Sam Hartman evaluates his Notre Dame debut vs. Navy

After dismantling the Naval Academy’s football program in Ireland, Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman deflected all the praise to his teammates in the postgame.

First, he credited the coaching staff for having the Fighting Irish ready to face the triple-option and Navy’s attack in general.

“I mean, I think it starts with my coaching,” said Hartman. “We’ve been prepping for Navy. We know obviously from last year what a challenge they presented on defense. And, you know, again, they plug their players in, a lot of it is scheme. So, I think, we just had a great plan and we went out and executed it. Not really any of my abilities.”

Specifically, Hartman singled out freshman Jaden Greathouse, who led the team with 68 receiving yards and a pair of touchdowns in the win over Navy.

“It was more guys around us, like Jaden Greathouse here, who’s a freshman out there making big plays. Just, no moment’s too big, kind of dealing.”

The offensive line also held up well, according to the ND QB, who said he had no issues going through his progressions out of the pocket.

“Really, it starts up front. I mean, I have a lot of time to go through and read these progressions and felt comfortable. I think it’s easy, when you have two of the best tackles in the country, you know, two guards are you knows tarting their first real big games and played unbelievably. And obviously Zeke Correll at center.”

Along with Greathouse, Sam Hartman liked the play of his receivers.

“And then out wide, I mean, those guys just made plays in space. I don’t know how many deep completions I had — it was a lot of just getting the ball in space, which we wanted to do.”

Of course, Hartman had to touch on the running backs as well and complimented the depth at the position after the Irish had six different backs get carries on Saturday, led by Audric Estime and his 95 yards on 16 carries.

“Yeah, I mean, again, it starts upfront. It’s very easy when you’re running behind that kind of line. There’s a lot of big holes. And obviously, Audric (Estime) runs incredibly hard. Jadarian Price runs hard, I mean, even all the way down to (Jeremiyah Love). Like, we got four backs.”

A lot to like about the offensive performance vs. Navy for Sam Hartman.