COLLEGE FOOTBALL : This Time, Irish Beat Michigan State, 20-3

After two games, Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz has had enough of the state of Michigan.

The eighth-ranked Fighting Irish got out of town with a 20-3 victory over Michigan State Saturday, one week after beating Michigan, 19-17.

Both Michigan schools are 0-2.

“I don’t want to play either one the rest of the year,” Holtz said.

The Irish (2-0) didn’t clinch the victory until linebacker Mike Stonebreaker returned an pass interception 39 yards for a touchdown with 5:18 remaining.

Notre Dame picked up only 50 yards in 21 rushes in the first half, but shredded the Spartan defense for 195 yards in 33 carries in the second half, 156 of those yards coming on 19 third-quarter runs.

Mark Green carried 21 times for 125 yards, Tony Brooks had 66 yards in 11 rushes and quarterback Tony Rice ran 9 times for 53 yards and an 8-yard touchdown.

But Holtz knows that’s not going to be enough.

“We can’t win unless we throw the ball,” Holtz said. “I know that, you know that but our players don’t know that. Until we can pass for 215 yards on the average, we aren’t going to be happy.

“We hadn’t been able to make our power game go, so we had to go to the option in the second half more than we wanted to. We think we’re going to break some things on people.”

Rice completed 2 of 9 passes for 50 yards and Kent Graham was 0 for 2 with an interception.

Stonebreaker and the Notre Dame defense held the Spartans to 89 yards on the ground.

Quarterback Bobby McAllister completed 13 of 25 passes for 134 yards, but could put together only one scoring drive for the Spartans.

Michigan State took a 3-0 lead in the first quarter on John Langeloh’s 39-yard field goal, but Notre Dame’s Reggie Ho tied the game early in the second period with a 31-yarder.

Ho gave the Irish a 6-3 lead at intermission with a 22-yard field goal after Raghib Ismail blocked Josh Butland’s punt.

Tailback Tony Brooks ran for 37 yards on Notre Dame’s first play of the second half, Green carried for 8 and 12 yards, and Brooks added a pair of 3-yard runs to set up Rice’s 8-yard scoring run to make it 13-3.