Earlier this season, The Observer brought you a look at the first half of Notre Dame's football season in the unique form of Taylor Swift songs. The beloved popstar's songs can summarize just about anything, including an up-and-down Irish campaign that saw the team finish 9-3. It was a good season but left fans wanting more. If “more” means another Swift-themed look at the Irish, this time with the entire regular season in focus, consider it done.
Gold 24, Blue 0 – “Long Live (Speak Now, Taylor’s Version)”
The annual Blue and Gold Game usually marks the end of the spring Notre Dame football practice schedule. But, this year it felt more like a beginning, or as Taylor puts it “the start of an age.” After the last two years of underwhelming performances by QB1s, Sam Hartman’s arrival on campus seemed to be the light at the end of the tunnel we were all looking for.The prospect of what would later be known as the Hartman era had the students dancing “like we knew our lives would never be the same.”
After “all the years that we stood on the sidelines wishing for right now,” the moment was finally here. As Hartman led the Gold team to a 24-0 shutout he “held his head like a hero.”
“The crowds in stands went wild” for the glimpse of the future of Notre Dame football we got to see that afternoon thanks to wide receivers Jaden Greathouse, Jayden Thomas and Audric Estime and running back Gi’Bran Payne. Greathouse, a freshman, would finish the game with 11 catches for 118 yards. The sophomore Payne led all rushers with 51 yards.
While kingdom lights didn’t shine on the field because it was still light out after the game, this game “will be remembered” for the hope it gave back to the students after a rough couple of seasons. We can say “Long Live” to the team that we thought we had for at least a little while. — Mehgan Lange, Saint Mary's News Editor
Notre Dame 42, Navy 3 – “Ready for It?”
They were not “Ready for It,” but we were. As over 40,000 fans descended on Dublin, Ireland for this highly anticipated game it is safe to say the Midshipmen didn’t know what we had in store. After the soft launch of the 2023 season in the Blue and Gold game, fans were ready to see their team dominate in this unique season opener. In other words “Baby, let the games begin.”When it came to Hartman, the Irish, both fighting and citizens, “knew he was a killer first time that we saw him” back in April. Hartman only continued “stealing hearts and running off and never saying sorry” when he threw four touchdown passes in the game tying with previous Notre Dame quarterbacks Ron Powlus and Jack Coan for most touchdown passes in a debut.
But he wasn’t the only one “stealing hearts.” After Estimé scored the first touchdown of the game in the first seven minutes, he cemented his place in the Irish history books. The line “some boys are trying too hard, he don’t try at all, though” seems to describe how easy Estimé makes it look, almost too easy. Needless to say, Estimé is a safe bet ...
The team scored 42 consecutive points throughout the game. Navy’s score of three only came in the final four minutes of the game from a field goal. This game is one made for dreams, from being in Dublin to the way the team played, being on the sidelines for this game was absolutely electric.
After that game, they set out to either break our hearts or bring them back to life with their electric touch. I think we all know which outcome we got. — Lange
Notre Dame 56, Tennessee State 3 – “Today Was a Fairytale”
We all already know there’s a magic in the sound of her name. But on the first home game day of the season, there’s always a little extra. Campus buzzes with freshmen getting ready for their first game day. Dorm traditions are upheld and it's still warm outside, so wearing a dress or a dark gray t-shirt is possible.The first few games of the season are light and filled with hope, like an intriguing second date. Irish nation fell in love with Hartman when we saw him standing there at the Blue and Gold Game. Every move he made, everything he said, was right. But fans had still yet to see him play in a real game at Notre Dame Stadium.
By the time the students actually arrived in the stadium, they were rocking and rolling and feeling pretty “Fearless.” Even though the Irish didn’t come sprinting “Out of the Woods” in the first quarter, like we thought they would, by the second quarter they rallied to completely crush the visiting Tigers. Time slowed down whenever one of the running backs was around with the ball (or at least the defense wished it would have).
Their band was incredibly talented and entertaining. But Tennessee State “Should’ve Said No” to coming to South Bend. It was “The Best Day” for Notre Dame fans and had everyone feeling like we were in our National Championship Era – a true Cinderella Story. — Annika Herko, Sports Writer
Notre Dame 45, NC State 24 – “Long Story Short”
One thing to remember about the NC State game is that it really was long. Like, really long. Both offenses had a slow start to the game, with neither team scoring until Spencer Schrader’s record-breaking 54-yard field goal. Then, of course, there was the two-hour-long weather delay that began just two plays into the second quarter.Luckily, the Irish were able to pick up momentum once the game resumed. Even though the Wolfpack never had an advantage over the Irish, Notre Dame couldn’t truly get comfortable until two interceptions in the fourth quarter sealed the deal. After a long, competitive matchup, the Irish claimed their 45-24 victory.
At this point in the season, NC State was the only true competition the Irish had faced. They rose to the challenge, making it easy for fans to think “now I’m all about you.” It was a long, eventful game, with way more excitement than I could describe in this small blurb. But if you’re not in the mood, I’ll just leave you with this: long story short, we survived. — Gabrielle Beechert, Assistant Managing Editor
Notre Dame 41, Central Michigan 17 – “I Forgot That You Existed”
This song works for Central Michigan for a couple of reasons. Most Irish fans didn’t really acknowledge this game on the schedule at all. The trip to Raleigh against North Carolina State represented the first true test for Notre Dame in 2023. Ohio State then loomed two weeks later as possibly the biggest game in years at Notre Dame Stadium. In between those two was a home game — but not the home opener — against a MAC opponent that was coming off a 4-8 campaign.Fans showed up on Sept. 16, of course, but that attendance was merely a formality, a pre-game for the pending showdown with the Buckeyes. To their credit, the game itself ended up being pretty forgettable. Most Irish fans probably don’t recall that Notre Dame only led by seven points at halftime! Eventually, though, the Irish pulled away and set the stage for what would become possibly the season’s defining moment next Saturday against Ohio State. — J.J. Post, Associate Sports Editor
Ohio State 17, Notre Dame 14 – “The Moment I Knew”
Reliving the Ohio State game will likely be a brutal chore for Irish fans for years to come. This wasn’t the same as the boring but efficient 21-10 Buckeye win in Columbus in 2022. Notre Dame was right there, on the doorstep. The Irish could have put the game away with four minutes remaining in the final quarter.Instead, a failed screen pass allowed Ohio State to pocket an extra timeout. Notre Dame’s defense then forced the Buckeye offense, which had struggled to drive the length of the field all game, into a fourth and seven and a third and nineteen. Ohio State converted both. Then, with seconds left in the game, and the Buckeyes facing third down on the one-yard line … in the words of Taylor, “there was one thing missing.” More specifically, one player — the Irish had only put ten defenders out on the field.
Ohio State scored. The NBC broadcast cut to Sam Hartman in disbelief on the sidelines. And though Notre Dame would get one last chance to try and throw together a circus play to win the game, that camera shot of Hartman in stunned silence doubtlessly represented the moment he, and thousands of Irish fans, knew. — Post
Notre Dame 21, Duke 14 – “Getaway Car”
Coming out of the tragic Ohio State loss, Notre Dame needed something new, something exciting. Just like the feeling of having a new boyfriend and the excitement of a new relationship, the Notre Dame football team needed something to pump them up.Feeling tense through most of the game, it felt as if they had “poisoned the well” with a loss seeming feasible. Thanks to Sam Hartman’s 17-yard fourth-down scramble and Estimé’s 30-yard touchdown, the Irish were able to make the “the great escape, the prison break”. Once Estimé crossed the goal-line, Irish fans were able to feel “the best of times,” turning the Blue Devils’ 14-13 advantage into a 21-14 Irish win.
Notre Dame was able to grab the money, get in the getaway car and run away to the next team, Louisville. But as Taylor so famously warns, “nothing good starts in a getaway car.” — Christina Sayut, Graphics Editor
Louisville 33, Notre Dame 20 – “This Is Me Trying”
In my opinion, this was the lowest point of Notre Dame's season. No matter how you slice it, this Louisville game sucked. But, hey, they tried. Notre Dame had come off two extremely emotionally taxing games and they just ran out of gas in this road tilt against an unexpectedly good Louisville team. They tried their best, but they just didn't have it that night. Similarly, despite how much Taylor might have tried, she also fell short, in a relationship sense, in “this is me trying.” This sad song from her album “Folklore” fits well with the general vibe of Notre Dame's program after the loss to the Cardinals too.“I had the shiniest wheels, now they're rusting,” sounds a whole lot like Sam Hartman's three interception performance after his heroic 4th-and-16 conversion the week before. And those national title hopes? “Got wasted like all my potential,” as Taylor sings. Those are just a few of the lines that resonate the most from a Notre Dame football perspective. — José Sánchez Córdova, Assistant Managing Editor
Notre Dame 48, USC 20 — “Shake It Off”
The players did, in fact, “play, play, play” on this October night in Notre Dame Stadium. After a disheartening loss against Louisville, the Irish shook off the Louisville loss and resoundingly beat reigning Heisman winner Calen Williams and the rival Trojans. It was a huge win for a program that seemed to be in a tricky spot after two losses in three games.A special mention for defensive coordinator Al Golden and the Irish defense for a suffocating performance that mostly shut down one of the most potent offenses in the country. The “haters gonna hate, hate, hate,” but for this night it didn't matter. Much like like this chart-topping hit, Notre Dame football felt like it was on top of the world. — Sánchez Córdova
Notre Dame 58, Pitt 7 – “Mean”
Not much from this Week 9 game itself warrants a song title. Maybe we should have been yelling “Stay Stay Stay” after Chris Tyree opened the scoring with an 82-yard punt return touchdown. Maybe we should have heeded the wise words of J.J. Post and seen two Irish special teams touchdowns coming. Yeah, I think he knows.But in the grand scheme of the Notre Dame-Pitt rivalry, the 51-point win was particularly harsh. Recall that a combined 28 points had decided the series’ previous six South Bend games. Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi wasn’t very nice to his players after the game either. “As a football coach, you lose a lot of good players from a year ago and you think as a coach you’re going to replace them, and obviously we haven’t,” he said.
“Mean” works best when read as a tune of lamentation collectively written by the Pitt players. “You, with your words like knives … Calling me out when I’m wounded.” That sounds about right. In fact, the song specifically references “talking over a football game” and “ranting about the same old bitter things,” two Narduzzi-related things.
As expected, Narduzzi quickly realized he “did something bad” and apologized for the comment soon after the fact. — Tyler Reidy, Associate Sports Editor
Clemson 31, Notre Dame 23 – “Castles Crumbling” (Speak Now, Taylor’s Version)
“They used to cheer when they saw my face/Now, I fear I have fallen from grace”
The melancholic reminiscing on lost greatness in Swift’s “Castles Crumbling” is the perfect encapsulation of this game. It certainly felt like castles were crumbling around us as my roommates and I watched the downfall of the Irish in Death Valley, any hopes we had of the season’s revival turning to questions of “how it could’ve ended this way.”As a senior, and therefore a freshman for the infamous 2020 double over-time field storm, the Clemson game each year borders on sacred. The continuation of a rivalry that formed during my collegiate career. The team I had such faith in instead seemed to “have fallen from grace” as the final matchup I would be a student for ended in a devastating loss.
Hartman just could not seem to find his groove that day. Hopes of winning out and recovering from the blunder in Kentucky kept fans going with the loose shreds of hope, but after then-No. 16 Notre Dame lost to an unranked Clemson, Hartman was viewed as “the great hope for a dynasty” that eventually had to “sit alone, behind walls of regret/Falling down like promises that I never kept.” — Emily DeFazio, Associate Sports Editor
Notre Dame 45, Wake Forest 7 – “Mr. Perfectly Fine”
While the song paints a more negative portrayal of the man in Taylor Swift’s head than the one calling signals for the Notre Dame offense, this song has to be about Sam Hartman from both a Notre Dame and Wake Forest perfection. Hartman’s lone season in South Bend was mixed. It had its highs and lows and there are certainly multiple reasons for Notre Dame’s slip-ups. Still, Hartman put up his worst numbers in three years (when he only played 9 games).He made some incredible plays — 4th and 16 against Duke was legendary — but he was at the center of a “casually cruel” season that was good but left everyone wanting more. Irish fans thought Hartman was Mr. “Always Wins” or at least Mr. “Always at the Right Place at the Right Time.” Ultimately, his performance, on the whole, was closer to just fine.
Also, it’s safe to say Demon Deacons head coach Dave Clawson wishes he was Mr. “Here to Stay” at his old school, which was Team “Misery” at 3-9 following Hartman’s departure. — Andrew McGuinness, Sports Editor
Notre Dame 56, Stanford 23 – Death By a Thousand Cuts (Lover)
“'Cause I can't pretend it's ok when it's not/It's death by a thousand cuts”
Despite not being able to watch the game live (*cough* Pac12 Network *cough*), I knew what would be waiting for me at the end, win or lose. This season’s legacy is death by a thousand cuts. It started off with fans being able to taste a playoff bid and ended with crossed fingers that Notre Dame would get some form of a bowl game, hopes being whittled down one game at a time.Yet, at least for me, the what-ifs still linger and have me questioning “if the story's over/Why am I still writing pages?” The “flashbacks waking me up” circle back to the high energy that carried all the way through the final second of the OSU game and the subsequent tentative positivity that was shaken each week.
Swift’s upbeat musicality with depressing, wistful lyrics is the perfect ballad for Notre Dame’s final regular season game. Estimé had a career night, his 238 yards and 4 touchdowns accounting for the majority of Notre Dame’s offensive play. But even that kind of success could not mask the roller-coaster of highs and lows that ended with fans feeling like they were robbed of witnessing greatness. Instead, we can only peer through boarded-up windows into what the season could have looked like. — DeFazio
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