Irish Pull Away to Beat Tennessee 41-21

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) -- Brady Quinn threw three touchdown passes and Tom Zbikowski had a punt return and interception return for scores to lead No. 8 Notre Dame to a 41-21 victory over Tennessee on Saturday.<br> <br> Quinn was 20-of-33 for 295 yards and threw two touchdown passes in the span of a minute to give the Irish a 14-0 lead. The Irish went ahead 21-3 on a Zbikowski&#39;s 78-yard punt return for a score. After the Vols rallied to tie the game on a 3-yard touchdown run by Arian Foster, Quinn threw a 4-yard TD pass to Jeff Samardzija to give the Irish the lead again.<br> <br> The victory made Notre Dame (6-2) bowl eligible in consecutive years for the first time since 1997-98, Bob Davie&#39;s first two years as coach. If the Irish can win their final three games against Navy, Syracuse and Stanford, they could be eligible for a Bowl Championship Series berth for the first time since 2000.<br> <br> The Volunteers (3-5) lost their fourth straight for the first time since 1988, which also is the last time they failed to go to a bowl game. The Vols must win their last three against Memphis, Vanderbilt and Kentucky to become bowl eligible. <br> <br> Just as they have all season, the Vols were hurt by miscues. They had two interceptions, a fumble and nine penalties. Kick returner Lucas Taylor had a fumble to set up one touchdown, and Erik Ainge threw an interception when the Vols were moving the ball in the fourth quarter.<br> <br> That led to a 35-yard field goal by D.J. Fitzpatrick that gave Notre Dame a 31-21 lead. Fitzpatrick later added a 28-yard field goal and Zbikowski returned an interception 33 yards for a touchdown.<br> <br> The two returns for touchdowns give Zbikowski four TDs in three games. He also had a 60-yard punt return against USC and an 83-yard interception return against Brigham Young.<br> <br> The 41 points were the most allowed this season by Tennessee, which gave up 27 points at LSU and against Georgia. The three TD passes surrendered by the Volunteers also equaled the amount they gave up in their first seven games combined.<br> <br> It was the sixth straight game the Irish scored at least 31 points, the longest streak for Notre Dame since scoring that many for seven straight games to end the regular season in 1993.<br> <br> The game looked as though it would be a blowout early when Quinn tossed a 43-yard score to Anthony Fasano and 35-yard score to Maurice Stovall in a minute&#39;s time.<br> <br> But a mental error by the Irish helped set up a Tennessee touchdown late in the second quarter. Quinn threw a lateral to Samardzija and it bounced off his hand. Samardzija thought it was an incomplete pass and let it bounce away. Tennessee&#39;s Ryan Karl recovered it along the sideline at the Notre Dame 37.<br> <br> Ainge turned the mistake into points when he threw a 7-yard TD pass to Bret Smith in the back of the end zone to cut Notre Dame&#39;s lead to 21-10.<br> <br> James Wilhoit kicked his second field goal and Foster, who rushed for 125 yards on 28 carries, scored on a 3-yard run to cut the lead to 21-19. The Vols tied it on a 2-point conversion when Ainge connected with Smith.<br> <br> But Quinn threw a 73-yard pass to Samardzija to set up the go-ahead touchdown. Samardzija&#39;s TD catch was his 12th of the season, breaking the mark of 11 set by Derrick Mayes in 1994.<br> <br> © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.