Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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8 SEPT. 16, 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME BY TYLER HORKA I n Week 1, Notre Dame ex- perienced the rare reality of making it look easier in an ac- tual game than it's ever looked in practice. The Fighting Irish have Sam Hartman to thank for that. And, of course, a Tennes- see State defense that pales in comparison to that of the Fight- ing Irish. Notre Dame's QB1 drove the Irish 80 yards down the field in six plays, and it only took 38 seconds to put six points on the board. That'll work against Ten- nessee State, Long Beach State (if it still had a football team) and even Louisiana State, just to make one particular former Notre Dame head coach even more beet red in the face. "We have not done that," Notre Dame offensive coordi- nator Gerad Parker said with a laugh. "We have not done it to where it went that fast." With a minute left in the first half and the opponent in field goal range, Notre Dame probably wouldn't have called two timeouts to try to get the ball back for its offense in 2022. Drew Pyne just wasn't the guy to get the Irish down the field that quickly with one timeout remaining. With Hartman, Notre Dame didn't even need to call its last timeout. "Yeah, he's pretty good," Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said, also through a giggle. "I don't want to tell him that too often, but it's a level of comfort knowing that. Sometimes when you don't have that confidence in your quarterback, you're not going to call a timeout. You're going to say, 'Let them run the clock out. Let's get out of this half and go to the locker room.' "I wanted to get the ball in Sam Hart- man's hands to run our offense in that two-minute situation, because I've seen it over and over, him go out and execute." Parker is quick to point out the flawless masterclass of a drive was a team effort. It wasn't all No. 10. Hartman had clean pockets with which to work. He also had receiving targets understanding situa- tional football. "If you look at Jaden Greathouse's catch, you saw he got to the sticks, ran, got all he could. He knows, 'Now I can only go out of bounds.' Clock stops. Little details of all of it. There is only one way to gain and build confidence, and I thought that drive did that for our guys." The Greathouse reception, one that went for 24 yards on a corner route to the left side of the field, was the penulti- mate play of the drive. The connection set Notre Dame up inside the 5-yard line with 20 seconds to go and a timeout still in the back pocket. Under those circumstances, play-call- ing options are endless for the next snap. And that's the only snap Notre Dame needed. Hartman connected with sophomore tight end Holden Staes on a shallow drag for an Irish touchdown, their ninth in a row in the first halves of their first two games. Parker knocked on wood when a reporter brought that statistic to his attention. Nine of nine in the first half? Those are video-game numbers. To that point, it looked like Hartman was a video-game quarterback. "Let's ride the wave," Parker said. "It's cliché to say, but it's prep. It's good preparation. You give credit to a good summer that our guys put together in- stalling a base offense and grow- ing it to the variations we need. "And we have good players, and our quarterback is playing at a high level. Those things all attribute to early success. We hope we can keep it rolling now." Through two games, there was no sign of stopping. Notre Dame went to the transfer portal for Hartman to raise the team's floor and its ceiling. That's what he did right away. Through Week 0 and Week 1 games, Hartman had two of the eight highest single-game quarterback ratings of any signal-caller in the country with marks of 98.0 against Navy and 95.9 against Ten- nessee State. Pyne had an average QBR of 68.0 in 11 appearances for the Irish last season. Hartman is just a different dude — one who won't ever give himself the credit he deserves no matter how good his results and numbers are. "It starts up front," Hartman said. "I said that [in Week 0], but it really does. Our coaching staff and Coach Freeman and Coach Parker understand the ability that our O-line has to protect. We need them. Then obviously the guys can cre- ate space and get open. … It was great to see." ✦ UNDER THE DOME Hartman had the highest single-game quarterback rating of any signal-caller in the country through Week 1, with a mark of 98.0 versus Navy. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER AUTOMATIC Notre Dame has a real catalyst at quarterback in Sam Hartman