Watched the video interview of Hartman from yesterday. The most interesting thing to me was that he met and talked with Jimmy Clausen over the summer when ND athletes had some event in LA. A lot of people think that Hartman reminds them of Clausen in terms of his accuracy throwing the football.
Interesting stuff about Hartman this week. In a presser he said that he was set to go to the NFL and then the NIL stuff came up and he decided to stay another year and that ND was really his only school he considered. That there was a rumor that he was interested in Fla but that it wasn't true, that his brother who looks a lot like him is now a grad student in Gainesville and some mistook that as him and that he was visiting and considering the Gators. After that some posters who claimed inside knowledge said he was offered 1.5M by ND to come and that Wake offered 400k. He was projected as a 4th round pick which would be 400k if he makes the squad so staying in college wasn't a financial hit and possibly could increase his NFL draft status.
He said he was off to the NFL, then the NIL stuff came up and he didn't go. It's been speculated that he felt he needed to get away from the Wake Forrest offense and spend a year in a more NFL friendly offense. I have to assume he thought that was at ND, were there other schools he actually considered and the NIL money tipped it to ND. I don't know and the amount of NIL from ND sources is speculated as are pretty much all the NIL money reported.
Sid any inside info here? 2025 Indiana receiver Devaughn Slaughter is excited about visiting South Bend. The Indianapolis Cathedral standout says he’s always been a fan of Notre Dame and that his house is stacked with Irish merchandise. The 6-foot, 160-pounder currently has offers from Miami-Ohio and Bowling Green. He’s also planning to visit Maryland, Louisville and Cincinnati.
I'm not one to rag on officials but this crew is awful. First clue was when the Field Judge called a pass complete that hit the ground right in front of him, then a CMU DB mgged our WR and I guess they called it uncatchable which it was because of PI. Then in an almost comical sequence, Estime is clearly short on the 3rd down run, but they give us the 1st down, then they go to the hood and it's clear he's a 1/2 yard short but they confirm the call on the field..but wait they then after a few seconds decide no doubt from someone screaming in their ear that he was short, they go back under the hood an call him short and it's 4th down. No problem Estime scores on the next (4h down) play. But Jeeeessssh. BTW CMU had a good drive aided a bit by a personal foul and some poor tackling.
Irish go to half leading 21-14. We did a lot of good things on offense, some really big plays. But our defense has not looked good and CMU has made several long drives, we hurt ourselves with some penalties but they made our defense look pretty ordinary. Overall not a good first half though.
Further on raging on the refs. We had a PI in the endzone where the DB never touched the WR, he got taken down by the turf monster. But unfortunately it's not the refs who are killing us, it's the mediocre defense and poor tackling.
No, but I can tell you what I observe when Cathedral plays my grandson's team on October 6. Funny. I haven't heard his name mentioned locally as one of the top area players. Maybe I'm not paying close enough attention.
31-17 at the end of the 3rd qtr. This game has been much more of a battle than anticipated. The Irish defense is getting gashed by CMU.
Irish win 41-17, glad for the win. But a lot of concern for the defense, CMU had some good drives where they dominated our defense and they don't have a Marvin Harrison Jr or a lot of other talent that Ohio State has on their squad. The good, Sam Hartman continues to play extremely well. He throws the deep ball better than any QB we've had since Jimmy Clausen. Audric Estime continues to play outstanding ball he ran for 176 yards today, it was CMU so you have to take that into consideration. But both guys have played up or maybe even exceeded expectations. The good, our FG kicker is solid, our punter (when he has to punt) is solid. I'm a bit disappointed that unlike last year where we seemingly had a chance to block a lot of punts, this year we don't seem to be going after them and the punt returns are mostly fair catches and when we do attempt a return not much happens. The Good our receivers are a good work in progress, they catch and run well. Of course most of the long balls they catch are right on target. But Staes has made a number of catches like he did on the last TD, not highlight reel but very good catch/effort. OL not sure, at times look great other times are overwhelmed by the defense. They should improve as the season goes on, but not sure they are good enough to keep Hartman clean and give Estime the holes to make the offense go against the Buckeyes next week. The bad, the pass rush, the run defense..both sort of stink. Freeman talks about pressures being important and I don't question that, but we have to blitz like crazy to do that. But as Tim would say, it's a win put it in your pocket and smile.
I’m not commenting on those officials other than note that they almost made last weeks YUCC crew look competent. It looked to me like we were playing a lot of zone coverage which we’re not very good at. Tackling was not very good at times. These kind of games happen. Ask FSU. Is Bertrand that critical?
We're not going to fare well vs. OSU with our pass defense and our mistakes (penalties, etc.). I just hope we can be competitive enough to feel like we gave them a game.
Sorry Sid, not gonna buy any Irish sob stories whilst we're being set up for the shillelagh! Marcus is gonna have his guys playing lights out next week. It's gonna be a 4 qtr battle
If they can't figure out a way to beat the Buckeyes with this team at home then I don't know when that day will come.