PITTSBURGH - The last brand-new Notre Dame coach to enjoy a debut like Charlie Weis’ was Ara Parseghian. Weis can only hope the rest of his Fighting Irish career resembles the Ara era.

Brady Quinn ran Weis’ Patriots-perfect offense like a college version of Tom Brady, leading touchdown drives on five of underdog Notre Dame’s first six possessions Saturday night under its new coach in a 42-21 rout of No. 23 Pitt that was over by halftime.

The anticipated matchup of two former NFL coaches turned college head coaches — Weis, the former New England offensive wizard, vs. Pitt’s Dave Wannstedt, a one-time defensive coordinator and the former coach of the Bears and Dolphins — was as big as mismatch as the final score.

Pitt’s defense, resembling the unit that allowed nearly 420 yards per game even while going 8-4 last season, had no answer for the Weis-designed five-receiver sets, screen passes to running backs, a manhandling offensive line and throws to big tight ends isolated against small cornerbacks.

“Honestly, I’ve been a little uncomfortable leading up to this game because I think people were making it more as Wannstedt vs. Weis than Notre Dame vs. Pitt. I’m the happiest for our players,” said Weis, who inherited a team that lost its final three last season. “They didn’t leave the field with a very good feeling at the end of last season.”

Just as Parseghian did in 1964, Weis won his opener on the road against a quality team that had beaten the Irish the year before. In 1964, Parseghian’s Irish beat Wisconsin 31-7 en route to a 9-1 season that followed a 2-7 year. Notre Dame lost to Pitt 41-38 last year, starting the Irish on the losing streak that led to former coach Tyrone Willingham’s firing.

What a difference a new coach makes. Except for one interception, Quinn couldn’t have run the Irish offense much better while going 18-of-27 for 233 yards and two touchdowns, one to running back Darius Walker for 51 yards on a screen pass for Notre Dame’s first score and another to Jeff Samardzija for 19 yards.

Notre Dame outgained Pitt 502-323, helped by a 275-103 edge in rushing — one created by an experienced line that overwhelmed Pitt’s 4-3 defense.

“They blocked us, there’s no mystery in that,” Wannstedt said. “I didn’t do a good enough job of getting these guys ready — they must have been reading the newspapers too much and that’s my fault. We’ve got to get better — if you can’t stop the run, you’ve got no chance to win no matter the level and we’ve got to get that done. We wanted to blitz them, but we could never get them to third down.”

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Walker, coming off a strong freshman season in which he rushed for 821 yards, carried 20 times for 100 yards and a 2-yard touchdown that started Notre Dame’s decisive 28-point second quarter that made it 35-13 at halftime. A fumbled kickoff by Pitt’s Marcus Furman was turned into Samardzija’s touchdown led to two Irish touchdowns in 56 seconds.

“I thought we blocked exceptionally well,” Samardzija said. “We hurt them with screen passes and every time we had three or four guys leading the way.”