Michigan football team upsets No. 18-ranked Notre Dame on late Tate Forcier touchdown pass, 38-34

 “Tate comes walking (over all nonchalant) and says, ‘Oh, I forgot to brush my teeth,’” Rodriguez marveled. “That’s what he’s thinking about as we’re getting on the bus and getting ready to come over to the Big House. … He’s a unique individual.” Forcier’s poise paid dividends Saturday as he led a dramatic two-minute touchdown drive, throwing the game-winning 5-yard pass Greg Mathews with 11 seconds to play as Michigan stunned the 18th-ranked Irish, 38-34.

Coming off the losingest season in program history, the Wolverines are 2-0 for the first time since 2006, when they nearly played for the national championship.

“It couldn’t have been any better the way we beat them,” Forcier said.

Making just his second collegiate start, the 19-year-old completed 23 of 33 passes for 240 yards and two touchdowns. Most impressively, he shrugged off his first career interception late in the fourth quarter to lead the game-winning drive.

Trailing 34-31 with 2:13 to play, Forcier marched Michigan 57 yards in nine frantic plays. He completed six of seven passes on the drive - his only misfire was a drop by LaTerryal Savoy - and threaded a pass to Mathews along the goal line in front of two Notre Dame defenders.

“I just saw man-to-man and I took my best matchup,” Forcier said. “I knew Greg could make the play and I got him the ball and he did the rest.”

Mathews, the intended target on Forcier’s interception, finished with team-highs of five catches and 68 yards.

“I just felt numb,” Mathews said. “I didn’t know what to do. I just felt numb, but the referee reminded me to be smart and it made me think of Coach Rod saying hand the ball to the referee and celebrate with your teammates. And that’s what I did.”

Michigan nearly squandered a 31-20 second-half lead when Notre Dame scored two touchdowns in the final 10 minutes.

Armando Allen’s 8-yard run put the Irish ahead 34-31 with 5:13 to play, but Notre Dame (1-1) couldn’t kill the clock on its second-to-last drive.

Irish coach Charlie Weis elected to throw twice in the final three minutes, and the resulting incompletions left Michigan with two timeouts for its march down the field.

“They weren’t going to just sit back there and let us run the ball,” Weis explained. “You have two choices, you run the ball just to make them use their timeouts or you try and win the game.”

Brandon Minor led Michigan with 106 yards rushing on 16 carries in his return from an ankle injury.

Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen was 25 of 42 for 336 yards with three touchdowns for Notre Dame, which had two 100-yard receivers (Golden Tate and Michael Floyd) and a 100-yard rusher (Allen).

Tate scored on touchdowns of 4 and 21 yards, and Floyd had seven catches for 131 yards before leaving in the fourth quarter with a leg injury.

With games the next two weeks against Eastern Michigan and Indiana, Michigan has a chance for its first perfect September under Rodriguez, who was flanked by his father and several friends at his post-game news conference.

“It’s two wins, two good wins," Rodriguez said. "It’s still a long way to go, but if they stay humble and hungry and keep getting better, then some of that national respect that all of us want, our fans want, our players want, we’ll get it."

Dave Birkett covers the University of Michigan football team for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at davidbirkett@annarbor.com