USC Trojans legend and Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush has advice for the Ohio State Buckeyes and Notre Dame Fighting Irish players who will battle in the College Football Playoff National Championship on Jan. 20 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The two-time national champion Bush also makes a game prediction.

“Do the little things well. If you do the little things well in the championship game, it’s going to take you so far,” Bush told USC Trojans on SI reporter Bri Amaranthus. “What happens a lot of the time is we get in these big games and we feel like I need to go be Superman. Like, I need to make this miraculous highlight reel style play, and go save the day.”

“You don’t need to be that, actually,” Bush continued. “You need to go tackle. You need to go catch the football when it’s thrown to you. You need to know your assignments. You need to run fast. Literally the basic things, that’s what you need to do. That’s where I’ve seen teams lose. I’ve seen players make mistakes. They get caught up in the moment and they get caught up in trying to do too much and don’t need to do too much.”

“What I’ve seen from both of these teams is that they don’t beat themselves. These are teams that they like to play ahead and they don’t make a lot of mistakes.”

Monday will mark Bush’s first time back to the national championship game since playing in it, most recently in 2005 when 12-0 USC and the 12-0 Texas Longhorns competed in an iconic Rose Bowl matchup in which Texas beat the Trojans to hoist the trophy.

What is Bush’s game prediction?

“I think I think Ohio State is primed and ready,” Bush told Amaranthus. “I think they have what it takes. It seems like every game they’ve gotten better. Not take anything away from Notre Dame, but (Ohio State) has the home run hitters. I don’t know if Notre Dame has the home run hitters.”

“No matter where they touch the football on the field, they can possibly score. Whether it’s one of the receivers, Jeremiah Smith or Emeka (Egbukba), or (TreVeyon) Henderson. They have what it takes and they have a lot of speed. When you get to this level, you need as much speed as possible.”

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The Buckeyes are stacked with NFL-caliber talent in Smith, Egbukba and Henderson plus defensive stars Jack Sawyer and Caleb Downs. However, the Fighting Irish have stars of their own.

“Notre Dame has a great run game. The way that they score points and the way that they get down the field, it’s more methodical… It’s chewing up the clock on you. It’s playing keep away and also playing great defense on the other side of the football.”

Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love leads the team with 1,121 rushing yards, punishing opposing defenses with his long speed and barreling runs.

Bush also admits he’s a fan of Marcus Freeman as Notre Dame’s head coach.

“I think the world of him,” Bush told Amaranthus. “He’s been extremely classy and professional, which is what you need out of a head coach. I think Notre Dame is lucky to have him, honestly. From that very first video, when they announced him as the head coach and we saw the entire team jump up, celebrate him, hug him, cheer, high five. You could just see like these kids want to play for him and they respect him as a head coach.”

Ohio State is seeking it’s first national title since defeating the Oregon Ducks in 2014, to win the first national title in the college football playoff era. The Irish last won in 1988 under coach Lou Holtz, finishing that season with a perfect 12-0 record.

Bush had one last piece of advice, speaking from his own experience.

“When a quarterback hands the football off to you as a running back, go get me at least four or five yards. And then everything else after that is icing on the cake…. As a punt returner, kick returner, go get 10 yards. That’s 10 yards that your offense doesn’t have to get.

Beloved as one of the best college football players of all time, Bush also played 10 years in the NFL, winning the Super Bowl with New Orleans Saints and then-coach Sean Payton.

During his junior season at USC, Bush ran for 1,740 yards and 16 touchdowns on 200 carries. Therunning back also added 478 receiving yards and two more scores to finish with 2,218 all-purpose yards and 18 total touchdowns.

It’s highly-regarded as one of the best college football single seasons of all time and Bush won the Heisman Trophy. In 2010, Bush had to forfeit his Heisman Trophy in wake of NCAA sanctions for USC, including Bush receiving improper benefits during his Trojans career (2003-2005.) Then in April 2024, Bush’s Heisman Trophy was reinstated by the Heisman Trust.

While in Atlanta, Bush will make college football fans’ dreams come true in partnership with Modelo. Reggie helped select the most-passionate fans who applied to join ‘Team Modelo’ who get to attend the National Championship and be hosted by Bush at the game.