Notre Dame weathers storm, beats NC State on the road in Raleigh

RALEIGH, N.C. — Notre Dame ran out of refreshments during a 105-minute lightning delay at Carter-Finley Stadium on Saturday. Fighting Irish staffers went to concession stands to fetch hot dogs and brats for the players. Even coaches indulged according to Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman.

Not ideal. Didn’t matter.

No. 10 Notre Dame (3-0) overcame an inadequate culinary situation and weathered the storm in a rather emphatic 45-24 victory over NC State (1-1). Freeman said the final score was the byproduct responding to adversity and displaying resilience for the first time when necessary in 2023.

“There were a lot of different elements today that really we really incurred,” Freeman said. “The rain to start the game, the two-hour delay, then we go out there and it’s still raining. Good things and bad things are happening, but the guys continued to stay in the moment. That’s been our message all week. Just stay in the moment.

“Do not worry about outcomes. Do not worry about last week. Do not worry about the first quarter. Just stay in the moment.”

Notre Dame led 3-0 with 14:45 left in the second quarter at the time of the weather delay, which lasted from 12:50 p.m. ET to 2:35 p.m. ET after a noon kickoff. At that point, NC State had punted three times. The Irish punted twice, which were the first two first-half punts of the season for Freeman’s team.

Junior running back Audric Estimé consumed just as many hot dogs as was necessary to come out of the lengthy pause in action to break off an 80-yard touchdown on the very first play following the delay. Estimé said after the game it was just one hot dog for the 233-pound mix of a bruising and burning back.

“I tried to keep it easy,” he joked. “I didn’t want to get too bloated.”

Over two hours of real time later, Estimé scored another touchdown that put Notre Dame ahead 38-17 with 10:42 remaining in the game. Literal raindrops were replaced with chants of “Let’s go Irish!” raining down in enemy territory. The game was effectively over.

It wasn’t always easy for the Notre Dame offense, though, especially considering the Irish rolled through their first two opponents without hardly breaking a sweat, but in the end the result and accompanying statistics were more than satisfactory in a true road game against a respectable opponent.

Estimé finished with 14 carries for 134 yards and the two TDs. Quarterback Sam Hartman, who once again led Notre Dame down the field for a touchdown in the final minute of the first half, was 15-of-24 for 286 yards and 4 touchdowns. Sophomore tight end Holden Staes caught two of those TDs and led the Irish with 4 catches for 115 yards.

Hartman was sacked 4 times and lost a fumble in his own territory, but NC State missed a field goal on the ensuing possession while the Irish led 24-17. The Blue and Gold got away with one there. Freeman called that sequence and the one that quickly followed the turning point of the game.

The Notre Dame defensive intercepted veteran NC State quarterback Brennan Armstrong three times and scored two touchdowns on the following possessions. Sophomore cornerback Benjamin Morrison got his first INT of the season and the seventh of his career. The Irish did not make good of that takeaway, but they did score following picks from senior safety Xavier Watts and graduate student safety DJ Brown. Those are the takeaways Freeman said turned the tide.

“That’s when we scored and the game kind of got out of hand,” he said.

Notre Dame limited NC State to 344 total yards, 260 through the air and 84 on the ground. Armstrong never truly looked comfortable vs. defensive coordinator Al Golden‘s unit; he only completed 22 of his 47 pass attempts. Notre Dame didn’t sack Armstrong until there were three minutes left in the game, and he still only ran 12 times for 26 yards after racking up 96 rushing yards the week prior vs. UConn.

“We created different rush lanes to confuse him so he couldn’t just step up [and run],” Freeman said.

The task gets easier now for Notre Dame, returning home to host Central Michigan. The Chippewas barely hung on to beat New Hampshire, 45-42, in Week 2. On his way out of the postgame press conference room, Freeman said it was his turn to take down some hot dogs. Central Michigan game-planning could wait until Sunday.