Birk's Eye View: Brandon Minor makes a huge difference, plus other notes from Michigan's upset win

"That's just me," Minor said. "The physical style of play, I like to hit. If somebody’s going to tackle me, they got to pay for it."

Minor, who played at less than 100 percent Saturday, scored Michigan's first touchdown on a 2-yard plunge and set up another score with a beast of a third quarter.

He carried eight times for 70 yards in the period, and had gains of 16 and 32 yards on his first two runs.

While Michigan's spread offense relies primarily on speed, Minor's destructive style adds an interesting dimension. He's the Wolverines' most complete back, a tone-setter, and they need him healthy to contend in the still-rugged Big Ten.

"I don’t know if you noticed how physical Brandon was blocking, and Carlos (Brown), on all those blitzes," Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez said. "It was something neat to watch."

Positives, negatives and leftovers

Let’s close the book on Notre Dame before moving on to Eastern Michigan. Michigan still has its flaws, including in the secondary, where the Wolverines could be in for some long days, especially if Mike Williams’ leg injury is serious. But there were more plusses than minuses Saturday.

The good
• Walk-on safety Jordan Kovacs played well in place of Williams, who grabbed at the back of his right leg while chasing Notre Dame tight end Kyle Rudolph on a long pass that was called back late in the third quarter. Kovacs, who had three tackles, presumably gets the start next week against Eastern if Williams can’t play.

“Here it is in crunch time, the second half of the game, they’ve got some of their four- and five-star (players in) - and they’re really good players,” Rodriguez said. “And then we got Jordan Kovacs, who was a school-start walk-on, second time. First time he didn’t make it because he was injured and he went and got his knee fixed. We told him to come back again to try out with the general student body, and not only does he try out and make the team, now he’s in there playing at safety, in the middle of crunch time, national TV, against Notre Dame. To me, that’s pretty special.”

• Kind of lost in the dramatics of Saturday - I know I neglected to mention it anywhere - was the great quick kick Michigan called for on a fourth-and-2 near midfield late in the third quarter.

First, quarterback Tate Forcier made a great punt (50 yards) on a play that caught Notre Dame off guard. Second, Darryl Stonum had the hustle play of the day, lunging to tap the ball clear of the goal line, where Greg Mathews touched it dead at the 4. The whole sequence changed field position at a very important stage of the game.

• After allowing 302 yards of offense in the first half, Michigan’s defense held Notre Dame to just 188 yards in the second. It helped that the offense was on the field longer - remember, Stonum took a kick back for a touchdown early - but Michigan also made a few defensive corrections.

“We were hitting them with the right, they were going left, so it was just a matter of us switching it up, mixing it up a little bit,” cornerback Donovan Warren said.

The bad
• My own two cents: That was a weak taunting call, for shushing the crowd, on Notre Dame running back Armando Allen after his two-point conversion gave the Irish a 34-31 lead with 5:13 to play. Because of the 15-yard penalty, Notre Dame had to kick off from the 15-yard line. It doesn’t taint the win, but field judge Gerald Hocker should have kept the flag in his pocket there, or at least warned Allen to be careful with his celebration - like Greg Mathews said an official did for him after scoring the game-winning touchdown.

• Kicker Jason Olesnavage drilled a 39-yard field goal to end the first half, but missed a chip-shot 26-yarder in the third quarter. Worst of all, the miss came after Michigan took a delay-of-game penalty to get a better angle.

• As good as Michael Floyd and Golden Tate are - and they’re the best receivers Michigan will face all year - I still have doubts about the Wolverines secondary. Of course, no sacks doesn’t help matters, either.

The extras
• Rodriguez’s father, Vince, said the past few weeks, including allegations of NCAA violations, have been “rough on (Rodriguez), rough on his family.” “It meant the world to him, this game,” Vince Rodriguez said.

• Mathews said he “misread the coverage” on Forcier’s fourth-quarter interception, the first turnover of the young quarterback’s career. “It was definitely my fault,” he said. “Just after that happened I felt bad. I knew I had to definitely make up for it and I just didn’t want to think of sitting in the locker room and just having to go through just what I’ve been through and that happening and then I make a mistake like that to lose the game, so I definitely wanted to atone for that mistake.”

Atone he did, of course, with that game-winning 5-yard touchdown catch.