged over his forehead, a baggy white T-shirt -- perfectly white because he is always precisely neat -- and a backpack slung over his shoulder.

Not a single recognizable expression crosses his face as he watches. Neither pride nor arrogance, not even boredom. At best, there is an occasional hitch in his gum-chewing or he takes a moment to uncap the bottle in his hands, sip water, slowly screw the top back on.

Only when the three-minute production ends, the last opponent face-down on the turf, the final goal line crossed, does Bush let out a laugh and a smile.

“I like that,” he says.

*

When the Downtown Athletic Club presents the 71st Heisman Trophy in New York on Saturday, Bush will be favored to win over two other finalists, teammate Matt Leinart and Texas quarterback Vince Young.

His candidacy rests on a platform of otherworldly physical talent, skills writ too large for the confines of a television screen. Watch from high above the field -- time and again, defenders take an angle on him, only to have Bush flip a switch and accelerate past. If they adjust, if they compensate for his speed, he stops in an instant and cuts behind them.

There are subtleties too, the advantage he brings his team simply by going in motion out of the backfield or lining up wide as a receiver, even if he does not touch the ball.

“A lot of defensive coordinators only play certain defenses against him,” USC offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin says. “There are some defenses that guys don’t want to play because of matchup issues, so he limits the calls you have to face.”

But more than anything, Bush is expected to win the Heisman because of good timing and a freak show of a season.

His best performance might have come at Notre Dame -- 160 yards rushing, three touchdowns and the infamous shove -- in what many consider the game of the year.

Against Fresno State and UCLA, the final two games of the season, both nationally televised, he generated Xbox-worthy numbers. Four touchdowns. A combined 554 yards rushing. Against Fresno State, he had 513 all-purpose yards, second-best in NCAA history.

And, more than any other candidate in recent memory, he produced a library of greatest hits, clips that get shown and re-shown, reaching voters in the South and East who might not have a chance to actually watch his games.

“If they’re just looking for big, big highlights,” Young told the Associated Press, “then you got Bush winning.”

*

Don’t ask him for his favorite play. Standing on the practice field one night, soaked with sweat, Bush thinks a moment and shakes his head. He doesn’t have one.

You must choose for yourself.

* The cutback against Fresno State.

The play begins simply enough, Bush finding a hole over left guard. Ten yards downfield, farther to his left, he sees that one of his receivers has the defensive back tied up, so he veers in that direction with room to shift gears down the sideline.

More than once this season, Bush has said that he runs on instinct, but even in the split-second miasma of an open-field play, there is time for calculation.

“Most of the game, I kept getting big runs and they kept taking good angles, trying to cut me off,” he says of the Fresno State defenders. “I remembered that.”

So, with a safety taking aim at the 25-yard line, Bush slams on the brakes and, purely for style points, strikes a matador’s pose, hips shifted forward, both hands -- and the ball -- behind his back, as the defender sails past. He then cuts toward the opposite sideline, slicing through four more opponents for a 50-yard touchdown.

* The “short” score at Oregon.

Fred Matua has no doubt about his favorite. First down at the Ducks’ 11-yard line, a run to the left and all USC’s right guard has to do is throw a block to keep his man from pursuing backside. Bush tries to go up the middle but, with the hole plugged, bounces outside.

“I’m thinking the play’s over, that he’s going to run out of bounds,” Matua recalls. “But Reggie stops all the way at the other sideline and just turns and runs back toward me. I’m like, ‘Oh shoot, I’ve got to get back on my feet.’ ”

With seven Oregon defenders closing in, Bush circles back to the 22 where he gets a crushing block from Matua, turns on the jets and turns the corner. One last Duck has a shot at him but Bush puts the guy down with a stiff-arm and finishes an 11-yard touchdown that covers probably three times that distance.

“You know what?” Matua says. “He’s the only one who could do that.”

* The punt return at Washington.

Fielding the ball at the 16-yard line, Bush moves up the center of the field to the 25, where eight defenders surround him. End of story. Except that he gives a quick step and a spin and, somehow, breaks free.

His teammates know enough to keep blocking even after Bush appears done for, so when he moves right, a new wall is already forming. That allows for a burst of speed, a race down the sideline, blowing past the final three defenders for an 84-yard touchdown.

“We got guys down there on him,” Washington special teams player J.R. Wolfork says. “It looked like we were going to wrap him up.”

* The push at Notre Dame.

Earlier in the game, Bush runs between the tackles, wiggles and cuts, then hurdles a defensive back on his way to a 36-yard touchdown. Now, USC has the ball at the one-yard line, down by three with seven seconds left, and no timeouts.

Leinart quickly confers with Bush and they agree Leinart should try an all-or-nothing sneak. But when the Trojans line up and Bush sees Notre Dame’s linebackers bunched over center, he yells, “No, no, no.”

Leinart runs anyway, getting stood up at the line. As the quarterback spins left, Bush jumps in to give him a quick, hard shove. Does the added momentum propel Leinart, backward, over the goal line for the winning score? Is it an illegal maneuver?

“You could say Reggie pushed him, which he did, but that’s heads up by Reggie,” Notre Dame Coach Charlie Weis said. “And hopefully any running back I had would be pushing right along with them.”

* The flip against UCLA.

It has become something of a trademark, a gimmick that packages nicely into “SportsCenter” highlights. Bush flips into the end zone against UCLA last season and in the opener against Hawaii this fall. He does it to the Bruins again last Saturday.

In the second quarter, 13 yards from the end zone, the tailback races toward the left pylon on a collision course with Bruin cornerback Marcus Cassel. Just as Cassel dives to undercut him, Bush leaves his feet.

Sailing head-first over the tackler, it’s almost as if he hesitates in midair and decides, for good measure, to add a flip at the end. A perfect landing for a touchdown.

“Like he’s a pinball bouncing off defenders and embarrassing tacklers,” fullback Brandon Hancock says.

Bush shrugs: “I don’t know ... it just happens.”

*

After the UCLA game, after celebrating on the field and climbing atop a ladder to lead the marching band, waving a rose as a baton, Bush is guided into an interview room where reporters have filled rows of seats and stand along the walls.

The sight of this assembled media, a fusillade of video cameras in back, causes Bush to hesitate at the door and give an involuntary sigh. When the questions begin, a sportswriter wants to know if he felt unstoppable against the Bruins.

“The offensive line did a great job of opening holes,” Bush defers. “Everyone was on the same page and just firing, executing our game plan.”

Last year at this time, he sat on stage in New York and watched Leinart win the Heisman. The experience made him want to hold the trophy himself.

But now, amid so many notepads and microphones, he remains cautious. What about the flip into the end zone? What about all those yards?

“It felt great,” he says.

But surely the UCLA game adds another highlight to his campaign. How does he think it will affect voting?

The tailback hesitates just long enough for Leinart to come through the door and yell: “It won it for him.”