Notre Dame football routs Wake Forest on Fighting Irish Senior Day

The end of the first half at Notre Dame left a lot to be desired. The Fighting Irish made up for it at the beginning of the second half — and then some.

After leaving four points on the board with a baffling sequence that included two spikes, a final timeout called after the first of them — yes, when the clock was already at a standstill — and a ball caught for a loss of four yards when an incomplete pass would have been more beneficial, Notre Dame came out of the locker room with its hair on fire on a chilly day in South Bend.

In all three phases.

The defense forced and recovered a fumble via a JD Bertrand sack of Wake Forest quarterback Michael Kern on the second play from scrimmage. Graduate student quarterback Sam Hartman promptly hit Eli Raridon on a 19-yard corner route for the sophomore tight end’s first career touchdown. Perfect throw. Excellent catch.

The Irish followed that up with a surprise onside kick fell on by graduate student safety DJ Brown. The Irish offense went three-and-out on the extra possession, but the unit cashed in on another touchdown the next time it had the ball — thanks to a fourth-and-1 stop by the Notre Dame defense.

At the end of all of that, not yet 10 minutes into the third quarter, Notre Dame led by 24. The game was effectively over. The Irish ended up stomping the Demon Deacons, Hartman’s old program of five years, 45-7, on a day that will go down as the final game played at Notre Dame Stadium for quite a few blue-and-gold contributors — in the 500th game ever played at the venue, no less.

“It’s something special,” head coach Marcus Freeman said. “It’s something special. This place is special. The history, the people, the ones that have come before us that give us this opportunity to be here.”

The game was one minute away from going scoreless through one quarter, but on third-and-3 from the Wake Forest 12-yard line the Demon Deacons left graduate student running back Devyn Ford completely unaccounted for on a wheel route.

Wake Forest had -4 yards in the firs quarter but broke out of that funk with 71 yards on its first six plays of the second quarter to cap an efficient drive off with a 9-yard rushing touchdown ran in by Tate Carney. From there, it was all Irish.

Hartman laid the ball out in front of sophomore wideout Tobias Merriweather for a 35-yard touchdown connection on a post. It was one of numerous well-thrown balls by Hartman after he started the day 2 of 7 for 18 yards. He looked a little uncomfortable early, but he rallied to show the other sideline why he was so good in a Wake Forest uniform for so long.

“It’s different,” Freeman said. “He was with those guys for five years, with that coaching staff. So for him to be able to put that distraction away and perform the way he did is a testament to who he is and the confidence and consistency that he provides.”

Hartman’s final throw of the game was a well-delivered strike to freshman receiver Jaden Greathouse that allowed the speedy first-year pass catcher to get out and run into the end zone on a 48-yard score. Hartman finished 21-of-29 passing for 277 yards with 4 touchdown tosses and 0 interceptions.

Notre Dame Stadium speakers played “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston while showing Hartman on the video board in the fourth quarter. In typical Hartman fashion, he pointed at Steve Angeli, his sophomore backup, imploring the crowd to heap praise on his replacement instead.

Angeli threw a beautiful touchdown pass. Praise deserved. But Hartman had four. And for one last time in South Bend, the world was his.

“To say it was just another game would be lying,” Hartman said. “It’s an emotional game. Senior night, second senior night, but here at Notre Dame, it’s an unbelievable send off for our guys. It’s always going to point to me being at Wake Forest, but I was just happy to see us go out and execute as a football team, especially on offense. We’d been dying to do that for the last three or four weeks, for our fans to get a performance by us that I felt was noteworthy and a fun experience and a game I’ll always remember.”