Quick hitters: What Notre Dame OC Gerad Parker said about the Irish going under center
Notre Dame offensive coordinator Gerad Parker spoke to reporters Tuesday about a variety of topics. Parker discussed graduate quarterback Sam Hartman taking snaps under center, the wide receiver room and the lack of receiving production from the Notre Dame tight ends.
Here are some highlights from Parker’s Tuesday evening media availability.
Did you feel it was important for the offense to go under center at Notre Dame, even with Hartman lacking experience doing so?
“Off the record, I’d give you more. Preparing for opponents was a piece of it; that would give you enough to say that part. On record, I would say that it’s certainly gonna be a piece of who we are. There’s a lot of things that happen, right, your ability to hide back alignment, play action certainly helps us from there, and certainly being able to get our guys downhill. And, from the start of this thing, with what [Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman] and I spoke about, as far as taking the job here and what we believe this place is, it’s also a brand of football. We wanna be able to get under center and sell to our players that we’re preparing them to have schematic things that they see that prepared them to play in the NFL.”
“So there’s a lot of it. I know that’s a broad answer, but it really is important. So as you bring in Sam Hartman as a new quarterback in this offense and we build this all together, we wanted him to be able to grow. It’s one of the reasons he came here. And so, to be able to see him do that and function the way he did certainly shows what he’s been able to do in the time he’s been here.”
Did you have to guide Hartman with learning the footwork necessary to go under center?
“Yeah, and stuff that even still comes up. [Quarterbacks coach] Gino [Guidugli] has done a great job with him, even in some of our action throws, of being able to drive away and get away from the linemen, drive and get depth in his pocket, which showed up. So there’s things that are gonna continue to show up for him, but he certainly made the strides in doing so.”
How different is it to be able to constantly evaluate the wide receivers when last year you barely had enough guys to line up at times?
“Yeah, it’s huge. I think that the best way for guys to get better in a room is to have better people around them. And when they see guys that are evolving, getting better every day, they’re starting to be really good teammates to each other, all it does is just raise the level. It’s like the old saying, high tide raises all boats. And I think that’s what’s happened in that room. And it’s gonna be a constant thing that we gotta keep growing.”
There have been three Notre Dame games in the past five years where a tight end hasn’t caught a pass, and they’re all against Navy. Is there something they do to take that away?
“I didn’t realize that. That’s an interesting stat. I would say that there are some schematic things that show up against them that make that a tougher way to get them the ball.”
