COLLEGE FOOTBALL : Holtz Has Victory in Sight : Nonconference: Coach calls plays from press box and No. 21 Notre Dame beats No. 13 Texas, 55-27.

Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz might never leave the press box if his team keeps playing like this.

Marc Edwards rushed for two touchdowns and caught a pass for another Saturday as No. 21 Notre Dame defeated No. 13 Texas, 55-27, the Irish’s first victory over a ranked team in two seasons.

After undergoing spinal surgery, Holtz missed the previous game, a 41-0 victory over Vanderbilt. But he returned Saturday to call plays from the press box. He drew cheers when he came onto the field with a little more than a minute left in the game, but Holtz said he won’t be pacing the sidelines any time soon.

“I went down on the sidelines just to see what it would be like. I’m not ready to be on the sidelines,” Holtz said. “The coaches don’t need me and the team doesn’t need me.”

Notre Dame (3-1) scored almost every way possible: rushing, passing, off an interception, off a blocked point-after attempt and on a punt return.

Texas (2-1) led, 20-19, after its first possession in the second half, but didn’t threaten again until James Brown connected with Pat Fitzgerald on a 19-yard touchdown pass play with 6:26 left in the game. It was Fitzgerald’s third touchdown reception of the game.

But that only cut Notre Dame’s lead to 41-27 and the Irish then scored twice in the last two minutes of the game.

“When we were two behind, we knew we had to start gambling a bit and that took us out of our offense and that made the game look a little more wide open than it was,” Texas Coach John Mackovic said.

The game was an important one for Notre Dame, which now has consecutive road games at No. 8 Ohio State and No. 22 Washington.

“This was one of those games where things went well for us,” Holtz said. “We have a little momentum going into Ohio State, but we’ll need a lot more than that going down there.”

Notre Dame took the lead for good with 5:10 left in the third quarter on a three-yard run by Randy Kinder. Edwards ran for the two-point conversion, and Notre Dame led, 27-20.

Edwards scored his first touchdown on a two-yard run to make it 34-20 with 9:38 left in the game. He added his second score less than two minutes later on a 12-yard pass from Ron Powlus following a Texas fumble.

Edwards scored for the third time on a 27-yard run with 1:50 left to play. Texas got the ball back, but cornerback Allen Rossum intercepted a pass by reserve Richard Walton at the Longhorn 29 and ran it back for the final score.

Powlus, with his third consecutive 200-yard game, was 16 of 28 for 273 yards.

The loss was Brown’s first in seven starts. He was 19 of 33 for 326 yards and four touchdowns, but had two passes intercepted.

“James was trying to make something happen, maybe more than he needed to,” Mackovic said. “They pressured him well, and because of that, he may have felt like he needed to hurry.”

The Irish gained 511 total yards and Texas had 422. But the Longhorns had only 85 yards rushing.