William J. Dockery, of the Heisman Trophy Trust, which annually presents the Heisman Memorial Trophy Award, announced the selection of Bush on Saturday evening, December 10th, on a nationally televised ESPN sports special live from the Nokia Theatre in Times Square.

The 6'0", 200-pound Bush becomes the seventh Trojan to win the Heisman Trophy and the third in the last four years. He joins Mike Garrett (1965), O.J. Simpson (1968), Charles White (1979), Marcus Allen (1981), Carson Palmer (2002), and Matt Leinart (2004). He is the 16th Junior and the 39th running back to receive the award. The University of Southern California is only the fourth school to have back-to-back winners and the first since Ohio State University's Archie Griffin won his back-to-back awards in 1974 and 1975. The University of Southern California now joins Notre Dame as the only schools with seven Heisman winners.

Bush, of Spring Valley, CA, rushed 187 times gaining 1,658 yards and scoring 15 touchdowns. He also caught 31 passes for 383 yards and 2 additional touchdowns. On November 19, against Fresno State, Bush amassed a PAC-10 record 513 all-purpose yards including 294 yards rushing. Under coach Pete Carroll, Bush along with the 2004 Heisman winner and 2005 Heisman finalist, Matt Leinart, led the Trojans to a 12-0 record and an appearance in the January 4, 2006 Rose Bowl where they will face off against Texas and the third Heisman finalist, Vince Young.

Ballots were mailed to 870 media personnel across the nation plus 52 Heisman winners and one fan ballot, for a total of 923 electors. The ballots are received and tabulated by the independent accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche LLP. Bush polled 2,541 points to capture the award over Young who polled 1,608 points and Leinart, with 797 points. The point total is reached by a system of three points for a first place vote, two for a second and one for a third.

The number of points by region and position within each are as follows for the top four candidates: