Notre Dame Debriefing: Week 10 Clemson

It’s over. Any hope that Notre Dame might be able to make a New Year Six bowl and have the opportunity to take another step closer to a national championship ended Saturday as Notre Dame fell to Clemson 31-23. That’s Notre Dame’s third loss of the season, to a Clemson team that has struggled all season. That’s going to look really bad when the committee is going through their rankings. We have already seen the Irish drop 10 spots in the AP poll, and I would expect a similar drop in the College Football Playoff poll.

The problem with this team is the offense. Offensive coordinator Gerad Parker isn’t doing much to keep his job next season. Notre Dame was forced to settle for Parker after Tommy Rees left for Alabama. So Parker had a pretty short leash to begin with and hasn’t shown much to give you confidence. His playcalling is very conservative and isn’t very creative. If Notre Dame is serious about competing for the national championship Parker can’t be your OC.

You saw it all through the game against Clemson. There were multiple drives that went three and out. Or they would look like they had the start of a drive, then stall out and have to settle for a field goal. This isn’t a sign of a good team. This is something that happens with flawed teams. Teams that need to make drastic changes. Here are the other major takeaways from the game.

Sam Hartman Regression Continues

When Sam Hartman transferred from Wake Forest, there was this hope that Notre Dame finally found the QB they had long been waiting for. This sentiment was reinforced throughout the first four games of the season when Hartman led this Irish offense to average 46 points per game. During this stretch, he also threw for 1,061 yards and 13 touchdowns. There was even talk about Hartman winning the Heisman. It had the potential to be a historic offense. This was the type of offense that could compete with some of the best in the country

However, ever since the loss to Notre Dame, Hartman has gotten worse and worse by the week. This started in the game against Ohio State. Everyone was expecting Hartman to go off in that game. It was expected that it would help cement his case for the Heisman. However, he just had an average game. He wasn’t bad, but definitely didn’t do enough to cement his case for Heisman. However, from there the struggles would begin. The most glaring issue we have seen for Hartman is the amount of interceptions he has thrown. Over the past five games, he has thrown seven interceptions, after not throwing any in the first five games.

This is a very concerning development for the rest of the season. Hartman was supposed to come here and be the QB that could go against some of the best schools in the country. However, based on his recent performance, I don’t know if he’ll be able to win the lower-level bowl game Notre Dame finds itself in.

Notre Dame Has a Habit of Coming Out Flat

A major issue this Notre Dame team faced on Saturday was the fact that they came out flat in the first half. The team looked lifeless in the first two quarters which allowed Clemson to jump out to a multiple-score lead going into halftime. It was deflating and completely took Notre Dame out of the game. They were never able to make up the difference and the game felt like it was over as soon as halftime started. This happened in the Louisville game as well. Notre Dame struggled in the first half of that game too. It allowed Louisville to build confidence and ultimately led to them pulling off the upset.

If you’re a team like Notre Dame, you have to come out of the gates fast. Put points on the board and bury the other team as quickly as possible. This is something that reflects poorly on the coaching staff. A sign of a bad coach is when they look sluggish or play down to their competition. Notre Dame has done both of those so far. This is a problem that Marcus Freeman has to solve as quickly as possible. If this is an issue that continues to persist, then it is time to start questioning Freeman’s time as head coach.

Notre Dame will be on another needed bye week this week. There is going to be a lot to work on this week.

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