Sam Hartman rewards Marcus Freeman's 'faith' as Notre Dame rallies - ESPN

DURHAM, N.C. — Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman never wavered in his belief that quarterback Sam Hartman would lead the Irish to a comeback win against Duke on Saturday night.

Even if Hartman had less than three minutes and nearly the entire length of the football field to get it done.

Trailing 14-13, the Notre Dame offense took the field from its own 5-yard line. Duke's sellout crowd was in a frenzy, sensing a huge moment was on its doorstep — the potential to beat two top-15 teams in the first five weeks of the season.

But Hartman is no rookie. Now in his sixth season, he has essentially been a starter since his freshman season at Wake Forest in 2018. He has played in this stadium previously; he has led fourth-quarter comebacks previously, too. He nearly did it a week ago against Ohio State.

Notre Dame started moving the ball. The first big third-down conversion came on third-and-10, with a 19-yard pass to tight end Mitchell Evans. But an offensive pass interference penalty threatened to stall the drive and hand Duke the win. Anticipating what was about to happen, several Duke students hopped down onto the field, almost giddy.

Facing fourth-and-16 with 51 seconds left from the Duke 47, Hartman dropped back. No one was open, so he decided to take off running. Duke, which had stopped the powerful Notre Dame running game for the bulk of the game, lost sight of Hartman. He gained 17 yards. First down.

The students looked at each other as if to say, «Are you kidding me?»

Notre Dame spiked the ball on the next play. Then, Audric Estime ran 30 yards for the game-winning score with 31 seconds left on the clock, giving Notre Dame a 21-14 win and its 30th straight regular-season win over an ACC team — passing Florida State