Notre Dame, Ind (UHND) - Caryle Holiday threw a season high four touchdown passes to go along with 270 yards in routing the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers 42-0 after only leading 14-0 at half-time. Holiday lead the Irish to a 28 point third quarter that opened the game wide open. The Irish started off very shaky, but ended up winning big. Despite the high score however, the Irish could not run on the Rutgers defense early despite ending up with 186 yards on the ground.

Carlyle Holiday hit Arnaz Battle on the a bubble screen in the second quarter for a 38 yard touchdown to give the Irish a 7-0 lead. Shane Walton added another 7 points when he snared the ball off the back of an offensive lineman before taking it into the end zone. Replays showed that the ball hit the ground, but it was ruled a touchdown and it gave Notre Dame a 14-0 lead.

The game would stay at 14-0 before the third quarter when Notre Dame scored its most point ever in the third quarter with 28. The first touchdown came on a 63 yard touchdown pass from Holiday to Battle, his second of the day. Carlyle went on to throw touchdowns of 37 and 26 yards to Omar Jenkins and Maurice Stovall. On his TD to Stovall, he came under a rush and danced around to avoid getting sacked and hit the 6'5" freshman.

Ryan Grant added a 28 yard run on a day he went over 1000 yards for the season and the rout was on. Grant ended up the day with 1,001 yards becoming only the 7th Irish back to run for 1,000 yards and his 1,001 yards ranked 3rd for most yards by a sophomore. Grant also added his 9th touchdown of the season.

The first half looked like we were in for another close game with Rutgers moving the ball on the Irish and stopping them on defense. Rutgers was set to take the lead when they fumbled near the goal line and it was all downhill from their for the Scarlet Knights. Rutgers managed only 19 yards on the ground and 158 through the air while losing 39 yards by getting sacked 5 times by Notre Dame. Rutgers also turned the ball over (1 fumble and 2 interceptions - the Walton TD and another by Quiten Burrell).

The win gave the Irish their first 10 win season since '93 and sets them up nicely heading into their annual showdown with #7 USC. If Notre Dame can beat the Trojans next week in Southern California, the Irish will be guaranteed a BCS berth by finishing in the top 6 of the BCS standings. The win also gave Tyrone Willingham the first 10 win season of his career as well as making him the only first year Notre Dame coach to win 10 games.

Overall, this win was very good for the Irish because Cedric Hilliard and Gerome Sapp got to heal their injuries for another week, gave some younger guys some playing time such as Garron Bible who laid a few people out, and gave the offense some much needed confidence heading into a huge game next weekend against rival USC. There was still some sloppy play, but the overall play was improved from the last two games and I have no doubt that the Irish will bring their A game to Southern Cal next week.