Brady Quinn set a slew of records in the loss to Michigan State Saturday, including breaking the Notre Dame single-game touchdown pass total with five.
That propelled him to third place on the all-time career list at Notre Dame with 35 scoring tosses, passing Joe Theismann (31) and Jarious Jackson (34) in the process.
He also reached the 400-completion plateau exactly and became the only player in Notre Dame history to have two 400-plus yard passing performances.
Quinn became only the fourth Irish signal-caller to surpass 5,000 passing yards in his career, joining Ron Powlus, Steve Beuerlein and Rick Mirer.
Quinn, however, was not focused on his individual accomplishments.
"The final statistics may ... look good on paper," he said, "but especially the way we played in the first half, it was really not what we wanted coming into this game."
His 487 passing yards were the most by anyone in the history of Notre Dame Stadium, and his 60 pass attempts and 33 completions were individual career highs.
Notre Dame receiver Jeff Samardzija caught three touchdown passes Saturday, tying a school record.
He is the first to accomplish the feat since Tom Gatewood in 1970. It was also the first time since 1998 that an Irish receiver caught touchdowns in three consecutive games.
Penalties punishing
The Irish committed 12 penalties for 92 yards in the game, all during regulation. Head coach Charlie Weis addressed the penalties with visible frustration.
"We had too many mistakes offensively, defensively, special teams - all across the board," Weis said.
"And I'm never going to be content with a comeback when you end up losing ... You can't just accept being in a game that's close and end up losing it. It's just not okay."
1,000 yard man
Darius Walker broke 1,000 yards for his career in regular-season play and set an individual career high in single-game rushing yards with 116. He has rushed for 100 yards in each game this season.
His previous high was in last year's home opener against Michigan, when he rushed for 115 yards on 31 carries.
Fasano nabs 60th
Anthony Fasano passed Mark Bavaro and Tony Hunter for fourth place on the school's all-time receptions list for tight ends. His seven catches against Michigan State lifted his career total to 60, five more than Bavaro and Hunter and two fewer than Derek Brown and Dean Masztak.
Big boot
Irish kicker D.J. Fitzpatrick connected on field goals of 48 and 44 yards. The 48-yard kick was the second longest field goal of his career and the longest since hitting from 50 yards at Syracuse in 2003.
One home game, one loss
Weis and Lou Holtz are the only coaches since World War II to lose their first home game as head coach for Notre Dame.
Weis said in his post game comments that he was not distracted about the long-term ramifications of the contest prior to playing.
"When I walked out [of the tunnel] to get ready for that game, the only thing I was worrying about was that game," Weis said. "I would have liked to have been able to walk off the field victorious, but we didn't. And I'm part of the reason we didn't."
Thriving on fourth down
Notre Dame converted three of four fourth downs, including a 4th-and-15 from the Michigan State 37-yard line. Quinn hit Maurice Stovall for a 17-yard gain on the play. The only failed fourth down was a carry for no gain by freshman fullback Asaph Schwapp on 4th-and-1 with seven minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
Weis said the failed conversion was the result of a miscommunication.
"We had a mental error on the play which I'll take responsibility for," he said. "If you would have seen what I saw, you would have thought it would it was going to be a touchdown before the ball was snapped. But it's my fault because I didn't get it communicated."
Captains
The Irish captains for the game were Quinn on offense, Brandon Hoyte on defense and Tom Zbikowski on special teams.
Coin flip
Notre Dame won the toss in overtime and elected to play to the north end of the stadium, according to UND.com.
