Analysis: Where to assign blame for Notre Dame football's 31-23 loss to Clemson?
CLEMSON, S.C. — The first question was about lousy field position, and it was entirely appropriate after the offense for Notre Dame football spent most of Saturday’s 31-23 loss to Clemson in the shadow of its own goalpost.
Sam Hartman didn’t want to talk about field position.
“I’m not even going to answer your question,” the 24-year-old rental quarterback said. “More of a statement. If guys want to blame, put anything on anyone, put it on me. I played very poor today. Didn’t play well enough to be a winning quarterback, a winning football team.”
Hartman finished 13 of 30 for 146 yards and two interceptions, including one that Jeremiah Trotter Jr. returned 28 yards for a touchdown. That made it 24-6 midway through the second quarter.
Winless in five career starts against Clemson, Hartman absorbed the 19th and 20th sacks of his long-running career against the Tigers. He’s now 34-21 as a college starter, and nearly a quarter of those losses have come against Dabo Swinney’s program.
His first crack at Clemson ended with a 63-3 loss as a freshman back in 2018. This one somehow felt even worse.
“All the different situations, scenarios that we were in today is … really all my doing,” Hartman said. “I just didn’t execute well enough. So, if you want to mention people on Twitter, if you want to blame OCs, if you want to blame Coach (Marcus) Freeman, blame me.”
Of course, it’s never that simple.
Notre Dame was missing its leading receiver in tight end Mitchell Evans (torn ACL), and wideout Jayden Thomas, slowed by a lingering hamstring injury for the past six weeks, remained a non-factor.
A Clemson secondary missing three key pieces, including two starters, somehow kept the Irish wideouts bottled up for the bulk of a strange afternoon.
Gerad Parker’s play-calling will again be under scrutiny after the Irish ran on 13 of their first 15 first-down plays. They would complete just four passes on first down all game, including a pair of checkdowns to Audric Estime (4 and 5 yards).
Even the chunk gains on first-down passes, a 35-yarder to freshman Rico Flores Jr. and a 20-yarder to freshman Jordan Faison, came on safe throws underneath the Clemson coverage.
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Hartman didn’t want to talk about that.
“I’m big enough of a man to admit that I didn’t play up to the standard that this team deserves, this fan base, this university deserves,” Hartman said. “And that’s the way it goes. That’s the Saturdays of college football. I’m going to stick my head up high to the fact that happened.”
Ashton Craig's 'incredible' performance under duress
The final 21 minutes, including six Irish possessions and a lost Clemson fumble with 1:47 remaining, were a scoreless slog as Notre Dame played that span with its third-string center.
Ashton Craig, the redshirt freshman from Lawrenceburg, had to sub in for starter Zeke Correll (concussion) and backup Andrew Kristofic (ankle) after both were injured in the third quarter.
Column: Notre Dame football had a chance to be better Saturday vs. Clemson. It wasn't
Hartman termed Craig’s performance “incredible,” but he quickly turned the discussion back to his own failings.
“Guys stepped up,” he said. “People got hurt and didn’t flinch. I was really proud of the effort, and the intensity that guys played with.”
What he wasn’t proud of was his performance, especially that pick-six intended for sophomore tight end Holden Staes (Evans’ replacement) in the flat.
“The guy got underneath the play and underneath the pass,” Hartman said. “I shouldn’t have thrown it and just tried to force one in there, especially backed up. I mean, you can’t do it and I did it. Kid made a good play and got underneath the route, and he took it the other way.”
No need to leave sideline passes for Connor Stalions when your opponent is shrinking the field to a 5-yard area (if that) on first down.
“We wanted to be able to throw some balls and throw some shots, but they did a good job of defending the throws that we put up,” Freeman said. “And then the pick-six kind of spooks you. It spooks you. It spooks the quarterback a little bit. And it makes you say, ‘OK, let’s go back to the run game.’ “
Hartman wasn’t asked about whether he was “spooked,” but his only downfield completion was for 21 yards on a corner route to Chris Tyree on third-and-8 late in the second quarter. Another checkdown to Estime, this time on third-and-5, went for 22 yards on that same drive, and that was it for Notre Dame’s impact passing game.
“We had ample opportunities to score,” Hartman said. “We had ample opportunities to make plays, and frankly I just didn’t make them. … It wasn’t good enough for me to go out there and play like I played, and that ended up in a loss.”
Follow Notre Dame football writer Mike Berardino on social media @MikeBerardino.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame football quarterback Sam Hartman says he deserves blame
