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Notre Dame-Michigan State: Numbers, Turning Point & More

Michigan State repeatedly forced Notre Dame into bad plays while building a 36-7 lead. (Bill Panzica)

By The Numbers

.0007 Percentage points — by our calculation — separating Michigan from once again overtaking Notre Dame for No. 1 all time in all-time winning percentage in the Football Bowl Subdivision. The Wolverines with their 3-0 start are now 928-331-36 (.7305), while the 1-2 Irish are now 893-315-42 (.7312).

2-4 Michigan State’s record against Notre Dame in the 50 years since the epic 1966 clash when the Spartans were ranked ahead of the Irish in the Associated Press poll coming into the game. MSU was ranked No. 12 entering the weekend while the Irish were No. 18. The only other such Spartan victory during that span was in 1997 when it won 23-7 when rated No. 17 while Notre Dame was unranked.

7-7 All seven red-zone opportunities by each team resulted in touchdowns, with Michigan State finishing 4-of-4 and Notre Dame 3-of-3. The Irish have scored 11 touchdowns in 14 red-zone situations this year, one of the few bright spots of a 1-2 start.

10-4 Michigan State’s record against ranked teams since 2013 (7-2 versus the top 10), including this year’s Notre Dame win. Over that same span, the Irish are 5-10.

14 Victories by Michigan State in Notre Dame Stadium, tying it for USC for the most ever by a Fighting Irish opponent in the edifice. This was the Spartans’ seventh victory at Notre Dame since 1997, notably six in a row from 1997-2007. The Irish are 18-14 against MSU in Notre Dame Stadium, and 23-14-1 versus the Trojans.

29 Victories by Michigan State against Notre Dame in a series the Irish lead overall 48-29-1. Only USC has more all-time victories against Notre Dame with its 36-46-5 record. After next year’s Sept. 23 meeting in East Lansing, the Irish and Spartans are not tentatively slated to meet again until 2026-27.

36 Unanswered points scored by Michigan State during the second and third quarters. That was the worst streak by an Irish team in a game since both Michigan and USC administered 38-0 beatings on them during the 3-9 season in 2007.

71 Yards on a Tyler Newsome second quarter punt that was downed at Michigan State’s eight-yard line. It was the longest Notre Dame punt since Oct. 10, 1998 when Hunter Smith drilled one that traveled 79 yards in a 28-9 victory at Arizona State. Alas, the Spartans still drove 92 yards for a touchdown, scoring with 23 seconds left until halftime for a 15-7 halftime lead.

89.3 Percent of the offense accounted for by junior quarterback DeShone Kizer against the Spartans. Notre Dame totaled 401 yards, with Kizer passing for 344 (a career high) and rushing for 14. He also was involved in 46 of the 62 plays with 37 passes and nine rushes.


Turning Point

Notre Dame was holding a 7-0 lead with just under 10 minutes left in the first half and was forcing a punt by Michigan State from its 18. The boot by Jake Hartbarger fluttered and then bounded around midfield with return man C.J. Sanders imploring his blockers to back off. With his back turned to the action, sophomore wideout Miles Boykin’s leg inadvertently touched the ball and the Spartans recovered at the Irish 38. MSU went for broke on the first play and quarterback Tyler O’Connor’s toss into the end zone appeared short and in the hands of senior cornerback Cole Luke — before freshman wideout Donnie Corley wrestled it away for the touchdown. Those back-to-back plays sparked the 36-0 avalanche by the Spartans over the next 21 minutes of action.

Stat Of The Game

During the decisive third quarter when Michigan State scored 21 unanswered points within a five-minute span to extend its advantage to 36-7, it totaled 192 yards total offense — with 166 coming on the ground. It was a reflection of the way the Spartans had taken control of the line of scrimmage. The 75-yard touchdown drive to make it 22-7 was aided by a pass interference call, but 49 of the other 60 yards came on the ground. So did all 39 yards on the next MSU touchdown drive after it intercepted a Kizer pass. The coup de grace came on a 73-yard touchdown run by Gerald Holmes on a straight up-the-gut run into the middle. Michigan State finished with 260 yards rushing compared to Notre Dame’s 57, with the Irish needing to rely mainly on the pass after falling behind by 29 points.

Quoting Brian Kelly

This is the angriest we’ve seen the seventh-year Fighting Irish head coach in a home loss since the 31-17 defeat to USC in 2011. That too was a night game and a huge recruiting weekend, but the Irish went down 14-0 after two series and were sloppy. A few days later he talked about how "my guys,: or the ones he recruited, responded better than the ones from the previous regime. This time, Kelly’s ire was directed at the entire coaching staff, especially himself:

“Those are the guys we have. We can't trade ‘em, they're not getting cut. We recruited them, so I don't want to hear anybody — I told our staff: ‘Those are our guys, so we've gotta get 'em better. We've got to put them in better position to make plays. Those are our guys.’

“…We're not coaching it well enough. Obviously if our players can't execute a simple two vertical corner sitting over the top and the safety coming underneath, that's on me. That falls on my shoulders, and we're not getting that done. So we're either not capable of running that coverage or we're not coaching it well enough, one or the other. So I gotta do a better job.”

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