SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Carlyle Holiday arrived at Notre Dame five years ago as part of a hyped quarterback class from which big things were expected.

Holiday will play his final game at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday as a wide receiver, more than a year after taking his last snap at quarterback. The other remaining player at Notre Dame from the quarterback trio, Jared Clark, plays sparingly at tight end. Matt LoVecchio is the quarterback at Indiana.

Holiday, who started 24 games at quarterback, said he's chatted with Clark and LoVecchio about what they've been through since signing with the Irish.

"It's kind of a joke, but I was the last survivor," Holiday said.

It's been a turbulent five years for the Irish. In the group's first year, they went to the Fiesta Bowl, where they suffered an embarrassing loss. In year two they got off to the worst start in school history and saw coach Bob Davie fired. They got off to an 8-0 start in year three under new coach Tyrone Willingham, before settling for the Gator Bowl. They then went 5-7 last year.

Holiday has probably had more ups and downs than any member of the class. He took a lot of hits during Davie's final year, guided the Irish to the 8-0 start, then lost the quarterback job three games into last season.

"We've all been through so much," he said.

He doesn't know whether he would have picked Notre Dame if he knew everything he would go through.

"I'd probably still come here just to get the education," he said. "If I was just coming here to play football, I don't know if I'd do that."

Coach Tyrone Willingham said too many variable still remain for him to begin thinking about which bowl the Irish might go to."My concern is fairly simple: if we win, it allows us to position ourselves higher and higher within the bowl structure," he said. "Maybe there might be limits on that that I'm not really aware of right now, but still winning is our best opportunity."Willingham may not be spending a lot of time thinking about it, but that hasn't stopped fans and the media from speculating.The best bowl the Irish can likely go to is the Gator Bowl. For Notre Dame to have a chance, the Irish (6-3) have to beat Pittsburgh (5-3) and hope that Boston College (6-2) loses one of its final three games against West Virginia (8-1), Temple (1-8) or Syracuse (5-4).If the Irish were selected for the Gator Bowl, one of the teams they could face is No. 18 Miami (6-2), a game that surely would draw a lot of interest.