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Adam Rittenberg, ESPN Senior Writer
Notre Dame‘s Sam Hartman took responsibility for the team’s loss to Clemson on Saturday after becoming the first Power 5 quarterback since 2004 to fall to 0-5 against the same opponent.
Hartman completed only 13 of 30 passes for 146 yards and two interceptions, the first of which Clemson’s Jeremiah Trotter Jr. returned for a 28-yard touchdown. The sixth-year senior had 68 rushing yards and a touchdown in Notre Dame’s 31-23 loss at Memorial Stadium. Florida State’s Chris Rix was the last Power 5 quarterback to go 0-5 against the same opponent (Miami). Hartman went 0-4 against Clemson at Wake Forest before transferring to Notre Dame in the winter.
“If you guys want to blame, put anything on anyone, put it on me,” said Hartman, who described his play as “unacceptable” against Clemson. “I played very poor today. Didn’t play well enough to be a winning quarterback, to be a winning football team. All the different situations, scenarios that we were in today was a part of my doing, and really all my doing. I just didn’t execute well enough.
“So if you want to mention people on Twitter, you want to blame OCs, you want to blame Coach [Marcus] Freeman, blame me. I’m big enough and man enough to admit that I didn’t play up to the standard that this team deserves, this fan base, this university deserves.”
Hartman threw 14 touchdown passes and no interceptions through Notre Dame’s first six games before being picked off three times in a 33-20 loss Oct. 7 at Louisville. He completed only 50% of his passes in a narrow win Sept. 30 at Duke and only 43.3% against Clemson, a season low.
Freeman noted the pick-six, which put the Irish down 24-6 midway through the second quarter. Clemson’s offense scored only seven points in the final 39 minutes, 11 seconds. Freeman stressed the turnover margin as a key for Notre Dame against Clemson, which had a 3-2 edge in takeaways. Notre Dame outgained Clemson 329-285.
“Obviously, we can’t throw a pick-six,” Freeman said. “You can’t do that. I know he knows that. Now he did some really, really good things, extending plays with his legs and running for first downs and touchdowns. But the biggest thing we can’t do is turn the ball over. We have to take care of the football.”
Notre Dame is off next week before hosting Wake Forest and then finishing the regular season Nov. 25 at Stanford.