Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1511802
BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 25, 2023 11 UNDER THE DOME "I think the world of Sam. Quite honestly, it's hard for me to watch Notre Dame football. That's the Wake Forest quarterback playing for them." — Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson on Sam Hartman, who spent the previous five seasons with the Demon Deacons "I put the work in, so it just comes naturally. My team trusts me to do what I do." — Notre Dame freshman guard Markus Burton after scoring 29 points in his Irish debut "She's a great player. It may be surprising to other people because she's a freshman, but our team has known the impact she was going to have from the beginning." — Notre Dame junior guard Sonia Citron on Hannah Hidalgo "Film don't lie. So we're going to come back and watch the film. Learn from it." — Notre Dame women's basketball coach Niele Ivey after her team's 100-71 loss to No. 6 South Carolina Nov. 6 in Paris "When Notre Dame looks for its next transfer quarterback, Freeman will have to answer ques- tions about how the program took a 24-year-old and seemingly made him worse. A quarterback who was supposed to be the best here since Brady Quinn or Jimmy Clausen has been closer to Drew Pyne lately." — Pete Sampson of The Athletic on graduate student quarterback Sam Hartman's struggles "We need to win a national championship, and we shouldn't be shy about articulating that. We got off track a little bit. It's taken some time to sort of rebuild that foundation and get it right. "But we have the right head coach. I think we've got the best stadium in the country. I think we've got the best indoor practice facility in the country. We will address the football operations center next, and when we do that, we'll have the best complement of facilities for anybody. So we've got all the pieces. "I personally feel more strongly today than the day I made the decision, but I think we got the right head coach to take us there. There are a lot of things I'll miss, as I approach the end of my time here, but not being there when they win that national championship will be high on the list." — Notre Dame director of athletics Jack Swarbrick on where he wants the Notre Dame football program to be under head coach Marcus Freeman "Marcus Freeman's 7-3 Irish will now slink off to, at best, the ReliaQuest (formerly Outback) Bowl, a disappointing cap to a once-promising season. In hindsight, expectations were too high for QB Sam Hartman, whose 2 picks Saturday (one of them a back-breaking pick six) were not unfamiliar to ACC viewers. (Hartman threw 26 in his last two seasons at Wake Forest). It's not all on him. Freeman had to settle for an in-house OC hire, Gerad Parker, after his pursuit of Utah's Andy Ludwig fell through, and Hartman's receivers have been underwhelming." — Stewart Mandel of The Athletic "When we got the job here, we put a premium on bringing in players who fit our team on the court as well as off the court. All three of these young men are not only tremendous basket- ball players, as evidenced by the fact that this is ranked as one of the top recruiting classes not only in the ACC, but in the country as well, but they are also excellent students who fit the mis- sion and the culture of Notre Dame." — Fighting Irish men's basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry on his three-man 2024 recruiting class, which was ranked No. 41 in the nation in the On3 Industry Team Recruiting Rankings THEY SAID IT THEY SAID IT "I did not know he was going to be as much of an impact player for our team as he's been. … He is a true impact player in the special teams game. "Obviously, it takes being an unselfish foot- ball player. Running backs want the ball in their hands. But he's being effective in ways that has nothing to do with having the ball in his hands. That is the greatest example for our team of a guy embracing his role and thriving at it and making our team better. He is an important piece for our team to have success." — Notre Dame football head coach Marcus Freeman on graduate transfer DEVYN FORD, who had the highest special teams grade (91.1) through 10 games per Pro Football Focus PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER Irish On Social Media