Irish take the hit and regroup for Duke
SOUTH BEND — Last week’s loss didn’t appear to send shockwaves through the hallowed halls of Notre Dame. Among the football team that is.
A last-play loss to Ohio State was more than a tough pill to swallow for a number of reasons, mainly because of the fact the Irish had so many opportunities to put the game away. Not lost is the fact that any thoughts of a BCS appearance just became a distant hope.
It didn’t seem to bother the two most important parts to the puzzle — Head Coach Marcus Freeman and quarterback Sam Hartman.
“It’s a long season,” said Hartman of the loss. “You know, that hurts. Close game. You know big crowd. It’s tough. But the season goes on, and the bond grows. You win,
you learn. That’ll show up in the loss column for us and we know that. But it’s about next week. It’s about bouncing back and that’s all we can do.”
“We have a good football team. And at times, we showed it versus a really good football team,” said Freeman. “And so, you know, to be on the losing side, it hurts, it stings. But we got to own it and we got to learn from it and we got to use the pain of a loss to really help us find a way to get better.”
“It’s disappointing. And we are disappointed. But we have to move forward. We have to get ready for a
good Duke team.”
“Yeah, frustration. You know, it’s part of the game,” said Hartman. “And, again, it’s a one-week season here and we’re going to bounce back next week.”
No. 17 Duke hosts No. 11 Notre Dame at Brooks Field at Wallace Wade Stadium on Saturday night.
Duke head coach Mike Elko worked at Notre Dame for the 2017 season as the defensive coordinator with then-head coach Brian Kelly.
Elko is 13-4 (.765) through the first 17 games of his tenure with the Blue Devils, marking the best 17-game start to a head coaching stint in Duke history.
A win on the road would go a long way to ease the situation in South Bend but for the week all the talk in the media was of the loss to the Buckeyes.
One thing that comes out of that is the ability of a young head coach and a “veteran” quarterback to deal with that microscope.
Hartman already has shown an ability to handle the press.
After the game, a reporter asked about the first fourth down play early in the game when Hartman scrambled and was stopped which changed the early momentum.
Q — Would you do anything differently on that run around the edge?
HARTMAN: Yeah, I probably would have got the first down, probably would be the better thing to do there.
Q. How would you do that?
SAM HARTMAN: I’m not sure. Maybe you could let me
know.
