Hartman rewards Freeman’s ‘faith’ as Irish rally

Andrea Adelson, ESPN Senior WriterOct 1, 2023, 01:37 AM ET

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• ACC press reporter.
• Signed up with ESPN.com in 2010.
• Graduate of the University of Florida.DURHAM, N.C.– Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman never wavered in his belief that quarterback Sam Hartman would lead the Irish to a resurgence win against Duke on Saturday night.Even if Hartman had less than three minutes and almost the entire length of the football field to get it done.Trailing 14-13, the Notre Dame offense took the field from its own 5-yard line. Duke’s sellout crowd remained in a frenzy, sensing a big moment was on its doorstep– the possible to beat 2 top-15 teams in the very first 5 weeks of the season.Editor’s Picks 2 Associated But Hartman is no rookie. Now in his sixth season, he has actually basically been a starter given that his

  freshman season at Wake Forest in 2018. He has played in this arena formerly; he has actually led fourth-quarter comebacks previously, too. He almost did it a week ago versus Ohio State.Notre Dame began moving the ball. The first big third-down conversion came on third-and-10, with a 19-yard pass to tight end Mitchell Evans. However an offending pass disturbance charge threatened to stall the drive and hand Duke the win. Anticipating what was about to happen, numerous Duke students hopped down onto the field, practically giddy.Facing fourth-and-16 with 51 seconds left from the Duke 47, Hartman hung back. No one was open, so he chose to take off running. Duke, which had actually stopped the effective Notre Dame running game for the bulk of the game, forgot Hartman. He gained 17 backyards. First down.The students took a look at each other as if to say,”Are you kidding me? “Notre Dame increased the ball on the next play. Then, Audric Estime ran 30 lawns for the game-winning rating with 31 seconds left on the clock, offering Notre Dame a 21-14 win

  and its 30th straight regular-season win over an ACC team– passing Florida State (1992-95) for the longest such streak.As heartbreaking for the Irish as last week’s last-second 17-14 loss to Ohio State was, this week provided the euphoria that comes with winning.”You [have] all the sensations that you can think

  of and fathom running that field,” Hartman stated afterward.” Those moments are extremely few and short lived. You just get 12, and if you’re fortunate you win most of those and then the other ones are heartbreaking.” Last week was heartbreaking, and to come back and reveal resilience, it’s really Coach [Freeman] His messaging never changes. You do not seem like,’Oh since we lost, he doesn’t like us.’He took the blame and all of us took the blame, took a look in the mirror, came out here and performed.”Freeman went back to the Ohio State game as a teachable moment for everybody– beyond the 10 guys on the field. He mentioned Hartman failing to get a fourth-and-1 early in the third quarter on a run that chose no gain.”He thought we got it, and we didn’t,”

  Freeman stated.”There can’t be a maybe because situation, so I don’t care if it’s fourth-and-1 or fourth-and-18. If you’re going to take off, you have to make certain we get a first down, and that’s what he did.

  “On Saturday, Freeman said he told the offense before it took the field for the game-winning drive to forget about what had actually happened previously and concentrate on each play. Notre Dame struggled throughout the game to get its running game going, as the Duke defensive front set the pace. Prior to the late Estime run, the Battling Irish had just 129 yards entering the game.But with Hartman, the game is never ever actually over.” When Sam Hartman is your quarterback, you have a great deal of faith,”Freeman said.” He’s been in those moments; he’s not a newbie quarterback. This minute wasn’t too big for him. I do not wish to just provide credit to a single person, but the plays

  he made on that series were big, the capability to run for it

  , I really believe in my heart he learned from recently’s fourth-and-1.” Freeman said Estime was expected to have gone down at the 1-yard line because scenario so the Irish could let the clock diminish and then kick the game-winning basket.” We practice that. We most likely need to decrease right there at the 1-yard line and kick a field goal and win the game that method,” Freeman stated.”I’m delighted he scored. I

  ‘m thankful we won. “Said Estime:”Not going to lie, I saw an opportunity and I took it.”The Notre Dame defense kept the Irish in the game, decreasing Blue Devils quarterback Riley Leonard for long stretches. Duke had the ball with 2:46 entrusted to a chance to put the game away, however Jordan Waters lost 2 yards on 3rd down, requiring a pooch punt to the 5 to offer Notre Dame its last shot.Hartman joked he wanted to purchase defensive planner Al Golden”

  a Ferrari or something because he kept us in this game which defense played their hearts out and gave us that chance. “On his fourth-down conversion, Hartman said,”There’s not a great deal of good calls for fourth which long. Truly it comes down to our defense. Everyone’s going to indicate that as the game

  winner, but as you know recently, the defense has to provide us a chance to get the ball back and decrease and rating.”