Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SEPT. 16, 2023 31 S am Hartman stuck his palm out toward the ground and bounced it up and down a few times. It was the Notre Dame graduate student quar- terback's way of silently signaling, "Not just yet. Stay quiet for now" to Fighting Irish fans huddled in the stands over- looking the north end zone at Carter- Finley Stadium. The NC State band was in the midst of playing the Wolfpack's alma mater after a 45-24 Notre Dame victory. Hartman knew as soon as he took off for the tunnel toward the Notre Dame locker room, the supporters clad in blue, gold and green would erupt into quite a cacophony. So he waited. And waited. And checked an imaginary watch. And waited some more. Finally, after some 40 seconds of let- ting the NC State band blare its tunes, Hartman heard the end of the num- ber. He turned to the Notre Dame fans, swung his arms up in the air to incite them and galloped in the direction his teammates went long before. He had to take care of a postgame TV hit first. How many quarterbacks in America are waiting for the home team to sing their melody so they're not the reason for rude interruption from the visitors? It's impossible to produce a quantifiable answer for that question, but we know the number is not zero. Notre Dame has one in 24-year-old Hartman. "He's a leader," Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said. Hartman just has a knack for under- standing the moment, both between the white lines and outside of them. A source on the field during Notre Dame's 45-24 victory told Blue & Gold Illus- trated that when things weren't going well for the Fighting Irish offense and the game was still very much unde- cided, Hartman went up to each one of Notre Dame's starting offensive line- men and individually encouraged them to play their best. Hartman was not bereft of his own struggles. He started the game 4-of-8 passing for 13 yards. Notre Dame went three and out on its first two posses- sions after not having to punt in the first half of either of its first two games. Hartman looked flustered against a swarming NC State defense, which was nothing new to him. He had a 1-2 record with 6 touchdowns and 6 interceptions against the Wolfpack in three games as Wake Forest's starter. The turnover bug bit Hartman in Ra- leigh once again in the third quarter of Week 2. He hung in the pocket a bit too long, lost hold of the football when the pressure arrived and coughed it up to a Wolfpack defender on the Notre Dame 17-yard line. At that point, Hartman needed help from the Notre Dame defense. And he got it. The Irish forced a field goal at- tempt, which was missed, and Hart- man and the Irish offense scored three touchdowns on its next four posses- sions to blow the game wide open. Two of Hartman's four touchdown passes in the game came during that stretch. Freeman's first Notre Dame team might have caved as soon as the Fight- ing Irish lost the fumble. The 2023 ver- sion did not. "It's great to be able to have some of those bumps that we talked about last year," Freeman said. "Those cost us wins. Victories. You had some today, and we were still able to come out with a victory. You can see what type of team we have." A better one. A more resilient one. "We faced a lot of adversity, but we just had to respond," junior running back Audric Estimé said. "This team showed we are able to respond well un- der pressure." One that's led by not just one of the most experienced quarterbacks in col- lege football but one of the very best. "He's just so steady," Freeman said. "I know he gets excited when he makes a good play or scores, but he's never too high or too low." Freeman says he sees the same thing from Hartman in practices. His perfor- mances are never perfect, but he always seems to find ways to leave them feeling like progress was made and good things were accomplished. The thing about this version of Notre Dame is, Hartman might not be alone in that. Graduate student linebacker Marist Liufau is having the best year of his ca- reer. Then there are true freshmen like wide receiver Jaden Greathouse who have been just as impactful as Liufau. From fifth-year players (and sixth- year players, in the case of Hartman and DJ Brown, a graduate student safety who was one of three Irish defensive backs to intercept a pass versus NC State) to first-year players, Notre Dame is well rounded. It has a mixture of guys who have been in big moments and know what to do with them and those who are too young and naïve to cave to pressure at all. When a roster runs the gamut like that, the sky is the limit. A much sun- nier one than what we saw hanging over Carter-Finley in Week 2. "We're a good team," Freeman said. "I don't know what the ceiling is for this team, but I think it's high." ✦ GOLDEN GAMUT TYLER HORKA Tyler Horka has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2021. He can be reached at thorka@blueandgold.com Graduate student quarterback Sam Hartman threw 4 touchdown passes and once again did not throw an interception in the Fighting Irish's 45-24 win over NC State. PHOTO BY LARRY BLANKENSHIP Notre Dame Shows It's A Different Team In 2023