Cougs drop the ball

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — BYU took an adventure trip to Notre Dame on Saturday and watched as the Fighting Irish made history on their own storied football field, a site that's seen about everything imaginable over the years.

Not like this, though. Even Joe Montana never had a day like Brady Quinn.

Quinn threw a Notre Dame-record six touchdown passes, and for the first time in Fighting Irish history, two receivers — Maurice Stovall and Jeff Samardzija — caught more than 10 passes in leading the ninth-ranked Irish to a convincing 49-23 win over BYU.

The Irish looked like BYU's offense of old — only with bigger, faster receivers than Jim McMahon or Steve Young tossed to. Where the old Cougars played with workhorse plugs, Notre Dame trotted out racing stallions and on Saturday, BYU yelped at their hoofs all day long.

Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis labeled Quinn's play almost flawless.

Where BYU's blitz killed Colorado State a week ago, it could not get to Quinn enough Saturday and BYU's defense paid the price.

"I'm really happy for these guys," Weis said. "It really wasn't easy because the game was closer than the final score may indicate."

Said Quinn of his receivers: "We just tried to get them the ball and let them do what they do best."

The win lifted Notre Dame to a 5-2 mark while the Cougars dropped to 3-4 heading back to a home league game against Air Force. Believe it, the Cougars are anxious to get back to MWC play after this drubbing.

"They deserved to win and they outperformed us in every aspect of the game today," BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said.

For the first time this season, Notre Dame came out with an empty backfield and ran five receivers right at the Cougar secondary, which was sorely overmatched. The ploy worked as Quinn had a career day, completing 32-of-41 passes for 467 yards and the six touchdowns — four to Stovall, a single-game Notre Dame record on 14 catches.

"We never really took that away from them," Mendenhall said. "Either way, they were attacking us through the air and that is where we were the most vulnerable and that is where they were the most successful today."