Sept. 19, 2009: Notre Dame 33, Michigan State 30

Notre Dame hosted Michigan State Spartans on September 21 at Notre Dame Stadium

Rally on the Green

The continued renovations to the Joyce Center Basketball Arena pushed the traditional Pep Rally outdoors, this time to the Irish Green on the south lawn of the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.

Stadium Flags

A long-standing tradition at Notre Dame Stadium is the flying of pennants for each scheduled team around the outer ring of Notre Dame Stadium. The next opponent’s flag always flies on the north end of the stadium above the stadium tunnel on the opposite side from the permanent Notre Dame flag pictured here.

Pre-Game

During pre-game stretching, Head Coach Charlie Weis makes the rounds to shake hands with each player.

Heeeeeeeere come the Irish

After the pre-game show, the Notre Dame Band forms an ND in the north end zone for the team to run through on its way to the sidelines.

All smiles

The Student Section showed up for the game ready for the sun.

Kickoff

Notre Dame leads the long-running series with Michigan State, but hadn’t beaten the Spartans at home since the 1993 season under Coach Lou Holtz.

Painters

Showing up to the game shirtless, painted gold from the waist up and bearing one of the letters in “Irish” on your chest isn’t a guarantee that you’ll end up with front row seats in the free-for-all that is the Student Section…but it helps.

Clausen to Tate for the Touchdown

Jimmy Clausen, who is starting to make spectacular quarterback performances look mundane (23 of 35 for 300 yards and 2 touchdowns against (again) no interceptions), found Golden Tate when it counted, deep in the corner of the end zone with 5 minutes left in the fourth quarter for what would be the game- winning touchdown.

After the win

Receiver Golden Tate celebrates the win with a member of the Notre Dame Cheerleading Squad. Tate was the top receiver on the field with 7 catches for 127 yards and a touchdown.

Perfect Weather for Football

It was mostly sunny with highs in the 70s for the game, and the weather was just as perfect outside the stadium for tailgating.

Love Thee Notre Dame

Kyle McCarthy’s interception of Michigan State Quarterback Kirk Cousins sealed the win for Notre Dame who improves to 2-1 on the season and remains undefeated at home. Go Irish! Beat Boilermakers!

Former Football Alumni Back for the Game

Some of our more obsessive stat-geek readers might remember the story of little-used wide receiver Jamie O’Hara who famously caught a meaningless touchdown to ice a game against Georgia Tech on Senior Day in the early seventies. Although O’Hara was heavily recruited coming out of high school, he came to Notre Dame and it’s safe to say, his career was a disappointment. But…once Irish, always Irish, and Jamie was back on campus this week and walked to the stadium with the team on Game Day.