Notre Dame Handles Central Michigan with Complete Offensive Performance
Quarterback Sam Hartman went 16-26 (62 percent) for 330 yards and four total touchdowns on Saturday, leading Notre Dame to a 41-17 victory over Central Michigan.
It’s his first 300-yard passing performance in a Fighting Irish uniform.
The Notre Dame offense stayed on fire, totaling 578 yards — a program high since defeating New Mexico 66-14 in 2019.
Still, coach Marcus Freeman believes his team can play even better, especially with No. 6 Ohio State traveling to South Bend next weekend.
“It's to be determined,” he said. “You put a lot of work in to win these games, to give your team a chance. I still don't know if we've seen the full potential of this team, and that's my challenge.”
The Irish improved to 4-0 on the season and 10-0 all-time against current members of the Mid-American Conference.
Notre Dame has scored more than 40 points to open the season for the first time since 1900, with the Irish defeating two local high schools in the process.
Audric Estimé carried the ball 20 times for 176 yards and one touchdown, the former a new career high.
“It feels great. Honestly, that’s not what I look for,” Estimé said. “At the end of the day, I’m happy about the win and we’re still 4-0 and undefeated. We just have to keep on going. It feels great to have my career high, but hopefully, I can break it again.”
Notre Dame finished with 236 yards on the ground for 6.4 yards per carry.
Last-Minute QB Change
Central Michigan starting quarterback Bert Emanuel Jr., missed the game due to illness.
Instead, Jase Bauer started, and the Irish defense did its best to adjust at the minute.
“Did it truly change our game plan? No,” Freeman said. “But we had to go back and watch a little bit of what the backup did.”
Central Michigan 256 yards through the first three quarters and kept the game closer than expected.
Much of this was due to missed assignments, sloppy tackles and unnecessary penalties.
“There were a lot of self-inflicted wounds,” Freeman said. “Now, that doesn't take anything away from Central Michigan. I told coach (Jim) McElwain after the game, he's got a really good football team that's going to win a lot of games in the MAC.”
It didn’t help that Notre Dame was without a pair of leaders in linebacker JD Bertrand and safety DJ Brown, who missed the contest due to a concussion and hamstring injury.
“It's not attack Emmanuel, it's attack whoever's at quarterback,” Freeman said. “Keep him contained and be really good on our presnap communication. Because we didn't have some of our seniors and our captains and our local leaders out there, I thought they did a pretty good job for the most part.”
The Irish finished strong, shutting out the Chippewas in the fourth quarter by limiting them to 12 yards in the period.
Highlight Reel
The Fighting Irish offense continues to light up the scoreboard with explosive gains.
Hartman connected with Tobias Merriweather on his first pass of the day for a 75-yard touchdown pass, the sophomore receiver’s first score of the season.
The following quarter, Hartman surpassed that with a bomb down the middle of the field to slot receiver Chris Tyree for a 76-yard score.
Stat of the Day
Hartman is now the only Fighting Irish signal-caller with two touchdown passes of 75 yards or more in the same game, dating back to at least 1996.
Overall, the Irish continue to rack up long plays from scrimmage. The offense ran four plays for 40 yards or more and is now up to 11 through four contests.
Notre Dame totaled six 40+ yard plays in 13 games last season.
What’s Next?
The Fighting Irish are 4-0 heading into the marquee matchup of the season next weekend, hosting No. 6 Ohio State (3-0) at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
Oddsmakers are warming up to the Irish. The Buckeyes are still favored by 3.5 points, per FanDuel, but that’s actually 5 points lower than the preseason betting line.
Ohio State hosted Western Kentucky this Saturday. The Hilltoppers failed to pull off a monumental upset as a 29.5-point underdog, losing 63-10.
Next weekend, it’ll be the first top-10 matchup inside Notre Dame Stadium since the No. 9 Irish lost to No. 7 Cincinnati 24-13 in 2021.
ESPN’s College Game Day will be in attendance, but the Irish will do their best to avoid the hype and take their preparation one day at a time.
“We’ve got a great opponent coming in here,” Freeman said. “The challenge will be to not worry about Saturday. That's going to be the challenge. I can already tell them right now, ‘Don't worry about Saturday.’ Saturday will be here, but worrying about Saturday does not help you really prepare for Saturday.”