What they’re saying about Notre Dame’s 42-3 thrashing of Navy
Notre Dame’s 2023 campaign kicked off in style in Dublin, Ireland on Saturday, knocking off Navy 42-3. New quarterback Sam Hartman dazzled viewers with his four touchdown passes, and the Irish only had one drive not result in a score, besides the final possession of the game in which the clock hit triple zeros.
In this article, we’ll take a look around at what the media is saying about Notre Dame’s victory over the Midshipmen, 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 8 p.m. ET.
Tyler Horka, Blue & Gold: How powerful, punishing Notre Dame offensive line paved path to Week 0 win
DUBLIN, Ireland — With time ticking down toward a 42-3 Notre Dame victory, Rocco Spindler bopped his head to some R&B music blaring from the speakers at Aviva Stadium. His helmet off. His services no longer necessary.
There weren’t 49,000 people in the stands anymore. A few thousand of them must’ve headed for the bars by the waning moments of the fourth quarter. They saw all they needed to see.
For however long they stuck around, they saw the Notre Dame offensive line, Spindler, a junior right guard making up 20 percent of it, absolutely maul Navy’s Midshipmen in the trenches. And if they stayed long enough to see Spindler beep-bopping around the home sideline, then they also saw Notre Dame director of athletics Jack Swarbrick bump fists with him and three of his fellow starters; junior tackles Joe Alt and Blake Fisher and junior left guard Pat Coogan.
That quartet plus graduate student center Zeke Correll had much to do with the fact that their reserves logged some snaps in garbage time. From the Fighting Irish’s very first drive, Blue and Gold ball carriers had gaps as wide as the Irish Sea to spurt through.
On a night in which two-thirds of Notre Dame’s scoring came through the air, it was fitting the first touchdown was gained on the ground. Junior running back Audric Estimé easily powered into the end zone in a goal-line formation. The Irish brought backup tackle Tosh Baker onto the field to flank Alt’s left. Tight end Mitchell Evans was in-line to Fisher’s right. There were two H-backs in the backfield with Estimé, too.
True power football. Notre Dame easily pushed the line of scrimmage in the offense’s favor. Touchdown, Irish.
Associated Press: Hartman, No. 13 Irish cruise past Navy
DUBLIN — Sam Hartman threw for four touchdowns in his Notre Dame debut and the No. 13 Fighting Irish routed Navy 42-3 on Saturday in a season-opening victory in Ireland’s capital.
Notre Dame (1-0) scored at will against the Midshipmen (0-1), improving to 3-0 all time against Navy in Dublin games.
Hartman completed 19 of 23 passes for 266 yards.
“It starts up front. I had a lot of time to go through my reads and progressions, and felt comfortable,” Hartman said.
Hartman connected with Jaden Greathouse on two scoring strikes, the second a 20-yard reception that gave the Irish a 35-0 advantage early in the third quarter and kept the Irish offense perfect — scoring touchdowns in their first five possessions.
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The Irish quickly eased fears about another possible slow start after going 0-2 last season.
“You couldn’t draw it up any better,” Irish coach Marcus Freeman said.
After touchdowns runs by Audric Estime and Jadarian Price, Hartman’s first TD pass went to Greathouse, who caught a deep ball at the 5 and took it in for a 35-yard scoring play and a 21-0 lead. That drive was a no-huddle special requiring just 1:52 and four plays to go 78 yards.
Tom Noie, ND Insider: Notre Dame football finally has a quarterback who gets it
Playing his part and everything it entails on and off the field is something that doesn’t seem that big of a deal for Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman.
He gets it. He gets that if he plays well, he’s a story. He gets that if he doesn’t play well, he’s a story. He gets that if Notre Dame wins, he’s a story. If Notre Dame loses, well, what happens next may still be a few weeks away.
Hartman embraces everything about his role in this program this season, his sixth in college, but there comes a point that after all the work he’s put in, after standing solo in the spotlight for so long, Hartman seeks out ways for others to share in that success.
Late Saturday night at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland was one of those times.
One of four team captains for the No. 13 Notre Dame football team, Hartman completed 19 of 23 passes for 252 yards in a 42-3 victory over Navy. His play rekindled recent Irish quarterback debut memories of Jack Coan on a steamy Labor Day Sunday night at Florida State in 2021. If you really want to ride in the way-back machine, dial up the September night in Chicago to open 1994 when Ron Powlus worked similar wizardry on the floor of old Soldier Field.
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman’s postgame comments
On the meaning behind Sam Hartman’s Notre Dame debut:
“Yeah, I think it’s a reflection of, he told me today this was, I think, the 48th or 47th game he’s played in, right? He’s started 42 games. This moment wasn’t too big. And it’s about him going out there and just executing. And what I really, really thought he did a great job of is putting our offense in a really good position to play.
“There were a couple of calls that we had that, depending on what the defense was showing, we were going to check to a run or pass or a certain protection. And just to hear the communication of our coaches, to making sure that Sam is putting our offense in just really a great situation to succeed was really good.
“I thought just the overall operation of our offense, the ability to run the ball helps Sam a lot, too, right? We talked about this in our team meeting, the greatest friend for a quarterback is the ability to run the ball. And that was something that our offensive line and our running game did a great job doing today.”
Navy head coach Brian Newberry’s postgame comments
“The first thing I want to say is that’s a heck of a football team that we played tonight. I can’t say enough good things about coach Freeman and his staff and his players. I thought the quarterback, Sam Hartman, played extremely well. Disappointed. It’s not what we hoped for an expected. But it was a good football team, and we knew— didn’t take a miracle to win the game, but we knew we had to be at our best. I didn’t think we were.”
