U of L Homeboys are men now

[bullwark]

Bobby Petrino, then the offensive coordinator at Auburn, walked the sideline at old Cardinal Stadium before the Kentucky Class 4-A high school football championship game back on Dec. 7, 2002.

He watched Trinity quarterback Brian Brohm warm up. He did the same for Male's Mr. Everything, Michael Bush.

"I went down there and saw the size and things they could do and watched what they did in that game," Petrino recalled.

Two weeks after that game, regarded as the best in Kentucky high school history largely because of Brohm and Bush, Petrino was named head coach at the University of Louisville.

"And it was my dream to get them both here," he said.

He wasn't the only one. Talk about fantasy football: U of L fans had been dreaming about Brohm and Bush for a long time.

The chatter became audible when Bush entered Male as a ninth-grader, but it really started several years before, when Male quarterback Chris Redman came running home from officiating a flag football game to tell his dad, Male coach Bob Redman, that he'd found the city's next star.

Brohm, son of former U of L quarterback Oscar Brohm and brother of former U of L quarterback Jeff Brohm and wide receiver Greg Brohm, grew up immersed in the Cardinals' program and had been an anticipated arrival almost since his brothers left, Greg after the 1992 season and Jeff after '93.

Bob Redman said he and his old U of L teammate, Oscar Brohm, had a long-running conversation during the players' high school years.

"I'd always tell Oscar: 'This Bush kid is pretty good; you ought to let your son come to Male to play with him,' " Redman said. "And Oscar would always tell me, 'You ought to send him to Trinity.' We knew if they ever got to play together, it would be special. … People have been waiting a long time to see these guys in this situation."

Last spring Bush watched an old high school basketball teammate, Larry O'Bannon, help U of L to the Final Four. What was he thinking?

"What would it be like to do something like that in football?" he said. "This city would not go to sleep."

The goal: a 'powerhouse'

Griffith and Eaves. Brown and Forman. Hillerich and Bradsby.

Brohm and Bush don't dwell on it, but they're aware that they have a chance to do something historic in a city where big-time college football is a recent phenomenon.

It was a factor in their signing with U of L. . Both were courted by some of the nation's best programs. Brohm, USA Today's National Offensive Player of the Year as a senior, got the red-carpet treatment at Notre Dame and Tennessee. Bush saw Ohio State pull out all the recruiting stops. But when decision time came, neither could pass up a chance they saw brewing at home.

"Both Mike and I had the opportunity to go pretty much anywhere we wanted, but we chose to stay here and play for the hometown team that we've been fans of all our life," Brohm said. "We both want to make Louisville football rise to the top and try to keep it there as a powerhouse."

They aren't the only key local members of a U of L team with its highest preseason rating ever, No. 12 in The Associated Press' poll. Wide receiver Montrell Jones and middle linebacker Matt Sanders also played for Male.

"I think what it would mean to the city is in the back of all our minds," Sanders said.

Bush and Brohm were in the front of Petrino's mind when he was named U of L coach on Christmas Eve 2002.

"They were right at the top of the priorities," he said. "And it has worked out well, for us and for both of them, because this is their time to take over and shine."

A graceful move by Bush

But after landing Brohm a year after signing Bush, Petrino still had a bit of recruiting to do -- to keep Bush.

"I thought about leaving," said Bush, who signed to play quarterback and spent his first season as a backup to Stefan LeFors while dabbling at several other positions. "When I heard about Brian committing, it was good and bad. Getting him as a teammate was good, but knowing he was coming to get my spot, that upset me a little bit. So I thought a lot about what I was going to do."

In the end, Bush said, he stayed for several reasons. There were no guarantees he would get to play quarterback anywhere else. He liked playing in his hometown. And he knew how good Brohm is.

"If I'm not going to play quarterback, then I want to play on the team where Brian is quarterback," he said. "If the best quarterback in the country is in the spot, I don't feel bad about not being there.

"We were talking the other day, and Brian was like, if I had gone anywhere else, I probably would still be playing quarterback. But I tell all the guys I'm glad he's playing quarterback here and not somebody I feel is not as good as me."

Bush said it helped that Petrino kept him busy once he left the quarterback position.

"It was good that Coach put the ball in my hands a lot," he said. "He gave me a chance to do a lot of things, and that was good for me."

Brohm and Bush were high school rivals but didn't have much interaction. Bush said he didn't consider it a personal rivalry. Brohm said he got up to play against Bush but was curious to get to know him.

Now the two seem comfortable together. During a media-day photo shoot, they regularly made each other laugh and had to pause to straighten up for the cameras.

"Mike Bush is a great person to have on your side," Brohm said. "I remember in high school, I got up to play against him. And now it's great to have him on my side because he can do about anything. If you're ever in trouble, you can just get him the ball and he's going to make a play.

"He's a great person, very laid-back, kind of to himself. He's a great guy to be around, and he really works hard. He's not a cocky or arrogant player even though he could be."

Bush said Brohm has been well-liked since arriving at U of L . He walked into a difficult situation, expecting to compete for the starting job against LeFors, who was highly respected by teammates and highly effective on the field. Brohm made sure his arrival wasn't a big production. He worked hard, and soon he became popular with his teammates.

And when he entered the Miami game and engineered a go-ahead drive in the second half after LeFors was injured, he earned the team's respect.

"If I'd been in that situation, I'd have been nervous," Bush said. "I don't know how I'd have done it. But he stepped right in and made things happen. That was a sign that he was a great player in the making. After that, everybody knew what Brian could do. We didn't know how he did it, but we were glad he was on our team."

'Expect big things'

Late last month the pair sat down at the U of L football complex and watched a tape of their historic high school meeting with ESPN.com columnist Pat Forde.

Brohm completed 19 of 25 passes for 552 yards and seven touchdowns in that game. Bush threw for 468 yards and five TDs, ran for 116 yards and another score and played almost every down.

Trinity won 59-56.

Bush had never watched the tape.

"You could tell Mike didn't really want to watch it too much because he knew how it ended," Brohm said. "But it was fun. There were a lot of great plays on both sides, and it was fun to look back and see some of the things we did."

Bush laughed when asked about his impressions of the tape.

"You know, I looked pretty good at quarterback," he said with a wide smile.

"We laughed a lot watching it. I was amazed at how he was throwing the ball -- but also how he was running it. He was running pretty good, too. He had passed for something like 300 yards in the second quarter. It was ridiculous."

Now that they're starting in the same backfield, both see bigger things ahead. Bush has polished his skills as a running back. This year he'll be asked to handle more of the punishing short-yardage work as well as look for wide-open spaces. Brohm has been working on his footwork and studying the offense down to the tiniest detail. Much of the Cards' success will depend on his ability to get the offense into the right play based on the defense he sees.

Both seem comfortable with their star status in their hometown and nationally. U of L used them in its preseason billboard campaign, with the slogan, "Think big."

"That's what you want," Bush said. "You want people to expect big things. We expect a lot of ourselves."

Said Brohm: "I thrive on that. Some people want to be in the background and don't want the pressure on them. I think I'm the type of person that likes the pressure. It will make me step up my game."

Petrino can talk all day about the athletic attributes of the two, but in the end the thing he likes best is their competitiveness.

"Sometimes a player has all the ability, but you never know until you see them play how badly they want to win, to make the key play," he said. "Both of those guys have shown that they will really compete."

Playing against each other in high school, Bush and Brohm made state history. Playing with each other in college, they hope to do the same on a national scale.

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bah!