East Rutherford, NJ (UHND) - Five field goals from Nicholas Setta and a 76 yard punt return from Vontez Duff was the difference Saturday night as Notre Dame rolled over #20 Maryland 22-0 in the final Kickoff Classic to give new head coach Tyrone Willingham a victory in his first game.  The Irish didn't score an offensive touchdown and showed a lot of room for improvement, but dominated Maryland on both sides of the ball and have given Irish fans hope for this season.

The Notre Dame defense started off with a bang with Shane Walton intercepting the first pass of the game,  The interception was the first of three Walton picks on the night.  That set up a 56 yard field goal attempt for the Irish.  Nicholas Setta just missed the lengthy kick and left many Irish fans wondering why Willingham decided to kick a field goal instead of go for it on fourth and one.  Setta showed everyone why his coach let him attempt the 56 yarder when he nailed a 51 yarder on Notre Dame's next possession.

Setta followed with field goals of 32 and 18 yards to give Notre Dame a 9-0 lead heading into half-time.  The 18 yarder came after Willingham decided to kick a field goal rather than go for it on 4th and goal from the one with about 30 seconds left in the first half.  Carlyle Holiday set up the field goal by escaping the Maryland rush and making an acrobatic leap towards the end zone.  

Notre Dame got its first touchdown of the season when Vontex Duff took the first Maryland punt of the second half 76 yards for a touchdown.  Duff ran through one weak arm tackle and was off to the races.  It was the second consecutive game in which Duff returned a kick for a touchdown (he took a kick off the distance in the last game of 2001 against Purdue).

The only other scoring in the game came on two more Setta field goals, this time from 46 and 24 yards out.  For the game, Setta was 5 of 6 with his only miss coming from 56 yards out - can you say Lou Groza finalist?

The story of the game however was the new Notre Dame offense and the domination of the Notre Dame defense.  Carlyle Holiday had more passing yards in the first half of this game than he had in any single game last season.  For the game he was 17 of 27 for 229 yards with 16 yards on 8 carries - a far cry from the numbers he put up last season when his rushing total was close to his passing total.

The defense held the Maryland offense to just 138 yards of total offense including only 23 on the ground.  The defense also forced three turnovers, all Walton int's.  The defensive line also got penetration all day long with Cedric Hilliard busting up a lot of running plays.  The defense also defended the option to near perfection.  With the exception of one play, the option was completely shut down by the Irish defense.

All in all, it was a good game for the Irish who should undoubtedly be ranked when the new rankings come out, but there is still much room for improvement.  There were too many penalties, Holiday made a few mental mistakes, the running game was weak, and the offense couldn't put the ball in the end zone, but considering that this was the first game with an entirely new system on offense, the team played great.

Next up for the Irish is Purdue next Saturday in South Bend, it will be the first home game of the Willingham era.  Check back with UHND.com for more post game articles to follow and pre game articles for the Purdue game.