It's pretty hard to imagine that the first start for a Notre Dame quarterback could possibly be overshadowed, but with the debut of new coach Brian Kelly, the start of the Dayne Crist era took a back seat in the hype department on Saturday.

Dayne admits he had some butterflies on the day, but he said once the game started, that went away.

Once he was in the flow of the game, Crist didn't do anything that would list him as the 2nd coming, but he also didn't anything really wrong that would have made him a focal point in that regard.

Instead, Dayne was a steady hand leading the Irish attack. He finished the game 19-of-26 for 205 yards passing and a touchdown. He did not throw an interception and Notre Dame's only turnover was no where near being on his shoulders.

For Crist, getting the win is all that mattered to him, but he also says he was satisfied with the way he managed the game.

“I wanted to make sure that we are taking care of the ball," Dayne explained. "That's a team offensive goal, but a lot of that falls on the quarterback and making sure that you're throwing the ball away and selecting your own picks and things like that. Really, just trying to protect the ball and keep the ball moving and keep the game moving."

Irish head coach Brian Kelly said Crist did the things that were asked of him.

“I told him, he didn't have to win the Heisman today, but he had to help us win today," Kelly said. "He helped us win."

"There's a lot more that he's capable of doing. I think he's going to make great progress from week one to week two."

"He saw a lot of things , being in the spread of the run game checks, all of those things which I think are going to benefit him greatly."

The victory led by Dayne marks the first time since 2002 that Notre Dame has won in a game where an Irish quarterback is making his first career start.

Next up is Michigan on Saturday at the stadium.