Louisville's Potent Combination

They still talk about the game in Kentucky, the day four years ago when a pair of prep quarterbacks from Louisville put on the greatest show in the state's football history. In the state championship game, Brian Brohm led Trinity High, chucking BBs and deep passes all over the field. Michael Bush led Male High, throwing short passes and bulling his way over, around and through Trinity defenders at will.

"It was crazy," Bush said. "He'd throw an 80-yard bomb, and then I would lead my team down the field on five- or six-minute drive. But I was getting tired, because I had to play defense, too."

Brohm's team had the ball last, and that was a big reason why Trinity won, 59-56. Bush graduated that spring and decided to attend Louisville, becoming at the time one of the most significant recruits in school history. The Cardinals turned him into a running back, largely because Louisville wooed Brohm the next fall, another keystone recruit.

Now, with Bush entering his senior season and Brohm a junior, the pair has helped Louisville ascend to college football's elite and turned Coach Bobby Petrino's spread offense into an art form. The Cardinals scored 43.4 points per game last season, third best in the country, and averaged 482 yards of total offense.

They enter this season as perhaps the nation's best backfield tandem, with Brohm and Bush tabbed as legitimate Heisman Trophy hopefuls. The school started a Web site -- http://derbycityduo.com/ -- promoting their dual candidacies. So while they're on the same team now, Brohm and Bush are still battling each other for individual honors -- which, really, is nothing new.

"We've been competing for awards since we were in high school," Brohm said.

Brohm is returning from offseason surgery to repair the anterior cruciate ligament he tore in his right knee, an injury he suffered in the Cardinals' penultimate regular season game against Syracuse that forced him to sit out Louisville's 35-24 Gator Bowl loss to Virginia Tech. At the outset of his grueling rehabilitation, he worked out for four or five hours a day, he said, and entering this season, his knee is 100 percent.

Before his injury, Brohm was one of the nation's most efficient and prolific passers. He completed 68.8 percent of his passes and averaged 288 yards to go with 19 touchdown passes.

While Louisville lost Brohm for the end of last season, the Cardinals almost lost Bush for this entire season. Bush considered skipping his senior year for the NFL, but he decided to stay in school because the crop of running backs entering the draft was deeper than usual, especially with LenDale White and Reggie Bush leaving Southern California a year early.

No one was happier than Brohm when Bush decided to stay. Bush takes pressure off Brohm, a prototypical pocket passer, with the way he wears down defenses. Bush rushed for 23 touchdowns last season, leading the nation in scoring with 14.4 points a game. At 6 feet 3, 247 pounds, Bush combines bruising power with surprising speed.

"It's great handing the ball to him," Brohm said. "For how big he is, people don't give him enough credit for how well he moves."

Bush played receiver, running back and defensive back in high school, and as it turns out, he has other talents, too. After spring practice ended, Bush was hanging out with a few teammates, bored in May without anything to do. They went to a nearby bowling alley and got hooked on the sport. Bush said he averages a 195 and once rolled a 262. He even bought his own shoes and ball.

"I got all the gear but a bowling shirt," Bush said. "Just not my style."

While the offense promises to post eye-popping numbers again, the defense will allow its share of points. The loss of pass-rushing maven Elvis Dumervil to the NFL -- and the NCAA-record tying 20 sacks he registered last season -- strikes a blow to a defense that allowed 23.8 points a game a year ago.

If that defense can hold its own, Louisville's schedule and talent makes it a national title contender. Just like four years ago, Bush and Brohm will be making state football history, gunning passes and running wild. Except this time, they'll be doing it together.

"It's a blessing," Bush said. "Think about it, to have two Heisman candidates in the same backfield. How many people can say that?"