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Georgia Tech routs Notre Dame

Sep 2, 2007 - 1:40 AM SOUTH BEND, Indiana (Ticker) -- Notre Dame may miss Brady Quinn more than anyone in South Bend could have imagined.

Tashard Choice rushed for a career-high 196 yards and Travis Bell kicked three field goals Saturday, leading Georgia Tech to a 33-3 season-opening rout of the sputtering Fighting Irish.

Avenging a 14-10 loss to Notre Dame in last season's opener, the Yellow Jackets held the Fighting Irish to their lowest point total in a season opener since a 3-0 loss to Missouri in 1978.

Quinn's departure left Notre Dame inexperienced at quarterback, and it showed as the Irish appeared confused and disorganized. Notre Dame's first six possessions resulted in two fumbles and four punts.

"I'm not happy with us (not) taking care of the football," Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said. "I'm not happy with our protection. But I have to wait to see how many of those errors are quarterback related and how many of them are protection related, and how many of them are route related.

"There's a whole litany of problems right there that we have to fix. The problem is when you have so many issues - it wasn't like even though we knew they were going to throw the kitchen sink - it wasn't like anything that was unfamiliar territory as far as what they were doing."

The Fighting Irish (0-1) were held to 122 total yards, including minus-eight yards rushing.

Notre Dame's defense kept the Irish in the game in the first half as the Yellow Jackets (1-0) settled for field goals of 32, 29 and 40 yards to grab a 9-0 lead early in the second period.

But Georgia Tech wore down the Irish, led by Choice, who scored on runs of 22 and seven yards.

"I'll be honest with you folks, I did not see this coming," Georgia Tech coach Chan Gailey said. "I thought we would play pretty well defensively. I did not think we would be able to run the ball as well as we ran it today. I didn't know that."

Weis did not see it coming either.

"I thought that in this opener - with our team - I thought that we would play the game, you know, more of a low scoring mentality than one I've had in the past," Weis said. "Usually when I'm trying to score a whole bunch of points, we're throwing it a whole bunch."

The Fighting Irish posted their lowest offensive output since managing just 109 yards in a 41-10 loss to Southern California in 2004.

"I think there definitely was a negative residual effect of the defense having to be on the field because of the lack of consistent drives by the O," Weis said.

Notre Dame failed to score a touchdown in a season opener for the first time since 1985.

"I don't know," Weis said of the last time a team he coached failed to score a touchdown. "I mean, we've had some awful games in the past, but it's been a while."

Weis, who opted not to name his starting quarterback during the week, used all three of his signal-callers.

Demetrius Jones started but was benched in favor of Evan Sharpley midway through the second quarter before highly touted freshman Jimmy Clausen made his first appearance with 8:46 left in the fourth period.

Weis said his indecision was not a distraction for the team.

"The whole team knew what we were doing for weeks," he said. "So for the team, it wasn't a negative and for those players, it was just to make sure that those guys weren't under the scrutiny of all the Notre Dame fans across the country."

None of the quarterbacks could get anything going as Georgia Tech's defense dominated throughout, recording 16 plays for losses - including eight sacks.

"We were just trying to beat Georgia Tech," Weis said of the quarterback situation. "And we've been practicing this for multiple weeks. We established our mentality, what we were going to do weeks ago, and when I said to everyone that all of these guys were involved."

As for next week's road game against Penn State, Weis said their will be a definite starter announced ahead of time.

"I think that once I know what I'm doing, I think I'm going to need 48 hours," Weis said. "I think I'm going to need at least 24 hours. I might not be ready by the press conference tomorrow, but by the time I meet with you Tuesday, I'll tell what you we're doing."