Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1506910
4 SEPT. 9, 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED W ith the Navy and Tennessee State games in the rearview, the two-week warm-up to start the season is complete, and the 2023 sched- ule will take an angrier turn, beginning Saturday with a game at NC State. Notre Dame will put a 28-game regu- lar-season winning streak against Atlan- tic Coast Conference opponents on the line versus a Wolfpack team that went 6-1 at home last season and has lost only twice in its last 20 games at Carter-Fin- ley Stadium in Raleigh, N.C., since 2020. NC State will be the first of six games for Notre Dame against ACC foes, five of which Fighting Irish graduate quarterback Sam Hartman competed against during his five seasons playing for league member Wake Forest. During those five seasons leading the Demon Deacons, Hartman compiled a 27-21 overall record as a starter, a re- spectable mark indeed, at a program not known as a football power. But a deeper dive into Hartman's ca- reer at Wake Forest shows that beating ACC opponents wasn't necessarily his strong suit, which is concerning given the upcoming Notre Dame schedule. Each of the six ACC teams the Irish will play won at least eight games last season. Hartman went 12-3 in nonconference games during his time at Wake Forest, including eight straight wins over his last two seasons there. That said, Hartman went only 15-18 against ACC opponents in 33 league games over his five seasons at Wake. Not exactly the stuff of legends, but clearly football is a team sport, and the sub-.500 league record for Wake Forest with Hart- man under center can't be laid solely at the feet of its talented signal-caller. And putting more doom and gloom aside, Notre Dame clearly provides Hartman more offensive weapons and options than he ever had at Wake Forest. Yet, even with the talent gap, Hart- man still threw for 12,967 yards at Wake Forest — the second-most yards in league history (behind Philip Rivers, NC State, 2000-03) — and an ACC- record 110 touchdown passes. Hartman also led Wake Forest to an ACC Championship game appearance in 2021 and gathered even more attention and headlines last year when he threw 6 touchdown passes in a memorable 51-45 double-overtime loss to No. 13 Clemson. But none of those gaudy stats and memorable moments change the fact that Hartman is only 4-11 for his career against the six ACC opponents Notre Dame faces this season. Hartman played against five of those six league teams while at Wake Forest, and his record breakdown looks like this: NC State (1-2); Clemson (0-4); Louisville (2-3); Duke (1-1) and Pitt (0-1). Obviously, Hartman never faced Wake Forest, Notre Dame's sixth ACC opponent this season. Hartman played against four of those five ACC foes last season — Clemson, Louisville, NC State and Duke — and lost to all four. I get it, every season and setting is different, so using Hartman's win-loss history at Wake Forest to project what will happen at Notre Dame is far from an exact science. And Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman explained how the style that Hartman needed to play in the Wake Forest offense doesn't necessarily line up with what Notre Dame does offen- sively, so there is still plenty for him to learn from and improve on as the 2023 schedule heats up. "You saw at times in practice that he would revert back to maybe some of his previous footwork that he did at Wake Forest," Freeman said. "It took a lot of work to really change his footwork." Hartman freely admits that part of his decision to transfer to Notre Dame was to prove that he can lead and win at two programs with differing offensive styles and attention demands, and he's embracing that challenge. "It's different here; it's special here," Hartman said of his time at Notre Dame so far. "There are a lot of eyes on you, which is pretty obvious at this point. As much as I can, I'm trying to soak it in. It's a high-pressure, pivotal season for me, and more than myself, this team and this university." And starting Saturday, the veteran QB gets his chance to rewrite some personal performance history against a quality ACC opponent. ✦ During his five seasons leading Wake Forest, quarterback Sam Hartman compiled a 27-21 overall record as a starter, including 15-18 against ACC opponents. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER Now Things Start To Get Interesting UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com