By Staff
ANN ARBOR – Mike Hart guaranteed it and the Michigan Wolverines backed it up with a 38-0 victory over Notre Dame on Saturday afternoon.
Hart rushed for 187 yards on 35 carries and scored twice as the Wolverines took out their frustration on the Fighting Irish.
While Hart provided much of the Michigan offense, the Wolverines' defense continued to keep Notre Dame going backwards offensively.
Michigan freshman quarterback Ryan Mallett made the most of his seven completions as he tossed three touchdowns, second best in Wolverine history.
Hart scored on runs of 2- and 3-yards, while Mallett hit Greg Mathews, Adrian Arrington and Mario Manningham with touchdown tosses of 25-, 5- and 13-yards.
Jason Gingell opened the game with a 39-yard field goal and was perfect on all five extra points.
The Wolverines (1-2) finished with 379 yards in total offense, 300 more yards than the Fighting Irish had.
Notre Dame finished with 85 yards passing as freshman Jimmy Clausen and Evan Sharpley were a combined 13-of-22 with two interceptions. The Fighting Irish finished with negative six yards rushing, due mainly to seven sacks.
"I thought we did some good things out there today," Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said. "I thought that at the start of the game, the turnovers that Notre Dame had really put us in the position to take the lead. Defensively, we played together and had leverage on the football. We tackled well and we had good pressure on the quarterback.
"Offensively, we controlled the line of scrimmage and that was the biggest thing that we did. We didn't turn the ball over with the exception of late in the game. I thought this was a team victory," he added.
Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said that his team would start over again with training camp, which began Sunday. He also was looking to see if any of his players had given up on the season.
"We're starting training camp tomorrow," he said. "The team is heading in the wrong direction and when your team is heading in the wrong direction there is only one way I know to fix it; to come out swinging. I'm embarrassed about our performance out there and as I always do I will take full accountability for it. I'm responsible for our team playing like that, but the bottom line is that we're really not getting good at anything and the only way we can fix it is by starting training camp, we'll be doing that tomorrow.
"I was looking at their eyes to see if any of them had thrown in the towel, I was including the coaching staff too. I wanted to look and see whose eyes were up and whose were down. I wasn't sending a message, I was just observing because I knew what I had to talk about when I got in there. I mean when you lose 38-0 there is nothing good to talk about," Weis said.
Notre Dame left for Ann Arbor Friday afternoon without quarterback Demetrius Jones, who has reportedly enrolled at Northern Illinois.
Jones started the season opener against Georgia Tech, but has not seen the field since being replaced with Sharpley at the end of the first half against the Yellow Jackets.
Jones becomes the second Notre Dame quarterback to transfer this season. Following spring practice, Zach Frazer, also a sophomore, transferred to Connecticut after losing out in the four-way battle for the starting quarterback spot.
Michigan will play its fourth consecutive home game of the season as it opens up Big Ten Conference play on Saturday against Penn State.
The Fighting Irish (0-3) return home to take on undefeated Michigan State.
Notre Dame 0 0 0 0 – 0
Michigan 10 21 7 0 – 38
MICH – Gingell, Jason 39 field goal
MICH – Hart, Mike 2 run (Gingell kick)
MICH – Hart, Mike 3 run (Gingell kick)
MICH – Mathews, Greg 26 pass from Mallett, Ryan (Gingell kick)
MICH – Arrington, Adrian 5 pass from Mallett (Gingell kick)
MICH – Manningham, Mario 13 pass from Mallett (Gingell kick)