Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SEPT. 16, 2023 13 UNDER THE DOME "Notre Dame offensive coordinator Gerad Parker has the offense flying with quarterback Sam Hart- man. The Irish have outscored their opponents by 92 points — their best points differential through the first two games of a season since 1932!" — ES- PN's Heather Dinich on which new assistant coach looks like the biggest game-changer after Week 1 "We believe in our guys that we brought here as a recruiting staff all the way down to our staff mem- bers and coaches. If we don't let these guys grow and empower them to get better and try to assess where our depth is, we won't know. So, the only thing we can do is continue to give our guys opportu- nities that they've earned because it is performance based, but also let them be able to go out there and have pieces of success. And then if there are some small failures, then we allow them to fail up and keep moving forward. That's what these two games have allowed us to do so far." — Notre Dame of- fensive coordinator Gerad Parker on his unit's depth "You look back and you'd love to leave in three [seasons] and be this big-time [NFL] draft pick. But I don't think I am the player I am, if I don't go through all the things: bad games, good games, big wins, big losses, hardships outside of football, everything from the start of my career. That's why I love the game so much, because it's so much like life." — Notre Dame graduate student quarterback Sam Hartman in a story on him by ESPN.com "Hartman's draft stock sits in the Day 3 territory right now. He has good accuracy, a feel for the game and an ability to get his offense into the right decision. Improved play at Notre Dame and the NFL's fascination with Brock Purdy-like rhythm passers could help him slide up boards come late April." — ESPN analyst Matt Miller on Notre Dame graduate student quarterback Sam Hartman in his story about the 2024 NFL Draft prospects with the most at stake this season "I just said, 'Hey, go win it all. I think you have a hell of a group.' Sam Hartman was surgical. We saw his presence in the pocket. Unflappable. The guy is just a magician back there. He's played a lot of football. Just their skill people were really good. Running back, it felt like they had 50 of them back there. They all ran the ball really well." — Tennes- see State head coach Eddie George on what he said to Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman after his team's 56-3 loss to the Irish "If I could do it over again, Notre Dame would've probably still been there. It's an experience I'll never forget. That was my team." — Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver Randy Moss said on FOX Sports about picking Notre Dame in college recruit- ment if he could go back and do it again "What would Notre Dame have looked like with Moss in the 1995 recruiting class? At the time, recruiting analyst Tom Lemming said that 24-man haul — national defensive player of the year Kory Minor was also part of it — was better than the mythical 1990 recruiting class that included Hall of Famers Jerome Bettis and Bryant Young. Surely, the career of Powlus would have been different throwing to Moss and perhaps a generational re- ceiver extends the tenure of [Lou] Holtz in South Bend, reshaping everything that came after Notre Dame's last national championship coach. "The 'what-if' potential with Moss is so great that calling him 'the one who got away' undersells what he could have meant to Notre Dame." — The Athletic's Pete Sampson on Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver Randy Moss THEY SAID IT THEY SAID IT "I loved my time at Notre Dame. I have nothing but great memories there. But the whole landscape there is different than it is here. It just is. " There are priorities at Notre Dame. The architectural building needed to get built first. They ain't building the architectural build - ing here first. We're building the athletic training facility first, [and] we're in the midst of a $22 million addition to our athletic training facility. It's something I said we needed, and we went and immedi - ately raised the money." — Former Notre Dame and current LSU head coach Brian Kelly in a story published by ESPN.com Sept. 3 PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER TOP TWEETS