What they’re saying about Notre Dame’s 21-14 win over Duke
Notre Dame had a 13-0 lead just to allow 14 unanswered points by Duke, but heroics from Sam Hartman, Audric Estime and the rest of the Irish offense led Marcus Freeman‘s program to 21-14 road win on Saturday night.
In this article, we’ll take a look around at what the media is saying about Notre Dame’s victory against the Blue Devils, including Blue & Gold’s Mike Singer and Tim Hyde giving their instant reaction in a postgame YouTube live show. You can watch the replay of the show in the video player below.
Make sure to subscribe to the Blue & Gold YouTube channel here and tune in to The Mike Goolsby Show, which will be live on the page Sunday at 7 p.m. ET.
Tyler Horka, Blue & Gold: How Notre Dame made winning plays when it mattered most vs. Duke
DURHAM, N.C. — Sam Hartman stood on the sideline all by himself. Then he sat speechless next to Notre Dame quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli. When Duke scored a go-ahead touchdown with 9:22 left in the fourth quarter, he grabbed his helmet and paced back and forth waiting for his turn to take the field.
Through the lens of a pair of binoculars peering down from the press box at Wallace Wade Stadium, Notre Dame’s graduate student quarterback was a little uncomfortable with what was unfolding between his No. 11 Fighting Irish the No. 17 Duke Blue Devils.
Hartman didn’t have an easy day at the office. It wasn’t a sit still on the bench and only get up when it’s time to go score more points type of game for the Notre Dame offense.
The Irish were antsy. Angst pervaded their visiting sideline. It wasn’t just Hartman feeling it either. It was danger time all around for Notre Dame.
Heck, head coach Marcus Freeman might have been the most affected.
The Fighting Irish only lost back-to-back games one time from 2017-21, the heyday of the Brian Kelly era, and those losses came in the ACC Championship Game vs. No. 4 Clemson and the Rose Bowl vs. No. 1 Alabama. Freeman, meanwhile, was incredibly close to dropping back-to-back games for the second time in as many seasons, his first two on the job in South Bend.
Kyle Kelly, Blue & Gold: How Notre Dame QB Sam Hartman defied the odds again with his fourth-down run conversion
Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman is familiar with the odds being stacked against him. After all, five years ago, he was the No. 54 quarterback in his recruiting class, according to the On3 Industry Ranking. There have been plenty more ups and downs and twists and turns along the way.
All he has done is exceed double his recruiting ranking with the amount of career touchdown passes tossed (110) before he even arrived in South Bend in January. He did it in five seasons as Wake Forest’s signal caller.
Hartman set the record for the most touchdown throws by an ACC quarterback. Then, he transferred to Notre Dame to give the Fighting Irish a legitimate shot at its third College Football Playoff appearance. And he defied the odds again after leading No. 11 Notre Dame to a gutsy 21-14 victory over No. 17 Duke.
But with 51 seconds left on the Wallace Wade Stadium scoreboard, any chance Notre Dame had at running the table for a 2023 playoff berth was on life support. The Irish were down 14-13. Hartman stared 4th-and-16 and Notre Dame’s 10.7% chance of winning in the face. He prevailed.
Hartman kept the game, Notre Dame’s 30-game ACC regular season win streak, and most importantly, its College Football Playoff aspirations alive with a 17-yard run. It was the eighth of a 10-play drive that began at ND’s own 5-yard line. And the one that gave running back Audric Estimé the ability to silence a Duke-heavy 40,768 home crowd with a game-winning touchdown with 31 seconds to play.
Andrea Adelson, ESPN: Sam Hartman rewards Marcus Freeman’s ‘faith’ as Notre Dame rallies
DURHAM, N.C. — Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman never wavered in his belief that quarterback Sam Hartman would lead the Irish to a comeback win against Duke on Saturday night.
Even if Hartman had less than three minutes and nearly 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 was in a frenzy, sensing a huge moment was on its doorstep — the potential to beat two top-15 teams in the first five weeks of the season.
But Hartman is no rookie. Now in his sixth season, he has essentially been a starter since his freshman season at Wake Forest in 2018. He has played in this stadium previously; he has led fourth-quarter comebacks previously, too. He nearly did it a week ago against Ohio State.
Notre Dame started moving the ball. The first big third-down conversion came on third-and-10, with a 19-yard pass to tight end Mitchell Evans. But an offensive pass interference penalty threatened to stall the drive and hand Duke the win. Anticipating what was about to happen, several Duke students hopped down onto the field, almost giddy.
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman
On the play call and outcome of Estimé’s touchdown run:
“We were drawing it up to really run the ball, get the clock down, call timeout and kick the game-winning field goal. It’s a great coaching point because we practice that we probably should go down, right?
“People will go, ‘Hey, don’t take points off the board. You probably should go down right there at the 1-yard line. Kick a field goal from the 1-yard line and win the game that way. And so great teaching opportunities, but, man, I’m glad he scored. I’m glad he scored and I’m glad we won.”
Duke head coach Mike Elko
On Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman converting on fourth and 16
“When you drop eight like that, you build out a five-underneath wall at the sticks and you have a hard time believing that a kid can scramble for 16 yards. I just have to go back and look to see what went wrong. It was hard to see live. You drop eight in that long yardage situation because you think the scramble is out of play and you just try to flood the coverage. In hindsight, maybe we should have just kept pressuring.”
