SAN ANTONIO— The swaths of empty seats in the upper deck of the Alamodome Saturday night belied the giddiness the Notre Dame football team brought to this city in the school’s first off-site “home game” experiment.
And the football itself wasn’t bad, either.
Charlie Weis not only got his first decaffeinated finish since the Sept. 5 season opener with Nevada, the Notre Dame head coach also got some much-needed style points as the 25th-ranked Irish bulldozed Washington State, 40-14.
“I almost didn’t know what to do,” Weis said with a chuckle, his Irish truncating a school-record string of six games decided by a touchdown or less. “It’s been so long since we had a game where the game was put away.”
The Irish, now 15-0 on Halloween and 6-2 overall for the first time since 2005, move on to a tough November stretch with at least a running start. The Irish realistically need to sweep all four - Navy, Pitt, UConn and Stanford - to join the BCS party at the end of the season for the first time since 2006.
Weis pulled into a tie with Bob Davie for seventh place on ND’s coaching career win list at 35. The four games that follow will either distance him from the Davie comparisons, perhaps for good, or re-couple him to them.
Those notions seemed a million miles away Saturday night, or at least the 1,303 miles between San Antonio and ND’s normal home venue in South Bend. A crowd of 53,407 - about 11,500 short of capacity - produced the kind of decibel level that Notre Dame Stadium wouldn’t mind having on a weekly basis. And they were treated to the 10th 500-yard-plus offensive performance of the Weis Era.
In fact, the Irish produced season highs for total yards (592), rushing yards (255), first downs (32) and points (40).
It wasn’t all Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate, though there was plenty of fireworks from ND’s two All-America candidates, including a breathtaking 50-yard TD completion on the last play of the first half.
Backup running backs Robert Hughes and Theo Riddick, and, yes, the nation’s 97th-ranked defense (out of 120) were among headliners.
Hughes, subbing for the convalescing Armando Allen (ankle), pounded away for 131 yards on 24 carries and a touchdown without making an appearance in the fourth quarter. Riddick added 51 yards on nine carries.
“I don’t really know when the switch went on, but the switch definitely went on,” Weis said of Hughes.
Clausen, meanwhile, was 22-of-27 for 268 yards and two touchdowns and no interceptions. All but 13 of his passing yards came in the first half.
By halftime Clausen had his 49th and 50th career TD passes, was just six completions away from deleting Brady Quinn’s single-season school record for pass completions and had moved up into the No. 2 spot on the career list behind Quinn.
“I thought we did a good job of taking away a lot of their deep stuff,” Washington State coach Paul Wulff said. “But to give him credit, you go back and look at all the checkdowns. To me that says a lot about a quarterback. He didn’t force anything downfield.
“I know when they were going through growing pains two years ago with a young outfit and him being a true freshman, it was tough. Now you watch him grow, he’s really turned into a great quarterback.”
Clausen hobbled out of the game, though, in the third quarter after trying to avoid a sack, but Weis indicated Clausen was healthy enough to go back in if needed.
Backup Dayne Crist had a 64-yard TD pass to John Goodman in his cameo, but he too left the game hobbled, with a knee injury, and apparently more seriously than Clausen.
“He’s going to get an MRI on Monday, and then we’ll have a better idea,” Weis said of Crist. “He said he has loose knees anyway, so he’s cautiously optimistic. We’re just going to have to wait for the MRI on Monday and see how it turns out.”
Fifth-year senior Evan Sharpley, a rookie first baseman for the Seattle Mariners’ rookie league affiliate this past summer, finished up for the Irish at QB in his first football action since 2008.
Tate rushed for 61 yards and a TD and caught four passes for 80 and another TD, a Hail Mary he plucked out of the air in the end zone, surrounded by three defenders.
Washington State (1-7) did generate a couple of scoring drives, but one of them was against the Irish reserves. Overall, the Cougars churned out only 206 yards, yielded five sacks and coughed up two interceptions, one to nose tackle Ian Williams.
Their only other apparent shining moment, other than the two scoring drives, got extinguished.
After Clausen connected with Duval Kamara for a seven-yard scoring pass for a 9-0 lead with 14 seconds left in the first quarter, freshman kicker Nick Tausch’s extra point was blocked.
Washington State safety Chima Nwachukwu scooped it up and was running for an apparent defensive 2-point PAT when Irish tight end Mike Ragone caught him from behind at the Irish 6.
Tausch did connect on two field goals, from 29 and 23 yards, to break Mike Johnston’s school record of consecutive field goals, set in 1982. Tausch now has converted 14 straight after missing his first career attempt, Sept. 12 against Michigan.
“I thought that this was a great venue,” Weis said of the off-site experience. “It was just awesome, and I think our players thought that too. There was so much excitement in the air. When we first came down here, no one was really sure how it was going to play out. If the rest of them go like this, sign me up. It really was a great experience.”
And now as he turns his attention to the bigger picture, he’s trying to make sure his players are only looking at the little one - next Saturday’s home game against Navy.
“I’d be a hypocrite if I went any further than talking about Navy,” he said.
“But I will tell you we’ve put ourselves in position where good things can happen this year. And we get to control our own destiny. It’s always good when you’re not counting on somebody’s help to be able to control your own destiny.”
