Holiday leads Irish past Rutgers for 10th victory

He threw four touchdown passes in the 42-0 rout to tie a school record.
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) -- Carlyle Holiday tied a school record with four touchdown passes and Shane Walton returned an interception 45 yards for a score as No. 8 Notre Dame beat Rutgers 42-0 Saturday.
The victory gives Notre Dame its first 10-win season since going 11-1 in 1993. It also gives Tyrone Willingham the most wins by a first-year Irish coach, passing the marks of 9-1 posted by Ara Parseghian in 1964 and Terry Brennan in 1954.
Willingham took over a 5-6 team and has the Irish on the brink of a Bowl Championship Series berth. A win at No. 7 USC on Saturday all but assures the Irish a spot in a BCS game, most likely the Orange or Sugar Bowl. BCS selections will not be official until the final standings Dec. 8.
Holiday threw touchdown passes of 38 and 63 yards to Arnaz Battle and added a 37-yarder to Omar Jenkins and a 26-yarder to Maurice Stovall for his first career four-touchdown game -- tying a school record shared by five others.
Holiday, who threw three TD passes all of last season and one through four games this season, has nine TD passes in the last six games.
Second shutout win
The 42 points are the most for the Fighting Irish (10-1) since they scored 45 against Rutgers (1-10) two years ago. It was Notre Dame's second shutout this season. The Irish opened the season with 22-0 win over Maryland.
Rutgers has lost eight straight, its longest losing streak since losing nine straight in going 1-10 in 1999.
The Irish didn't score in the first quarter but had two TDs in the second and four in the third as they looked dominant for the first time since beating Florida State 34-24 last month.
Holiday was 13-of-25 for 270 yards, falling 2 yards shy of the career high he set against Navy two weeks ago. The Irish finished with a season-high 478 yards of total offense.
Ryan Grant scored the other TD for the Irish and rushed for 68 yards on 18 carries, giving him 1,001 yards for the season. He is just the seventh Irish running back to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season. Autry Denson was the last to do it with 1,176 yards in 1998.
Grant alone has rushed for nearly twice as many yards this season as the entire Rutgers team. The Scarlet Knights rushed for 18 yards on 27 carries Saturday, giving them 544 for the season. Rutgers is on pace to have its worst season rushing since running for 620 yards in 1946.
Notre Dame is 4-0 all-time against Rutgers, shutting the Scarlet Knights out in three of those, and winning by a combined score of 197-17. It was Notre Dame's first shutout at home since beating Rutgers 62-0 in Lou Holtz's final home game in 1996.
Broke game open
The Irish broke the game open Saturday in the third quarter when they scored three touchdowns on four plays. The 28 points were the most ever scored by an Irish team in the third quarter, breaking the mark of 27 set against SMU in 1952 and tied against Illinois in 1968.
Walton has seven interceptions this season, the most by an Irish player since Todd Lyght had eight in 1989. The pass by Ryan Hart, under heavy pressure from linebacker Mike Goolsby, bounced off the back of center Marty Pyszczymuka. Replays showed that Walton trapped the ball after it hit the ground, but officials never blew a whistle and he raced untouched to the end zone.
It was Notre Dame's fourth interception return for a TD this season, tying a school record set in 1966.