Marcus Freeman addresses Sam Hartman's past struggles vs. NC State

Quarterback Sam Hartman is still relatively new to Notre Dame. However, he is very well acquainted with the ACC and NC State, in particular. It’s been a struggle for Hartman against the Wolfpack in the past but head coach Marcus Freeman isn’t worried about past matchups.

Freeman explained that he’s not going to be too worried about what Hartman did while he was at Wake Forest. Instead, his focus is on the challenge that the NC State defense poses to the entire Notre Dame offense.

“I don’t know what happened when he was at Wake Forest, but I bet you, he’ll probably look at it,” Marcus Freeman said. “I don’t know how much we’ll study that as much as we’ll study what they did vs. UConn and what they’ve done in the past year or so.”

In his time at Wake Forest, Sam Hartman played NC State several times. In two of those games against the Wolfpack, he threw three or more interceptions. That’s something he only did three times at Wake Forest.

Marcus Freeman went on to admit that plenty of quarterbacks have struggled against NC State. So, it’s on the team to find a way to attack the 3-3-5 defense.

“Again, not many quarterbacks have been very successful against this defense. So, we’ve got to make sure our plan is really clean and you don’t want a huge plan. Let’s be confident in what we’re doing. It’s a unique defense, the 3-3-5, and it’s not something you see every day. So, we have to make sure our plan is nice and tight and our guys can go out and do their job.”

Sam Hartman has a chance to ‘light it up’ vs. NC State

Despite those past performances against NC State, this time Sam Hartman has the chance to light up the NC State defense. Senior Bowl director Jim Nagy explained this while speaking to On3’s Andy Staples.

“If I’m Sam Hartman, it’s my chance to go out and light it up and go, ‘That was the Wake Forest offense, That wasn’t me.’ Whenever anyone talks about Sam Hartman, they always talk about him wanting to transfer and show the NFL scouts what he can do in more of a pro-style offense. …I didn’t know that stat on Sam. That is very unlike Hartman to throw that many picks,” Nagy said.

“But yeah, it’s useful to see him in different uniforms with different guys around him. The portal stuff has made the evaluation more difficult in some ways, but in terms of seeing guys play in different schemes and stuff, it’s been really helpful.”