Notre Dame, Ind. -- That this was going to be an uh-oh season wasn't seriously questioned after Notre Dame's relatively-unprecedented 38-0 nadir at Michigan the previous Saturday.
But when the Irish were finished getting beaten (and beaten up) by Michigan State 22-16 Saturday before an at-times surly crowd, there were some serious questions floating around Notre Dame Stadium.
And, to be fair, one serious ray of hope.
In a first half where Michigan State (3-1) seemed to recall the lowest moments of its fourth-quarter come-from-ahead 20-19 home loss to huge underdog Louisiana Tech the prior Saturday, the teams swapped four field goals. And Notre Dame coach Ty Willingham pulled starting quarterback Carlyle Holiday for true freshman Brady Quinn.
But the urpy grandstands feeling continued as Notre Dame's game, stout defense withered and sure enough, Jaren Hayes' dashing, darting 71-yard run through a caved-in right side of the Fighting Irish defense seemed to take the emotional air out of the afternoon.
The 13-6 deficit looked more like the budget deficit.
"My assessment is that there is some improvement," Willingham said afterward, "but not enough to win the game. The execution on offense..."
At this point, noting Notre Dame's futile efforts to gain even a few yards through the better part of three and a half quarters, brought to mind the famous John McKay expression during his winless Tampa Bay first year when asked about offensive execution.
"That would be a great idea!"
Holiday was pursued repeatedly by down linemen Eric Smith and Kevin Vickerson and a cast of what seemed like thousands. Notre Dame's underclass-dominated offensive line was again porous.
"There were some small areas of improvement," Willingham insisted. "Some on offense, some on defense. (The problems weren't) all the offensive line. The offensive line presented some opportunities but we did not take advantage of those opportunities."
When Quinn, who again relieved the beleaguered Holiday in the fourth quarter, came in, the pass blocking picked up to near-acceptability, to be honest.
But...
This was with a 22-9 deficit created when Spartans outside rusher Greg Taplin, who was coming off a demotion to second team by coach John L. Smith, picked off a wobbly, hurried Holiday pass and ran it 40 yards for a killer touchdown with 6:55 left that sent a good portion of the crowd to the exits.
The large Michigan State contingent's joy was offset by an N.F.L.-esque round of boos for Holiday, whose day was over.
"Yeah, I heard 'em. They'll do that," Holiday admitted. "That's really not a big concern to me."
A number of Irish undergrads came into the stadium wearing shirts that declared, "The Holiday is Over" on one side, and "Quinn to Win!" on the other.
The beleaguered senior, who completed just 10-of-25 passes and threw two interceptions, maintained his classy demeanor and actually smiled at the mention of the Quinn shirts. "That's cool," he said. "Quinn to win! I probably will want one." The stats were skewed by at least four dropped passes well thrown by Holiday.
"Let's be honest," Willingham assessed. "When a quarterback is struggling or not, dropped passes are not a positive thing."
The season isn't a shambles yet, but the funky cloud of a disappointing 1-2 start that hangs over the Golden Dome, Touchdown Jesus and the hallowed turf right now may have a silver lining in Quinn.
The controversy will brew, because Ty Willingham believes strongly in Holiday's senior leadership and proven potential. But the here-and-now seems to point toward Quinn starting at West Lafayette against No. 22 Purdue.
Particularly after he hit Ryan McKnight with a 29-yard T.D. pass in a perfectly executed fade-and-go route down the left sideline with 2:29 left that pumped a little teeny bit of life into the Notre Dame sideline and crowd.
"We've got some serious work to do," McKnight admitted.
Particularly at Purdue, which is coming off a 59-7 smacking of Arizona. Michigan State hosts unbeaten No. Iowa Saturday. |
