Sept. 21, 2013

Recap | Final Stats | Quotes | Photo Gallery

• Notre Dame won the toss and elected to receive. Michigan State defended the north goal to open the game.
• Official kickoff was at 3:43 p.m. (ET) with a temperature of 65 degrees and 52% humidity. The weather was partly cloudy with winds from the northwest at 14 mph, gusting to 24 mph. The game officially ended at 7:12 p.m. (ET).
• Dame has now won three consecutive games against Michigan State for the first time since 1992-94.
• The Fighting Irish are 12-0 under Brian Kelly when they do not commit a turnover in the contest.
• The Irish had a punt blocked early in the first quarter. It was the first Irish punt that was blocked since the 2008 game against Boston College. Notre Dame had gone 254 straight punts without being blocked.
• Of the 95 yards passing by Notre Dame in the first quarter, 74 yards in receptions were by freshmen wide receivers Corey Robinson and Will Fuller. For the game, the two freshmen wideouts accounted for 91 of the 142 receiving yards.
• For the sixth consecutive season, the Irish have held Michigan State without a touchdown in the first quarter of play.
• The second quarter Michigan State drive of 79 yards was the longest drive against the Irish all season in terms of yardage. Later in the game, Michigan State went on a 15-play drive that lasted 8:39, which was the longest scoring drive of the campaign against Notre Dame in terms of both number of plays and time of the drive.

The Victory Over Michigan State

• Improves Notre Dame’s record to 3-1 on the season.
• Improves Notre Dame’s record to 23-5 over its last 28 games overall and 23-3 over its last 26 regular season contests.
• Improves Notre Dame’s all-time record to 868-302-42 (.733).
• Improves Notre Dame’s all-time home record to 469-118-13 (.793).
• Improves Notre Dame’s all-time record at Notre Dame Stadium to 322-106-5 (.749).
• Extends Notre Dame’s winning streak at Notre Dame Stadium to 10 games.
• Improves Notre Dame’s all-time record to 48-28-1 (.630) against Michigan State.
• Extends Notre Dame’s winning streak against Michigan State to three games.
• Improves Notre Dame’s all-time home record to 29-13 (.659) against Michigan State.
• Improves Notre Dame’s all-time record at Notre Dame Stadium against Michigan State to 18-13 (.581).
• Improves Notre Dame’s all-time record to 147-132-10 (.526) against ranked opponents.
• Improves Notre Dame’s all-time home record to 68-53-3 (.560) against ranked opponents.
• Improves Notre Dame’s all-time record to 8-12-1 (.405) against ranked Michigan State.
• Improves Notre Dame’s all-time home record to 5-5 (1.000) against ranked Michigan State.
• Improves Notre Dame’s all-time record when ranked in the top 25 to 26-15-1 (.631) against Michigan State.
• Improves Notre Dame’s all-time home record when ranked in the top 25 to 12-6 (.667) against Michigan State.
• Improves Notre Dame’s all-time record when ranked in the top 25 to 6-7-1 (.464) against ranked Michigan State.
• Improves Notre Dame’s all-time home record when ranked in the top 25 to 3-1 (.750) against ranked Michigan State.
• Improves Notre Dame’s all-time record to 235-125-16 (.646) against Big Ten opponents.
• Improves Notre Dame’s all-time home record to 121-47-5 (.714) against Big Ten opponents.
• Improves Notre Dame’s all-time record at Notre Dame Stadium to 98-42-4 (.694) against Big Ten opponents.
• Improves Brian Kelly’s all-time record to 202-69-2 (.744).
• Improves Brian Kelly’s all-time record at Notre Dame to 31-12 (.721).
• Improves Brian Kelly’s all-time record in FBS games to 83-34 (.709).
• Improves Brian Kelly’s record since 2006 to 74-22 (.771).
• Improves Brian Kelly’s record since 2001 to 125-36 (.776).
• Improves Brian Kelly’s all-time record to 3-2 (.600) against Michigan State.
• Improves Brian Kelly’s all-time home record to 2-0 (1.000) against Michigan State.
• Improves Brian Kelly’s all-time record to 9-9 (.500) against Big Ten opponents.
• Improves Brian Kelly’s all-time home record to 5-1 (.833) against Big Ten opponents.
• Improves Brian Kelly’s all-time September record to 62-29 (.681).

Tommy Rees

• With his second quarter two-yard touchdown pass to T.J. Jones, Rees notched his fourth straight game with at least one touchdown pass.
• The touchdown pass was the 42nd of his career and eighth of this season.

T.J. Jones

• Caught his 12th career touchdown reception at the end of the second quarter. The touchdown reception ties Jones for 10th all time on the touchdown receptions list with Bobby Brown (1996-99) and Tim Brown (1984-87).
• Jones has registered at least one reception in 31 straight games played, hauling in multiple passes in 27 of those contests dating back to the 2010 Sun Bowl on Dec. 31, 2010 against Miami (Fla.) (110 receptions, 1,339 yards and nine touchdowns in that span).

Stephon Tuitt

• Sacked Michigan State’s Connor Cook in the fourth quarter for his second sack of the season and 16th of his career. Tuitt is now only half a sack behind Bert Berry (1993-96) who is ninth on the all-time sack list.

Matthias Farley

• Intercepted a pass thrown by R.J. Shelton in the third quarter for his first interception of the year and second of his career.

Cam McDaniel

• Scored a rushing touchdown for the second consecutive week on a seven-yard run in the fourth quarter. The touchdown was the third of McDaniel’s career.

Kyle Brindza

• Had a 51-yard punt in the fourth quarter, which was a season-long for Notre Dame. Matched the new season-long on his next punt, which also went 51 yards.

Will Fuller

• Registered his first career catch in the first quarter against the Spartans with a 37-yard reception.

Corey Robinson

• Recorded first ever multi-reception game of his career against Michigan State as he caught three passes for 54 yards. The 54 yards were a career high for the freshman.

Captains

• The captains for Notre Dame were Bennett Jackson (CB), TJ Jones (WR) and Zach Martin (OL).
• The captains for Michigan State were Darqueze Dennard (DB), Kurtis Drummond (DB), Max Bullough (LB), Blake Treadwell (OL).