Quarterback
Carlyle Holiday played about as bad a first half as one could.  He lost two fumbles when he held onto the ball too long and had no feel for the pressure coming at him.  His longest completion was 11 yards.  He under threw Maurice Stovall a couple times when Stovall was open.  He had a nice completion percentage at half time, but had three points to show for it.  Holiday also appeared to go down on a few weaker hits throughout the game.  Early on he got sacked on a play I thought he should have been able to avoid.  He rebounded nice in the second half and finished with 24 completions on 31 attempts.  That's a good completion percentage, but he only had 149 yards on those 24 completions.  He had chances to connect with receivers deep, especially Stovall and failed.  He improved on his short passing game, but his long ball was worse than it was last year.  He also made a horrible decision to throw deep to Stovall in the second half on his interception.  One great play he did make was getting the ball back after it appeared Washington State had recovered a fumbled snap.  Holiday snuck his arm in under the defender and got the ball back.  A similar effort from Holiday next week will result in either a big Michigan win or an injury to Holiday or both.  Brady Quinn made his debut this week when Holiday went down with an injury and led Notre Dame to touchdown.  He did not get to throw a pass, but looked cool under the pressure out there.  He has the look of a star quarterback and definitely looked calm and composed out on the field despite being a true freshman.
Grade: C

Running Backs
Julius Jones made his presence felt in the fourth quarter.  Jones made a spectacular 19 yard touchdown run to give Notre Dame the lead and made another long run to set up the touchdown pass from Holiday to McKnight.  Ryan Grant looked sub-par for the first three quarters then turned it on late and ended up with 98 yards on 18 carries after starting off with 18 yards on his first 8 carries.  The biggest problem with the running backs against Washington State however was their blocking.  The backs were not good at all at picking up the blitz.  Washington State brought the house at Carlyle Holiday and the backs needed to do better protecting him.  Jones looked sharp for coming off a year absence.  Based on his play against Washington State, I wouldn't be surprised if he got more carries next week.  He got 11 this week and turned them into 72 yards (6.5 yds/carry compared to 5.7 for Grant).  Jones big mistake however was his first half fumble when he had the ball on his inside arm and got it stripped away.  If he would have had the ball on the outside, he most likely would not have fumbled and would have had a big gain.
Grade: B-

Wide Receivers
The wide receivers made some nice plays.  Rhema McKnight drug the defender into the end zone with him on his fourth quarter touchdown catch.  He also had a nice touchdown catch called back then made a crazy one-handed catch that was ruled out of bounds in the end zone on the next play.  Maurice Stovall was open a lot and didn't get the ball as much as he should have.  Holiday under threw him a couple of times and then threw behind one play in the third quarter.  Omar Jenkins made a great run after the catch for a 29 yard gain in the fourth quarter and made a lot of nice blocks in the running game.  A few freshmen got in the game as well.  Chinedum N'dukwe and Jeff Samardzija both made their debuts with Samardzija making his first a catch.  The receivers didn't get that many good balls thrown their way.  Most of the completions were short passes.  The talent is definitely here though for big gains, Holiday just needs to connect with them.
Grade: B

Offensive Line
With four new starters on the offensive line you knew there was going to be some growing pains.  There were missed assignments, false starts, holding calls on big plays, and in general some confusion.  Both centers, Zach Giles and Bob Morton, played and there were center quarterback exchanges fumbles often.  Morton was playing double duty by moving over to guard when Sean Milligan left the game.  I don't like that idea at all.  It is apparent that the center-quarterback exchange needs work and switching centers is just not a good idea when this is happening.  Until the fourth quarter there were also not that many holes for the running backs.  I thought the offensive line actually did an OK job with the blitz.  Washington State was bringing the house some times and the line, considering two made their first career starts and two others only had 4 combined starts, did decently at picking it up.  The line needs some help from the running backs with the blitz.  They can't pick everyone up when more than 5 guys blitz.  The line will only get better which is the good thing.  Hopefully they got all of the inexperience mistakes out of their systems this week.  They will need to step it up next week in Ann Arbor
Grade: C

Defensive Line:
Cedric Hilliard was slowed a little by injury.  He didn't play as much as he normally would.  He did make his presence felt when he was in the game however.  Darrell Campbell got good pressure on Matt Kegel as well. The front four in general got to Kegel without the aid of a blitz.  Campbell, Hilliard, Justin Tuck, and Kyle Budinscak all played very well.  Tuck made a huge sack in the first half that caused a fumble.  The line also bottled up Washington State's running game for most of the game.  Washington State officially finished the game with 55 yards on the ground.  Take out the yards from the two Notre Dame sacks and they had 68 yards on 29 carries (2.3 yards per carry).  Next week they will face a very talented back in Chris Perry who put up 180+ yards this week.  Overall the defensive line played well.  I would have liked to see a little more pressure, especially from Tuck coming off the end, but they got a decent amount of pressure with just the front four.  One note, freshman Victor Abiamiri got in the game and made his debut as Tuck's backup.
Grade: B

Linebackers:
Notre Dame was dealt a huge blow when Courtney Watson was suspended for the game for undisclosed reasons.  Watson is an All American and one of the leaders of the team.  It was the second year in a row he missed the opener.  The linebackers had a lot of problems covering the tight ends.  Washington State kept throwing to their tight ends and they kept getting open.  Missing Watson and Mike Goolsby who is hurt played a huge role in this.  Cory Mayes made his first career start in Watson's absence with Derek Curry and Brandon Hoyte starting on the outside.  Curry made a huge interception late in the game that set up a Nicholas Setta field goal.  The return of Watson next week will bolster this group and will improve some of the sloppy tackling we saw against Washington State.  The linebackers didn't get sent in on the blitz much, but will hopefully blitz more next week against Michigan.  I'll give the linebackers a little slack here since Watson couldn't play.
Grade: B-

Defensive Backs:
The injury bug hit the defensive backfield this week.  Jason Beckstrom and Dwight Ellick both left the field at times.  The injuries pushed freshman Freddie Parrish into the game.  It was very apparent that there were two new starters in the backfield as well.  Washington State moved the ball with ease in the air early on.  Even Vontez Duff got beat a couple times.  Duff however played a great game.  He caused a fumble in the fourth quarter that set up a Notre Dame touchdown. That fumble was recovered by Glen Earl who also made an outstanding break up on 3rd and 2 in overtime to force a field goal attempt.  Earl and Duff were there normal selves, the other starters however need to improve.  Washington State receivers were wide open at some points and next week Michigan and Braylon Edwards will make them pay dearly if that happens again.  The loss of Shane Walton and Gerome Sapp was definitely apparent in the running game where if the backs got passed the line there was some weak tackling.  The defensive backs are going to have to step up in the run game. 
Grade: C

Special Teams:
For the second year in a row Nicholas Setta opened the season with a five field goal game.  His only miss came on a 47 yard attempt early in the game when there was a bad snap and bad hold.  With a new snapper and new holder that was to be expected.  After that though the field goal unit was perfect.  Cody Boyd blocked two kicks for Washington State last week, but didn't come close this week as Setta boomed kicks from 37, 32, 39, 47, and 40 yards.  He also was the punter, and after a strong first punt of 55 yards, he dropped off and only averaged 39.7 on the day.  He showed he's got a leg, he just needs to be more consistent now.  The return game was not that much of a factor other than one nice return by Vontez Duff.  Washington was clearly scared of the Notre Dame return game and smartly schemed against it.  Every kick off was a skwib kick and every punt was either inside the 20 or angled at the sidelines.  Setta however saved the day with his 5 field goals.
Grade: A

Coaching:
The Notre Dame coaches were out-coached this week.  Washington State had an excellent game plan in every facet of the game - offense, defense, and especially special teams.  They came in to win the game and almost did.  Notre Dame did not seem very prepared to play this game in the first half.  The offense was just as stagnant as last year and other than the fourth quarter played a poor game.  The coaches did make good adjustments at half time which allowed the Irish to get back in the game.  I liked the call to go for it on fourth and one inside Cougar territory in the first half, but didn't like the play call.  I also thought the defense should have blitzed a lot more early.  Matt Kegel was making his second career start, his first being last week against Idaho, and the coaches decided not to blitz him early to rattle him.  Instead they let him sit back and work on a secondary that was starting two new players.  If they do that next week, John Navarre with pick them apart.  The coaches have their work cut out for them in the next week.
Grade: C-

Overall:
The most important factors from this game were that Notre Dame came out with a win and without any devastating injuries.  They played without one of their best players, Courtney Watson, and still hung on for the win.  The Irish also showed a lot of heart by not giving up when they were down by 19.  Carlyle Holiday needs to play better  though.  If he wants to be a top quality quarterback he has to start feeling the pressure.  How many times do you see Donovan McNabb stand in the pocket and get drilled because he doesn't see someone coming?  Not very often.  The running game came on late but will need to establish itself earlier next week.  The offensive line is having growing pains, but that was to be expected.  The run blocking has to get better as does the pick up of the blitz by both the line and the backs.  For Notre Dame to win next week the passing game will need to be established early.  If Holiday can't come out and complete some throws early Michigan will put 8 and 9 men in the box and blitz like crazy on every obvious passing down.  If he can come out and hit Stovall, Jenkins, or McKnight early for a big gain it'll loosen the Michigan defense up and open up the run game.  As for the Notre Dame defense, I thought they played great.  Washington State scored 26 points but 13 of those were off turnovers.  It was a win, it wasn't pretty most of the time, but it was win.
Grade: C