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EAST LANSING, Michigan (Ticker) -- After Notre Dame opened the door for another dramatic win, true freshman Jeff Smoker of Michigan State promptly shut it closed. Smoker converted a 4th-and-10 with under two minutes to play, hitting Herb Haygood with a 62-yard touchdown pass that turned what appeared to be a sure loss for the 20th-ranked Spartans into a stirring 27-21 victory over the 18th-ranked Irish. The Irish rallied after Smoker found Travis Wilson with a 20-yard touchdown pass with 2:23 remaining in the third quarter to make it 20-7. Tackle Anthony Weaver's interception of Smoker at the Michigan State 2 set up Julius Jones' second fourth-quarter touchdown run, a two-yard dive that gave Notre Dame a 21-20 lead with 7:59 to play. After one fruitless possession, Smoker got the ball back at his own 20 with just over three minutes to play. The 6-4, 197-pounder completed one pass for a first down, but Weaver sacked him for a significant loss as the drive sputtered, leaving the Spartans with a 3rd-and-23 deep in their own territory. Smoker avoided a rush and hit running back T.J. Duckett for 13 yards before finding Haygood over the middle with his next pass. "I sensed a big play was going to happen," Duckett said. "I just didn't know where it was coming from. (Smoker) had fire in his eyes. They called a pass play and he was going to make something happen. We just didn't know how or if it was going to be good or bad." Haygood, a fleet 6-foot wide receiver, split two defenders and outsprinted the rest of the Irish defense to the goal line, handing the Irish their seventh straight road loss. "They blitzed and left (Haygood) one on one," Smoker said. "I hit him right on the streak. I was kind of expecting it because the blitz had been working for them most of the game." "It was a huge play," Michigan State coach Bobby Williams said. "I told Herb I've been waiting to see that for a long time. He's been talking about that 4.4 speed. We finally saw it tonight. That's probably the biggest play I've seen here in some time. We were just trying to get a first down. They just happened to be in an all-out blitz, and they were matched across in man-to-man with no free safety. It was a hit or miss." Starting his second game for injured Ryan Van Dyke, Smoker also drew praise from Williams. "I was really proud of Jeff Smoker," Williams said. "Jeff made two huge mistakes in the game, two big turnovers. The kid came back. They ran an all-out blitz, and we did a pretty good job of picking it up. He just hung in there and threw that football." Notre Dame (2-2) opened the season with a three-game homestand that featured a win over Texas A&M, an overtime loss to top-ranked Nebraska and a last-play triumph over Purdue last Saturday. But the Irish were unable to pull out their first road triumph since November 7, 1998 at Boston College. Smoker completed 12-of-24 passes for 181 yards with two TD passes and the costly, but not deadly, interception to Weaver. Duckett rumbled for 141 yards on 26 carries and got Michigan State (3-0) even at 7-7 with a six-yard first-quarter scoring jaunt. Jones finished with 126 yards on 26 carries, but the Notre Dame passing game struggled with freshmen Gary Godsey and Matt LoVecchio at the helm. "We had the game taken away from us," Jones said. "At the end of the game we got it snatched away from us." Michigan State beat Notre Dame for the fourth straight season. "I feel bad for our players and I told them that," Irish coach Bob Davie said. "That's what this is, every time you go out there and play, one team is going to win and one team is going to lose. It's certainly (tough) to scratch and claw and fight back and have yourself in a position to win the football game and lose it like we lost it at the end." Godsey opened the scoring when he found fullback Jason Murray with a six-yard TD pass, giving Notre Dame a 7-0 lead midway through the opening quarter. But Duckett rushed for nearly 100 yards in the first half alone and helped Michigan State regain the momentum by fueling a lengthy drive with a series of big runs before capping it with a six-yarder with 7:53 remaining in the first half. David Schaefer's 50-yard field goal made up for a missed 50-yarder earlier in the quarter and gave the Spartans a 10-7 lead 1:19 before intermission. Shaefer opened the second-half scoring with a 36-yard field goal 9:18 into the third quarter and Smoker's 10-yard TD pass to Wilson extended the advantage to 20-7 with 2:23 left. But Jones capped LoVecchio's first drive with a two-yard TD run and Smoker's lone interception helped the Irish pull ahead before his heroics on Michigan State's winning drive. "I kind of made it hard on us," said Smoker, who also fumbled in the second half. "I said to a few people that I kind of made it hard on myself and had to come back at the end. I felt pretty bad but I couldn't let it bother me. That's what I try to do. It happened. I just had to let it go, and said 'I have to come back and the team has to come back.'" .
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