Notre Dame vs Wake Forest Running Diary
As was custom last season, when I’m attending the game and in the press box, I issue a running diary of all the proceedings as there are no children to tend to and soccer games to attend. Let’s get to it.
Pre-game
Tobias Merriweather and Braylon James look the part in early out warmups. I know, I know, everyone is disappointed with Merriweather this year, and any positive mention of him at this point is met with snark. As it is though, he does look and move differently than everyone else. Which just adds to the frustration of this season for him and the offense. So much there they simply haven’t been able to take advantage of.
If Notre Dame needs to take a Hail Mary (God forbid.) (See what I did there?) shot at their own 40 or 45, I wouldn’t be surprised to see freshman Kenny Minchey get a crack at it. He was able to put it 7-8 yards into the end zone from his own 42. Nice arm on him.
Ashton Craig took pre-game snaps and warmup work with Sam Hartman. Today looks to be his first start at center. Could there be a changing of the guard at the center position?
Speaking of changing guards, Billy Schrauth is also making his first start at right guard in place of Rocco Spindler. Huge opportunity for him to make his case for a starting position in 2024.
Notre Dame announces a new deal with NBC, continuing it through the 2029 season. So much pre-season talk about the TV and apparel deals coming up in 2024, only for Notre Dame to maintain the status quo. The crowd goes wild.
Xavier Watts not among the seniors honored on Senior Day. Is it too soon to dream big dreams about his return to Notre Dame in 2024?
Wake Forest wins the toss and elects to defer. The Demon Deacons do not respect Sam Hartman!!
Game Time
14:08 first quarter - The Irish start out hot on offense going three and out. They opened the game with an RPO to Tyree that was both a poor throw and a play that could have been made by Tyree. Not what Notre Dame wanted, but RPO’s are nice to see nonetheless.
13:13 first quarter - Benjamin Morrison is called for pass interference on a bailout call by the far referee. No matter, Notre Dame stops Wake Forest on the next three plays and the Deacs punt the ball into the end zone. The Irish go again on offense.
7:38 first quarter - Notre Dame moved the ball fairly well, going 11 play and 51 yards before stalling out and missing a 47-yard field goal. The passing game looks completely out of sync at this point. Hartman isn’t sure where he’s looking, is late on throws, and has poor ball placement. As such, he’s 2-7 passing for 18 yards to start the game.
5:35 first quarter - The Notre Dame defense is an elite unit. Another three and out. Two totally different caliber of teams play offense and defense for the Irish.
0:54 first quarter - Folks, we’ve got strong running, RPO’s, and play action passes to tight ends. It’s all we ever dreamed of. Notre Dame hit Faison twice on RPO actions, hit Eli Raridon on a play action roll out and finally Devyn Ford gets into the end zone on a wheel route for a 7-0 lead. Audrice Estime has 10 carries for 53 yards so far, including a 21-yard run on 3rd and 1.
End first quarter - Wake Forest has a chance to run a play before the quarter ends and refuses to do so, happy to go into the second period with -4 yards of total offense. Probably the correct decision.
Start second quarter - Hearing troubling reports about NBC missing entire plays while in commercial. A true, “you had one job” situation. This is unbecoming from Notre Dame’s media partner, is it too late to demand more on the contract extension?
11:41 second quarter - The Demon Deacons pull out a couple trick plays to tie the game at 7. A reverse pass that goes for 17 and a would be double pass turned long toss play goes for 20 before Botelho gives up the edge rushing upfield for the Wake Forest touchdown. Fairly shocking drive to give up by the defense.
11:27 second quarter - The referees disgrace themselves again, disallowing a catch by Tyree who looked to control a reception even with the ball touching the ground. We’ve seen this many times before ruled a reception, but not on this occasion.
8:30 second quarter - Notre Dame draws up a nice man beater crossing pattern to Rico Flores on fourth down to move the sticks from midfield. Love the aggressiveness from Freeman to go for it in that situation. Parker paid it off with a nice call.
7:06 second quarter - I’ve been telling you, Tobias Merriweather moves different. He cooks a Wake Forest cornerback for a 35 yard touchdown on a post route. It’s amazing Notre Dame hasn’t been able to hit more of these in 2023. He’s got the ability to win on these types of plays at least once a game.
1:26 second quarter - Wake Forest actually moving the ball on Notre Dame and elects to kick a 30 yard field goal instead of going for it deep in Irish territory only to get the ball blocked and returned by Xavier Watts to the Notre Dame 30. What do we always say? Having the ball is more important than anything and Wake opted to give the ball to Notre Dame regardless of the outcome of the kick. Now they get no points and Notre Dame has a chance before half with two timeouts left.
Halftime - That end of half sequence was…..something. Calling your final timeout after spiking the ball is not good. In fact, it’s really bad. Then, poor situational awareness from Holden Staes to dive after a throw away pass, leaving the clock running and forcing another spike from Notre Dame. Just bad all around. Fortunately, Notre Dame manages a field goal to make it a two-score game at 17-7 going into halftime.
14:09 third quarter - Dream start for the Irish to open the half. JD Bertrand forces a fumble on the blitz, Rylie Mills recovers, and then Notre Dame goes play action shot play to Eli Raridon for the touchdown. Hartman had two receivers running free, but opted for the tougher throw to Raridon who rewarded him with a tremendous catch and his first touchdown reception of his career. And to be fair, it’s a pretty great throw across his body from Hartman.
14:08 third quarter - Marty Biagi you sneaky boy. Notre Dame goes surprise onside kick and it is executed perfectly, recovered without much trouble by DJ Brown. Unfortunately, it amounted to nothing as Notre Dame engineered one of their worst offensive series of the game, going three and out. Should have let Biagi call the offensive series, to be honest.
7:29 third quarter - Wake has two tries to gain one yard from the Notre Dame 46 and on those two tries they gain zero yards. It’s difficult because their running game depends on the threat of the pass so running when running a heavy lineup puts them at a severe disadvantage.
5:22 third quarter - Notre Dame moves right down the field and into the end zone following the Wake Forest turnover on downs. Hartman is now 18-25 for 212 yards and three touchdowns in one of his more efficient games recently. Then again it is a home game, we saw this coming.
0:27 third quarter - Sad trombone punt from Wake Forest on 4th and 11 from the Notre Dame 37. They probably aren’t getting it, but what does punting do at this point in the game? To make matters worse, the ball was kicked into the end zone, for a net gain of 17 yards. Please clap.
13:24 fourth quarte r- Play action passes are falling from the sky! Hartman finds Jaden Greathouse on a play action crossing route for a 48-yard touchdown and Notre Dame is sprinting away, 38-7. Hartman is now 21-29 for 277 yards and four touchdowns.
11:25 fourth quarter - Sam Hartman ends his home career as a Notre Dame football player after having thrown four touchdown passes and 277 yards. His road performances left a lot to be desired, but he gave the home fans some real thrills in 2023. The stadium DJ plays “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston as they show Hartman on the Jumbotron, and the crowd goes wild.
7:13 fourth quarter - Audric Estime goes over 100 yards on the day and finishes with 115 on the day and one touchdown. If these are his final moments in Notre Dame stadium, what a career he’s had. He said he wanted to win the Doak Walker Award after redshirting as a freshman, and he figures to be a finalist this year. Talk about speaking something into existence.
3:56 fourth quarter - Steve Angeli hits Jordan Faison in the corner of the end zone off of another play action pass and another beautiful throw from Angeli. We will continue to ask the question, when has Steve Angeli come in and been less than impressive?
Final- Notre Dame wins 45-7, closes out the home slate going 5-1, with a heartbreaking loss to Ohio State and five blowout wins. This season at home was everything you’d have expected from the Sam Hartman experience, with the road tilts being the downfall of this program in 2023. Whatever you may think of Hartman, he has embraced his time as a Notre Dame student-athlete and seemed to revel in all that came along with it, to his great credit.
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