COLLEGE FOOTBALL : Tim Brown Leads Irish to 31-3 Win

Led by flanker Tim Brown, who amassed 113 yards rushing and passing and broke a 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, Notre Dame played its best all-round game of the season Saturday.

Brown’s kickoff return late in the first quarter sparked the Irish to a 31-3 rout of Air Force. Brown ran 6 times for 44 yards and caught 2 passes for 69 yards.

“That was the first time, maybe, that we’ve really played a complete game, offense, defense and the kicking game,” first-year Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz said. “We were patient and rather consistent.”

Said Air Force Coach Fisher DeBerry: “I saw a little too much of No. 81 (Brown). He played like the All-American that he is.”

Irish quarterback Steve Beuerlein completed 6 of 11 passes for 119 yards and engineered Notre Dame touchdown drives of 71 and 62 yards in the third quarter.

Notre Dame (2-4) scored on its first possession of the third quarter when fullback Pernell Taylor capped a 12-play drive with a one-yard run for a 24-3 lead.

On Notre Dame’s next possession, Beuerlein hit Brown for a 21-yard pass and ran for 17 yards to set up a 1-yard touchdown run by freshman tailback Anthony Johnson.

Air Force (5-2) was attempting to become the third team in history to beat the Irish for five straight years.

“This one hurts an awful lot,” DeBerry said. “We wanted to be recognized as one of the great teams to have played Notre Dame. It just didn’t work out that way.”

Notre Dame shut down Air Force’s wishbone offense, forcing quarterback James Tomallo to fumble twice, and did not allow a completed pass until the end of the third quarter when fullback Marc Munafo hit halfback Albert Booker for 14 yards.

“Our defense kept us in the game. We got a lot of big plays from the defense,” Holtz said.