Notre Dame Notebook: Marcus Freeman Talks Defense, Sam Hartman, Audric Estime, Injuries

Fighting Irish head coach shared thoughts on several topics after Saturday's win over Central Michigan

Notre Dame is 4-0 and in the big picture, that is all that matters. The Fighting Irish went into Saturday’s game against MAC foe Central Michigan favored by nearly five touchdowns and ultimately won 41-17.

The result is a far cry better than the 32-29 escape of the last MAC team the Irish played (Toledo) two years ago, and there is no comparison to last year’s loss to Marshall from the Sun Belt.

The Fighting Irish still found themselves up just 21-14 at halftime before outscoring the Chippewas 20-3 in the second half. Eight penalties and a slew of missed tackles by the Irish defense contributed to keep the game close in the first 30 minutes.

"I told them at halftime, if you need me to give you a rah-rah speech, that's not what this team needed,” Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said afterward. "This team needed to settle down and really look at the mistakes that happened in the first half and why was it a seven-point game. So, our mind has to continue to execute one play, one life. Right? What do I need to do to make sure we're executing? I said, go out there, don't beat Notre Dame. Don't beat Notre Dame and we're going to be just fine. For the most part, that's what we did.”

Sam Hartman Keeps Providing

Sam Hartman had his most productive passing day in a Notre Dame uniform. The sixth-year quarterback ran for a touchdown and threw for 330 yards with three touchdown passes. The first went for 75 yards to Tobias Merriweather, the second was a 76-yard bomb to Chris Tyree and the third was a more modest four-yard strike to Holden Staes, who made a highlight worthy one-hand grab for the score.

"The beautiful thing about this, I don't know if Sam is coming in here, but he'll tell you he's got to be better, right,” Freeman said of his quarterback. "He made some mistakes today that he can improve on and the thing that I think about this game for Sam is that the moment won't be too big. He's played a lot of football games. I don't know how many, but he's been in a lot of football games. 

"So, I think his mind will be in a great spot," Freeman continued. "He knows he's got to go out there and execute and do his job. He won't let the things that don't matter to have success affect him. Some young guys that haven't been in this situation, sometimes you can let that stuff that has nothing to do with winning the game, you can let it affect your execution and game out there. I don't think that will be something that Sam will let bother him.”

All Audric Estime

Audric Estime had a career running day with 20 carries for 176 yards (8.8). He scored on a 17-yard run and had a 72-yard touchdown called back due to holding. He hurdled defenders on two different runs while gaining 76 combined yards on three successive carries to open the drive that ended with Staes’ one-handed touchdown grab.

"Trust me, it's not a lot of fun tackling a guy like that,” Freeman explained. "Those hits take a toll on you as a player, I'm sure, as a defender. But the success we can have running the ball without Audric and with any of those running backs, again, when you can run the ball and have success running the ball, you truly open up your pass game. That's always been a strong belief of mine - is the ability to run the ball will help us in the pass game and that's what you saw today.”

A Different Chippewa QB

Central Michigan starting quarterback Bert Emanuel, Jr didn’t make the trip to the game due to injury. Emanuel’s absence gave Jace Bauer his first start of the season and the second of his career. Bauer was just 10 for 20 for 130 yards but he ran for one of CMU’s two touchdowns.

"We knew about it right before the game,” Freeman said of the quarterback change. "I talked to (Central Michigan head coach Jim McElwain) about it right before the game and he said he was out, he didn't make the trip. I think he was ill. Did it truly change our game plan? No, but you know, we had to go back and kind of watch a little bit of what the backup did and the game plan stays too late to truly change the game plan. I thought they did a good job. That quarterback did a good job of staying in there and throwing the ball well. 

"As I told our guys, defensively, our keys to victory in that game was attack the quarterback, no matter who's at corner," continued Freeman. "It's not attack Emanuel, it's attack whoever's at quarterback. 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.”

Out With Injuries

Four players missed Saturday’s game due to injuries. As expected, middle linebacker JD Bertrand was out due to concussion protocol. He still joined the other captains at midfield before the game for the coin toss. Gabriel Rubio continues to be out after a knee injury suffered in the season-opener.

Tight end Mitchell Evans and safety DJ Brown were unexpected game day scratches.

"Mitch ended up having a concussion,” Freeman said. "He was in concussion protocol. That's why he was out and DJ, he got a .... he had a tight hamstring two days ago and we didn't think he would be able to be 100 percent, so we decided to hold him.”

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