SOUTH BEND - At the end, there was no cheering for Ol' Notre Dame.

Only the stunned silence of Irish fans as Chad Henne took a knee and raised the ball triumphantly over his head.

The echoes were awake, all right - but not the ones mentioned in Notre Dame's famous fight song.

These were the echoes of "It's Great to be a Michigan Wolverine" reverberating through Notre Dame Stadium's tunnel, as the Wolverines jogged off the field with their winged helmets raised to the sky.

And No. 2 Notre Dame was marching.

Just not onward to victory.

Instead, the Fighting Irish (2-1) were marching to a humiliating, shocking and total defeat at the hands of the 11th-ranked Wolverines (3-0).

"I think it's really important to understand that that team just came and just whooped us pretty good," Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said.

Riding sophomore wide receiver Mario Manningham's three-touchdown day and a rock-solid defensive performance, Michigan closed out its pre-Big Ten schedule with a 47-21 demolition of Notre Dame - its largest margin of victory ever in South Bend. The dominating win exorcised a whole host of demons for the Wolverines.

Finally, after three unsuccessful tries, Michigan coach Lloyd Carr earned his first victory in South Bend. Finally, after six consecutive losses, the Wolverines came away with a victory in their road opener. And finally, after a miserable 2005 season, Michigan put itself right back in the middle of the college football landscape.

"Notre Dame is a great institution, with a great tradition," Carr said. "And Michigan is the same. So as a coach, when you can win against a rival like that, believe me, it's special, because it's hard. I mean, the credit, it sure as hell doesn't go to me. Those guys out on the field, they played the game."

With the score tied 7-7 late in the first quarter, the game appeared to have all the makings of a classic, tight Michigan-Notre Dame battle. But then the Manningham show started.

It began with a cut, and then another. Manningham ran a complex route down the right sideline, blowing by Notre Dame corner Ambrose Wooden's man-to-man coverage. Michigan quarterback Chad Henne stepped up in the pocket amid a heavy rush and lofted a perfect lob, hitting Manningham in stride. The sophomore cradled the ball and sprinted the rest of the way for a 69-yard touchdown.

The scenario would repeat itself twice over the next 16 minutes, with Manningham smoking man-coverage for virtually identical 29-yard and 20-yard touchdowns in the corner of Notre Dame's slash-marked end zone. By late in the second quarter, Manningham had amassed 111 yards receiving on three touchdown grabs, leading the Wolverines to a commanding 34-7 lead.

"Mario was excellent," said Henne, who completed 13-of-22 pass attempts for 220 yards and three touchdowns. "We practiced deep balls all spring and summer with him and one-on-one routes. And he showed his talent and speed today."

The Wolverines' stellar defense made sure that advantage would stick. Weis's offense - led by preseason Heisman hopeful Brady Quinn - came into the game with the national hype machine singing its praises. But Michigan's defense had an answer for every wrinkle Weis threw at it.

Notre Dame's running game never got off the ground, and the Fighting Irish finished with just four yards rushing on 17 carries.

Meanwhile, Michigan's defense may have dealt an irreparable blow to Quinn's Heisman dreams. With the Wolverine front four getting in his face on nearly every pass play and the secondary blanketing Notre Dame's receivers, Quinn never found his rhythm. He completed 24 of 48 passes and threw three touchdowns, but tossed three interceptions for the first time since the Notre Dame-Michigan game two years ago. Senior linebacker Prescott Burgess, in particular, had a field day with Quinn, picking up the first two interceptions of his career and returning one for a touchdown.

"If you let (Quinn) sit back there in the pocket, he'll pick you apart," Burgess said. "We just thought that we had to come out here and put pressure on him, and I thought we did that and we got the job done."

To so much as dent Michigan's defense, Notre Dame needed some of its famous luck of the Irish. Down 40-14 early in the fourth quarter, Notre Dame took advantage of consecutive pass interference whistles against Michigan to score and cut the Wolverines' lead to 19.

But the Wolverines' defense shrugged off the controversial touchdown and went back to work. On Notre Dame's next drive, Michigan cornerback Leon Hall literally took matters into his own hands. The senior jumped Notre Dame receiver Jeff Samardzija's route, dove and picked off the ball, effectively ending any hope of a miracle comeback.

"I don't think anybody thought (the defense was) going to play the way we played, at all" linebacker Shawn Crable said.