At the time, USC was looking to ignite a ground game that had faded after Bush and backfield mate LenDale White left school early for the NFL. The coaches remembered, all too clearly, what it felt like to have a player who could turn a simple off-tackle run into a game breaker.
"Oh yeah, it's really fun," Carroll said. "It makes you excited in preparation, excited to get to the game and watch the next play. What's going to happen?"
The Trojans might not have won the 2004 national title without Bush leading a second-half comeback against Virginia Tech, returning a punt for a score at Oregon State and busting two long touchdowns in a close game against UCLA.
So, on a team loaded with more-experienced tailbacks, the coaching staff pushed McKnight into action. He had six carries for 26 yards and a pass reception in the season opener against Idaho. By the third game, he was returning punts.
"He was so natural," Carroll said. "He just looked so good doing it."
But something felt wrong. McKnight started dropping passes he should have caught, looking uncomfortable at times. The highlights -- a 51-yard touchdown run at Notre Dame -- were few.
Too often, he tried to spin or bounce or circle back, losing yards.
"There's no question Joe was pressing," said Curtis, who watched from New Orleans. "He tried to make plays as opposed to letting things flow."
The USC coaches realized they had been down this road before. How many times had they pulled a young Bush aside, asking him to be patient, to settle for three-yard gains now and then?
They also decided to cut back on McKnight's role in the offense. As Carroll said: "We made mistakes . . . we were asking him to do too many varied things."
Working from a slimmer playbook, McKnight ran for 89 yards and a touchdown in the regular-season finale against UCLA, then torched Illinois in the Rose Bowl, generating 206 all-purpose yards that included a 65-yard run with a bobbled lateral to put the game away.
Some heralded this late burst as a breakthrough. Others continued to view McKnight's freshman season as a disappointment.
"They put unfair expectations on the kid," running backs coach Todd McNair said. "They're comparing him to Reggie as a finished product."
The numbers support this argument. Bush ran 90 times for 521 yards and three touchdowns as a freshman; McKnight ran 94 times for 540 yards and an equal number of scores. Bush held the edge, 314 yards to 203, in receptions.
