9/3/2023 football Edit

Hansen: Finding big-picture context in another Notre Dame football mismatch

Sophomore Steve Angeli on Saturday against Tennessee State saw his first extended college game action of his career, (Jeff Douglas, Inside ND Sports)

Eric Hansen • InsideNDSports

Publisher

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The program-building moments Saturday were subtle for 13th-ranked Notre Dame, but not so much that you had to squint to see them.

Like backup quarterback Steve Angeli, in the second meaningful drive of his college career, deftly avoiding a heavy rush and delivering an on-target lob to fellow sophomore and roommate Jadarian Price, who proceeded to jet 40 yards down the sideline to the end zone in another Irish rout that screamed for context.

What was clear Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium after the 56-3 dismissal of the both the first FCS and HBCU team to venture onto the Irish schedule since NCAA Division I football splintered into two castes in 1978 (FBS/FCS) was how Wake Forest transfer and QB1 Sam Hartman has played as advertised so far.

And just as importantly, how he hasn’t.

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► Marcus Freeman's Notre Dame football postgame press conference for TSU

► Notre Dame football freshman LB Drayk Bowen unavailable for Tennessee State

► Game Balls: Howard Cross III, Notre Dame running backs fuel Irish victory

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Specifically to the latter, Hartman’s summer epiphany of understanding Irish football history, his place in it, and what it would mean to alter it. And not just for the one year he’s operating as ND’s 24-year-old starting quarterback, but leaving a legacy.

That, after being, it appears now mistakenly, viewed by some upon his arrival in South Bend as a mercenary of sorts.

On Saturday, he concocted his second straight pass-efficiency mark of more than 200 (217) and led the Irish (2-0) to touchdowns on all five of the possessions in which he played before giving way to Angeli to start the second half and eventually third-string freshman Kenny Minchey with 6:00 left in the game.

That after putting up a 231.7 passer rating in a 42-3 romp over Navy, best among the 14 QBs who started games in Week Zero.

Second-year Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman’s only nitpick with Hartman on Saturday was over the airborne somersault into the end zone that punctuated his five-yard scoring run early in the second quarter.

“You kind of don't want to see him do that,” Freeman said, “but more than that, I said, ‘Was this planned, because you kind of did some gesture to the fans?’ I said, ‘Have you done that before?’

“He's like, ‘No, I was just thanking the people for coming’ or something like that.

“I'm like, ‘All right, you might have had that one planned. But keep your feet on the ground.”

Figuratively and perhaps a bit ironically then, that’s actually who Hartman is and how he’s been able to raise the level of those around him.

Including Angeli.

A week after throwing his first collegiate pass, a two-yarder in garbage time to Rico Flores Jr. against Navy, Angeli fashioned a 232 pass-efficiency mark in an extended stretch of playing time, completing 8-of-11 passes for 130 yards and two scores.

“One thing compared to last season, Steve’s really become a better leader,” Price offered. “That’s props to Sam. Sam’s a great guy. He’s got a lot of experience. He takes Steve under his wing.”

And Angeli spreading his wings Saturday not only strengthens Notre Dame’s Plan B should Hartman be sidelined at some point in a game or in the season, but it helps fortify what life after Hartman might look like in 2024 at the QB position.

Not to mention what ND’s 2025 top QB targets, Deuce Knight and Bear Bachmeier, must be thinking about first-year offensive coordinator Gerad Parker and first-year QBs coach Gino Guidugli as they move closer to decision-making mode.

“I wanted Angeli to get some meaningful reps,” Freeman said. “I didn't want to put him in on mop-up duty, when the game is already out of hand. I said, ‘I want a little bit of pressure on Angeli,’ for our offensive staff to say, ‘OK, we have to score. We have to be efficient on offense here. We can't go three-and-out.’

“I thought they did a really good job of really going out there, having a plan for Angeli, being able to adapt for some of the mistakes that were happening on our offense. And I'm glad we protected him for the most part. He got hit once or twice, but I think we did a good job protecting him, too.”

QB1 Sam Hartman (10) guided Notre Dame to five TDs on the five possessions Saturday in which he played. (Jeff Douglas, Inside ND Sports)

The Irish also did a good job of spreading the love. Eight different players scored the eight Irish TDs, including a pick-6 on defense from nickel Clarence Lewis.

And Freeman showed some adept clock management late in the first half, burning a couple of timeouts as Tennessee State (0-1) was stalling in the red zone.

What started out first-and-goal from the Irish 5 turned into fourth-and-goal from the 18 and then a missed 35-yard field goal. Hartman got the ball on the ND 20 with 53 seconds left.

It took him only 38 of them to cover the 80 yards in six plays.

For Freeman to sense what was possible, and helping to make it happen, is one of the growth areas from year one to year two for the 37-year-old head coach.

“There's no substitution for experience,” he said. “You can give me every blueprint from every head coach, and you still have to learn through experience. I hope next year at this point I'm saying, ‘Man, I'm so much farther along as a head coach.’

“But the comfort, the understanding of what to expect, the understanding of really not being so emotional every moment. You have to pull back and look at this program in a macro picture. That can be in terms of a week. That can be in terms of a season, in terms of a game.”

The games that will more clearly define Freeman, Hartman and the cast that appears to be ascending beyond expectations around them are still ahead. That starts with a road test against an NC State team (1-0) next Saturday that had the most complete defense in 2022 among the 12 teams on the ’23 Irish schedule and has a history of making Hartman labor even in victory.

Ohio State, USC and Clemson are the marquee matchups that Irish fans are eager to translate a 98-6 scoring advantage to start the season, and all the statistical superlatives that have come with that, into intel that means the Irish will have a fighting chance to win one or more of those games.

What it all looked like Saturday on the surface was working 15 walk-ons and 13 scholarship freshmen into the game without a dropoff. It was completing passes to the tight ends for the first time this season (five of them), and sophomore wideout Tobias Merriweather getting his first two receptions.

It was not taking Tennessee State for granted and limiting the Tigers’ offense to 159 total yards, besting every defensive showing from the 12-year Brian Kelly Era and all 13 games of Freeman’s first season as head coach.

And despite yielding 55 yards to the visitors from Nashville on their opening drive and giving the ball to them on a fumbled kickoff return at the 12-yard line on their second, coordinator Al Golden’s defense made impressive in-game adjustments for the second week in a row against an offensive game plan that was nowhere to be found on tape.

That second possession, by the way, netted zero yards, and Jason Onye blocked a 29-yard field goal attempt on fourth down. It’s the first time since 1975 that Notre Dame has held its opponents without a touchdown in each of the first two games of the season.

“Coach Golden and I were laughing, just like, ‘Man, every team we play is coming out with things we haven't seen.’” Freeman said. “Again, you do as good of a job as you can researching your opponent and really preparing, but our opponents, they're creative, too, and they're going to come out with new wrinkles.

“The great teams are able to adjust, and you have to be able to get plays drawn up, communicate from the press box down to the sideline and make sure your players can understand what they're seeing and what they're getting and adjust to it.

“That's the challenge. If we want to be a great team, we're going to have to continue to be able to do that, see something new on both sides of the ball, because they did stuff differently defensively, too. So the ability for us to get it adjusted and corrected and then go out and execute.”

Is Notre Dame a great team?

The Irish have done nothing in the first two weeks that has eliminated the possibility. And they’re sure having fun trying to figure it out.

Case in point, the Angeli-to-Price TD for Angeli’s first scoring play since he was a senior at Bergen (N.J.) Catholic.“So, right before the play, I was actually imagining in my head — like I do that,” Price said of how he processed the moment. “I imagine success I’ll have before a play. And I imagined that, actually. Just the fact that Steve’s my best friend, he’s my roommate. It just happened to be him. It happened to be his first touchdown pass.

"It doesn’t get any better than that.”

NOTRE DAME 56, TENNESSEE STATE 3: Box Score