With streak nearly over, Leinart, USC pull out thriller 

	Matt Leinart flopped backwards into the end zone to score the game-winning TD. AP
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SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- This time, it really was over.

Even before the Notre Dame Stadium clock mistakenly struck 0:00, even before the jubilant Irish students prematurely stormed the field, even before Matt Leinart's first effort to cross the goal line appeared to fall short, USC's 28-game winning streak and three-peat aspirations were as good as done. Weren't they?

With a full moon shining down on Notre Dame's mystical green jerseys and the Irish crowd shaking down the thunder louder than they had in more than a decade, the Trojans, down 31-28 with 1:32 remaining and facing fourth-and-9 from their own 26, were counting on Leinart -- who would later admit to being "off the entire night" -- to complete a pass to keep the drive alive. The game was as good as over ... right, Reggie Bush?

"It was in the back of my head," said the USC running back. "I'd be lying if I said it wasn't."

As the Trojans have proven time and again, though, their games are never over until the clock runs out (in this case, the second time). And as Leinart has long since proven, there's a reason he's got a Heisman Trophy waiting for him back in Los Angeles.

Only Anthony Davis, the star of USC's famous 55-point outburst against the Irish in 1974, would argue the ensuing sequence wasn't the most thrilling in the long history of the USC-Notre Dame rivalry. And on a Saturday full of breathtaking finishes in college football, this one, considering the stakes, stands out as the sport's most dizzying and controversial since the Miami-Ohio State double-overtime title game three years ago.

Leinart stepped to the line on fourth down -- and, seeing receiver Dwayne Jarrett in man-to-man coverage with Irish cornerback Ambrose Wooden -- audibled to the type of long pass that hadn't worked for the Trojans all day. Unfazed by the pressure of the moment, Leinart calmly lofted the ball down the sideline to Jarrett for a 61-yard gain.

The stunned Irish crowd barely had time to digest what had happened when, two plays later, Leinart scrambled down the left sideline in a desperate attempt to reach the end zone, only to fumble the ball out of bounds at the 1. In the confusion that followed, the scoreboard timekeeper never stopped the clock, and the Notre Dame students rushed the field to celebrate an upset of epic proportions, only to be told by the public address announcer, "Get off the field, or Notre Dame will be penalized."

As the students scampered back and the clock was reset to 0:07, Bush approached Leinart in the huddle. Despite being out of time outs, despite only needing a field goal to tie, head coach Pete Carroll and play-callers Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian were giving their fifth-year quarterback the choice of either spiking the ball or attempting a do-or-die sneak.

"I went up to Matt and said, 'Are you going to go for it?'" Bush recounted afterward. "He said, 'You think I should?' I said yeah, do it. But when we got to the line, and I saw [Notre Dame's defenders] were all bunched up in the middle, I was like, 'No, no, no, don't do it!'"

Amidst 80,795 screaming fans, Leinart never heard him. Not that it mattered. "I didn't want to spike the ball," he said. "I just wanted to do it."

His coach wanted the same thing.