Quick hitters: What Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said about Sam Hartman limping

On Saturday, No. 9 Notre Dame (4-0) took down Central Michigan (2-1), 41-17, at Notre Dame Stadium. Afterward, Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman spoke to reporters. Here are four key things he said: From quarterback Sam Hartman getting shaken up after a sack to the team’s discipline.

On the sideline conversation when quarterback Sam Hartman was slow to get up after being sacked:

“You protect your player, you care about your player. And the first thing I say is, ‘Hey, what happened? Are you okay? First, Are you okay?’ He said, ‘Yeah, man.’ He kind of turned my knee, kind of rolled my leg. I just kind of mentioned to the refs, ‘Hey, protect our quarterback a little bit.’

“I care about Sam, but I also want to make sure we protect him too. He’s a trooper. I asked him over the headset, ‘Hey, how’s Sam?’ He said he’s fine. You want to protect every member of your team and you don’t like to see anybody limping off the field.”

On what he learned about his team with linebacker JD Bertrand, safety DJ Brown, tight end Mitchell Evans and defensive lineman Gabriel Rubio being out:

“Yeah, we got to continue to develop. This is the greatest team sport in the world. And you don’t know what’s going to happen. You don’t control what circumstances come your way. And we had some guys out, some key leaders that we have to continue to develop those guys that are the second — the twos and the threes. 

“And so, I thought they stepped up and did a good job. We have to continuously improve, right? And that’s going to be something I always say. We have to continuously improve.  You know, go back and watch the film, we’ll see. We’ll see where those areas of improvements truly are at. 

“But those penalties, man, we can’t have them. That’s not to our standard. Especially the — you know, the uncharacteristic — the two roughing the passers, a couple holding penalties on offense, defensive PI. I think about those penalties and great football teams don’t beat themselves. And we’re fortunate we can learn from that and still have a good victory.”

On how Notre Dame’s offensive line and pass rush units performed against Central Michigan:

“You know, I’m trying to look. 578 yards on offense. We ended up having, you know, 342 passing and 236 rushing. So in order to have those types of numbers, your offensive line has to play well. If they don’t play well in the passing game and run game, your stats aren’t going to look like that. You know, obviously, I don’t love the two holding calls. We got to be better there. 

“I didn’t get a chance to see the replay but the guys in the replay said, yeah, they’re holding. We can’t hurt — given we can’t hurt Notre Dame. And holding penalties hurt us. But for those to have the success as an offense, the O-line played really well. 

“Defensively, D-line, we were holding a lot of guys. I thought they did a good job getting some pressure on the quarterback and getting to him early. And we’ll go back and see the film. That’s what sticks out in my mind.”

On Notre Dame surrendering four penalties and the team’s discipline:

“Yeah, I think we’re a disciplined team. We have to continue to get better, continue to make sure that — you know, they’re an aggressive team, right? Are they disciplined? Absolutely. But they’re aggressive.  And sometimes you have aggressive penalties, right? 

“And so, I want to look at those two roughing the passers and say, Okay. Was this an aggressive penalty or selfish penalty? Right? And I don’t know until I go back and watch the film. 

“But what I won’t do is keep them on a leash. Like, you got to let these guys be aggressive. When I tell them to come out of the locker room, it’s not, ‘Don’t make a mistake, don’t get a penalty.’ It’s, ‘You go attack.’ We’re trying to win the interval in five seconds. And you go as hard as you can. 

“Do I like to see penalties? Absolutely not. But it’s not a discipline issue, it’s an execution, fundamental issue that we have to continue to improve. So I look to coaching. If it’s a fundamental issue, you got to coach better. Holding is coaching. We got to coach it better. So I take accountability for that, not our players.”