Construction began immediately after the clock expired, with three bulldozers and three dump trucks pulling onto the field to start pulling up dirt. A ceremony was held at halftime in honor of the stadium with dozens of former players in attendance.

Quinn’s 10-yard touchdown pass to Stovall with 8:43 left in the third quarter gave the Irish the lead, but Fitzpatrick missed the extra point. Quinn completed 25 of 38 passes, overcoming his early mistakes to calmly lead the Irish on the winning drive.

Ostrander replaced starter Trent Edwards, who had been forced out of the previous two games with injuries and apparently re-aggravated a problem in his throwing arm. Ostrander came in to begin Stanford’s second series of the third quarter and finished 11-for-15 for 197 yards and a touchdown.

“After we scored that last touchdown, I felt so good,” Ostrander said. “We worked so hard and we had a shot. It wasn’t over. And now our best leaders go without having gone to a bowl game. That’s really hard for the rest of us.”

The Irish led 7-0 15 seconds into the game after Quinn hit Samardzija for an 80-yard TD pass.

On Notre Dame’s next possession, Kevin Schimmelmann intercepted a pass by Quinn — just the sixth pick of the year by Quinn — to set up Edwards’ 27-yard TD pass to Bradford that tied the game at 7 with 11:38 left in the first quarter.

Quinn connected with Samardzija again on Notre Dame’s next series with a 7-yard scoring pass. The Cardinal tied it on a 38-yard touchdown pass from Edwards to Justin McCullum 8:14 before halftime.

The BCS pairings are set Dec. 4.

“Despite all the projections and everyone writing things in pen and ink, we’re really in a holding pattern until all the games are played,” Fiesta Bowl executive director John Junker said. “Notre Dame is certainly a great story this year.”

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