Notre Dame walks off the field in victory for the first time since last October.(AP)

The bowl might be middling, some Dec. 28 affair only a chamber of commerce and a couch potato could love, but Davie is going to survive.

Some of Notre Dame's own fans might have been rooting for Texas A&M on Saturday, hoping to hasten the coach's departure. But after a season-opening 24-10 victory for the Irish, the Davie bashers can't look forward to the possibility, or probability, of Notre Dame losing six in a row after next week's game against top-ranked Nebraska.

That hasn't happened since 1960. Lots of people would have been flipping through their media guides to find that string of L's from the Joe Kuharich era. These days, it's hard enough for Notre Dame to remember what happened before it lost the last four games of 1999.

"The last game we won ... what was it?" linebacker Anthony Denman said. "I'm not even sure."

Navy, last October.

"It's been a long time since we sang that (fight) song in the locker room," Davie said. "I had to pass out a sheet before the game."

This could have been an absolute mess, a psychological kick downhill for the players and out the door for Davie. Next week, top-ranked Nebraska will show up. Six losses in a row. A week after that, Purdue's pass-happy offense and Heisman Trophy candidate Drew Brees come to Notre Dame Stadium against a suspect Irish secondary. Seven in a row?

After that, what? A weary team playing at Michigan State. Then a home game against Stanford. How bad might the situation have become?

"Let's face it, when you work your rear end off like these kids have, you better get some rewards for it," Davie said. "It's no different for the coaches. The X and O things we can correct. But if you don't have a great attitude, you have no chance. This football team has a great attitude."

It is not a great team, and it did not play well Saturday. It's a 7-4 team that will be good enough to keep the heat off Davie for another year. But at this point, that's plenty. Not long before the start of preseason camp at Notre Dame, Jacksonville Jaguars coach Tom Coughlin was brushing off questions about rumors that he would take over the Irish.

Now look at Davie. He's undefeated.

"We've been 1-0 before," Davie said. "I mean, this isn't anything anyone's jumping up and down about. But you feel like we have a little more momentum coming out of this game than we have in past years. I thought we got stronger as the game went on. I thought the emotion of our football team is something I felt strongly about going in. I even feel more strongly now."

All bets are off if quarterback Arnaz Battle goes down. The backup is a 6-foot-7 converted tight end and no freshman has emerged as a clear leader.

Battle's statistics from Saturday look better than his performance: 10 of 16 passing for 133 yards, with two touchdowns and no interceptions. Most of his passes were dinks, some to wide open receivers after a scramble. He had two really good throws: a 9-yard fade for a touchdown in the second quarter and, on third-and-19 in the fourth quarter, a hard throw up the middle for a first down. Finally, something that required some zip. That led to a touchdown that made the score 21-10.

"That was one of those calls that's been shaky during camp," Battle said of the third-down play.

Battle's 46-yard touchdown pass to Javin Hunter in the third quarter was mostly a matter of Hunter leaping and bringing down the ball.

Notre Dame offensive coordinator Kevin Rogers said one of the goals of the offense is to "try to stay out of the dropback game."

But much like Notre Dame's team, the mobile, elusive Battle was good enough, and might get better. The Irish didn't have a turnover. Battle, like the others on Notre Dame's team, had every reason to savor the victory.

"It was a long offseason," Battle said. "Eight months of criticism. A lot of guys saying we don't have the talent, that we lack the talent at the quarterback position, our secondary isn't strong. But it all came from the heart today."

Running back Julius Jones, who had a terrific 17-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter, felt happy for his coach.

"He's got to take a lot of the heat all the time," Jones said. "We wanted to take some off him."

The Irish players were exhorting their fans during the game, which prompted a question in the postgame news conference to Davie about the team's "swagger."

With the Cornhuskers coming to town, Davie wasn't going anywhere with that one. There is a limit to the feel-good quality of Saturday's game.

"We need to play a little better before we talk about swagger," he said.