Saturday, Sept. 23, 2006. The game was highlighted by the duel between Drew Stanton of the Spartans and Brady Quinn of the Irish.
The Michigan State Spartans had a 31-14 lead during the first half, but Quinn rebounded to win the second-half duel with four touchdown passes.
Later in the end of the game, it was Quinn who gets the edge in the matchup because his outstanding play in the final 30 minutes helped the Irish rally from what seemed like an impossible 37-21 deficit and turn it into a stunning 40-37 victory over the Spartans.
“We let ourselves down and the program down,’’ Stanton said. “It’s bad that we let them get back into and that we couldn’t do anything offensively (late in the game). We just had too many mistakes.’’
Stanton even tried to run for a first down on a third and nine from the MSU 21, but the ball was knocked loose before his knee hit the turn and the Irish recovered.
Even though Quinn had a poor first half, he later found his game in the second quarter and continued it in the third. A much improved effort after being badly outplayed by Michigan’s Chad Henne last Saturday in a 47-21 Irish defeat at Notre Dame Stadium.
Quinn, the 6-foot-4, 233-pounder from Dublin, Ohio completed 20 of 36 passes for 319 yards. But he had one pass intercepted and returned 19 yards for a touch down by Spartan linebacker Ervin Baldwin in the second quarter.
He also connected with McNight and Jeff Samardzija for two touch down passes apiece, and found tight end John Carlson for a 62-yard touchdown pass on the second possession of the second half.
“I think when (Quinn) threw the touchdown pass to get it to a 10-point deficit (with 8:18 to play), it was like ‘OK, now we have a shot.’ ” Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said.
Quinn’s impressive heroic play in the fourth quarter, some defensive lapses and penalties by MSU and two Stanton turnovers helped the Irish turn what looked like a likely defeat into a victory.
Football Prospects John David Booty John Booty(born January 3, 1985 in Shreveport, Louisiana) is the starting quarterback of University of Southern California (USC) football team. He is called "John David" Booty because his father's name is John Booty. John David Booty prepped at the Evangel Christian Academy in Shreveport but left a year early after his father/Quarterbacks Coach left the staff (he already had enough credits to graduate). Despite leaving after his junior year, John David Booty threw for 8,474 yards on 555 of 864 attempts (64.2%) with 88 touchdowns and 26 interceptions.
