Notre Dame says goodbye to Michigan with a shutout

Everett Golson threw three touchdown passes and No. 16 Notre Dame said so long to Michigan on Saturday night with a 31-0 victory, the Fighting Irish’s most dominant performance in the historic rivalry that’s now about to take a hiatus.

Game No. 42 between in a rivalry that has been off-and-on for more than 100 years is the last scheduled. Notre Dame broke off the series a couple years ago to make room on its schedule to accommodate its new arrangement with the Atlantic Coast Conference. Michigan didn’t take it well.

But with a chance to take a parting shot at the Irish, the Wolverines got hit with a haymaker and were handed their most lopsided loss in the series. And they were shut out for the first time since being blanked by Iowa, 26-0, in 1984, snapping an NCAA record streak.

Golson completed 23 of 34 for 226 yards. Devin Gardner was 19 for 32 for 189 yards and committed four second-half turnovers.

Notre Dame asked out of the series three years ago. Coach Brady Hoke jokingly accused the Fighting Irish of chickening out before last year’s game at Ann Arbor. Then after Michigan beat the Irish, “The Chicken Dance” blared through the sound system at the Big House.

No hard feelings?

Well, maybe it was just a coincidence that this week Notre Dame announced a future home-and-home with Ohio State, Michigan’s hated rival — and a team that has owned the Wolverines in recent years.