Sam Hartman did as great leaders do and waved the red cape in front of the scrutinizing eyes that turned downright angry and were looking for big-picture reparations for Saturday’s latest lather-rinse-repeat cycle of offensive malpractice.
“If you guys want to blame, put anything on anyone, put it on me,” the Notre Dame sixth-year grad quarterback offered in the aftermath of 15th-ranked ND’s slide into postseason irrelevance following a 31-23 road loss at Clemson’s Memorial Stadium.
“I played very poor today. Didn’t play well enough to be a winning quarterback, to be a winning football team. All the different situations, scenarios that we were in today is partly my doing and, really, all my doing. I just didn’t execute well enough.
“So if you want to mention people on Twitter, you want to blame OCs, you want to blame coach [Marcus] Freeman, no — blame me. I’m big enough and man enough to admit that I didn’t play up to the standard that this team deserves, this fan base, this university deserves.”
Admittedly, Hartman’s quarterback play didn’t match his level of leadership or valor. Against the nation’s No. 6 team in total defense, admittedly down three starters and some key reserves, he labored to throw for 143 yards on 13-of-30 accuracy — the last incompletion coming left-handed. He amassed six fewer TDs than he threw against the Tigers last season with Wake Forest (0), and hurled two interceptions, one which Clemson junior linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. returned for a Clemson touchdown.
The last six times the Irish (7-3) had the ball, they netted a total of 60 yards and finished those drives punt-punt-punt-punt-interception-turnover on downs.
“He did some really, really good things, extending plays with his legs and running for first downs and touchdowns,” second-year head coach Marcus Freeman pointed out of Hartman, who had the highest individual rushing average on either team (9.7), with 68 yards on seven attempts, two of which were sacks that shaved 13 yards of his would-be total.
“But the biggest thing we can’t do is turn the ball over. We know we have to take care of the football, and one of our things going into this game was we had to beat them in the turnover margin. And we didn’t do that today.”
Trotter’s pick-6 on a 28-yard return with 8:33 left in the second quarter put the Irish in a 24-6 crater that proved to be insurmountable.
Particularly given an offensive gameplan, offensive adjustments and offensive execution that was the football equivalent of trying to slay Clemson (5-4) by papercut.
Freeman’s postseason refrain was familiar and not particularly comforting. Not this time.
“As I challenged the team, each individual has to look at themselves and say, ‘Why am I in this position I’m in?’” Freeman said. “And, ‘What do I have to do to find a way to improve?’ That's the message. Every individual — every coach and every player in that locker room — has to own where we’re at and what we need to do to improve.
“So, that’s schematically. That’s as an individual. And then we’ve got to go back to work. Like, there’s no magic formula to improve. It’s hard work, and it’s the only thing we know how to do, but it starts with owning where you’re at and finding a better way to do what we do.”
It’s starting to look more and more like finding a better way to do what Notre Dame does, at least, offensively, is ending the offensive coordinator experiment with Gerad Parker after just one season in the role, something Freeman’s Clemson counterpart, Dabo Swinney, did similarly after last season.
Granted, Parker’s offense came into the game with better numbers across the board, and in some instances markedly so, than the man he replaced — Tommy Rees — is doing with Alabama’s offense. The same goes for the most notable guy who didn’t end up with the job — Utah’s Andy Ludwig — back in Provo with the Utes.
But much of Parker’s statistical equity was built in the first four games of the season — in wins against Navy, FCS school Tennessee State, Central Michigan and an NC State team that took down Clemson just last week.
When defensive coordinators adjusted to Parker, he struggled to consistently adjust back and evolve. Not necessarily an unusual path for a coach with little actual play-calling experience, but is that a growth process that should be playing out at a place like Notre Dame?
And with the quarterback fifth all-time in passing yards, in Hartman?
Granted Clemson had defeated 62 of the 65 opponents that had ventured into Death Valley in the past decade, including a 24-22 edging of the Irish in 2015. And the Tigers were 28-12 coming in against Top 25 teams at any venue over the same time span.
But this was a Tigers team that’s fighting for bowl eligibility and still isn’t there yet, not positioning itself for the eye test by the College Football Playoff selection committee.
“I know we're down and everybody's throwing dirt on us,” a jubilant Swinney told ABC’s Molly McGrath after the game. “But if Clemson is a stock, you better buy all you freaking can buy right now."
As for Parker’s stock, even if ND puts big points on the board after the coming bye week — against Hartman’s former team, Wake Forest on Nov. 18 in the 500th game in Notre Dame Stadium history, or on the road at Stanford after Thanksgiving — the Irish will be facing the 78th-best and 126th-best defenses in the 130-team FBS.
So more points, more yards and less self-blaming by Hartman doesn’t necessarily equate to significant improvement that can be built upon in the offseason with a different quarterback at the controls next season.
“We’re going to bounce back,” Hartman vowed. “The only thing I can give back to this program is the last two games, give everything I have and just play better.”
The defense that had been on such a roll against USC and Caleb Williams, and Pitt the past two games, has some room for improvement as well.
With starting running back Will Shipley out with a concussion, 6-1, 230-pound tag teammate Phil Mafah gashed the Irish run defense for a career-high 186 rushing yards on a school-record tying 36 carries with two touchdowns.
Still, Notre Dame’s defense only yielded seven points in the second half, set up an two-yard Irish touchdown drive with safety Xavier Watts’ nation’s leading seventh interception and got Mafah to cough up the ball as Clemson was trying to run out the clock, with defensive tackle Rylie Mills falling on the loose ball with 1:47 left and two timeouts to play with.
But Clemson’s offense, that had been imploding against almost everyone else all season, was never panicked Saturday, because Notre Dame’s own offense labored so much. Too many botched third-down conversions. Too many times settling for Spencer Shrader field goals instead of TDs. Too little scheming up to put Hartman and the rest of the Irish players in the best position to be productive.
“Coach Freeman used the word anti-fragile,” said grad senior linebacker Jack Kiser of how the Irish players will deal with the aftermath heading into the bye week. “So it means you get stronger through adversity. It really challenges the leaders through this … essentially, we’re going two weeks where we gotta deal with this loss.
“He challenged the leaders to lead this program [and] make sure we’re pushing each other in every phase, whether that’s finding one thing to do better on the field, off the field, in the film room, whatever it may be. So, really just challenging the leaders to be anti-fragile and push this program forward.”
But anti-fragile has to be addressed with a forward view toward 2024 by Freeman himself. A coach whose mantras include “question everything” and “chasing the team’s potential” has to figure out not only what that needs to look like against the Demon Deacons and Cardinal as well as whatever off-Broadway bowl awaits, but how that should play out in what has the potential to be a defining offseason.
And needs to be a defining offseason.
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