Junior wide receiver Golden Tate set two new school receiving records in the loss to Connecticut. With his 39-yard reception in the first quarter, Tate passed Jeff Samardzija's previous record of 1,249 receiving yards from the 2005 season, and, at the end of the game, he had 1,295 yards on the year.
On the same catch, Tate passed both Samardzija and Tom Gatewood's shared record of 77 receptions in a single season, and he currently has 83 catches on the year.
- Walk-on junior kicker David Ruffer found out that he would start at kicker just before kickoff on Saturday after freshman kicker Nick Tausch was scratched from the game.
"It was right before the series went off that I found out I was going to start," Ruffer said. "I misheard the coin flip and thought we were going to take the ball, so I started kicking field goals. [Junior kicker] Brandon Walker had to yell at me to kickoff."
- Huskies junior quarterback Zach Frazer walked away victorious yesterday in his return to Notre Dame Stadium. Frazer, who was a freshman on the Irish roster in 2006, transferred to Connecticut before the 2007 season after finishing fourth in the quarterback competition to replace Brady Quinn. After the game however, Frazer downplayed the individual significance of the win.
"I don't feel like I proved anything," Frazer said. "I feel like we proved something today, you know, coming in here and getting a victory."
- With the loss, Irish coach Charlie Weis' record at Notre Dame dropped to 35-26, for a winning percentage of .574, below the winning percentages of former Irish coaches Bob Davie and Tyrone Willingham. Weis' home winning percentage of .576 ranks as the worst home winning percentage amongst all Notre Dame coaches since 1975.
- Notre Dame's red zone offense struggled once again to put the ball in the endzone, converting only three touchdowns in six red zone appearances, including in overtime.
Going back to the Navy game, the Irish have scored just seven touchdowns in 14 trips to the red zone. In their seven combined red zone chances in the Navy and Pittsburgh games, the Irish have converted three field goals, committed three turnovers and missed one field goal.
