This could be the game for Notre Dame football quarterback Sam Hartman to bring his "A" game

Welcome to November, the final full month of the regular season for the No. 12 Notre Dame football team. 

Welcome to November, the final full month as a college quarterback for Notre Dame sixth-year senior/graduate student/old beard Sam Hartman. 

Welcome to November, the most important month for the Irish and for Hartman.

Four to watch: Who's going to make a difference when Notre Dame football plays Clemson?

We’re counseled from the jump that a college football season is a marathon, not a sprint. Too many practice periods, games, wins and losses and twists and turns to look into the future of September when it’s August, October when it’s September and November when it’s October. Buit we’ve officially entered the sprint phase of the season.

Want proof? If you live in Northern Indiana and looked out your window on Nov. 1, you saw it scattered all over your lawns. It wasn’t leaves. All that white stuff on the ground (ugh!) was a sign that we’re in the fourth quarter. Ignore the aches. Ignore the pains. Ignore everything and get going.

Squint and you can see the silhouette of a possible New Year’s Six bowl game for Notre Dame (7-2) in the distance. Think a date with Alabama (Hello, Tommy Rees!) in the Peach Bowl on Dec. 30 isn’t intriguing?

Where do we sign up for that?

More: Tale of the tape, predictions as Notre Dame football visits Clemson

Notre Dame won’t have that chance without at least 10 wins, which means Notre Dame won’t get there without doing something Saturday it has never done, what Hartman during his five seasons at Wake Forest never did. Win at Clemson. The Tigers are down and seemingly in a whole lot of trouble, which makes them a whole lot of dangerous against an Irish team that comes to town coming off arguably their two best games the last two weeks.

Notre Dame dropped a hammer on rival USC (48-20). It dropped two hammers — heck, it dropped the whole darn tool shed — on Pittsburgh (58-7). The Irish are peaking at just the right time. It’s important to play your best football, to carry your best mindset, into the game’s most important month.

Hartman didn’t have to look out the window behind him in the Irish Athletic Center on Halloween night — he’d have seen a driving snowstorm — to realize that it’s getting late in the season. For him. For the Irish.

“November’s kind of that month that’s synonymous with big games, the rivalry games where you’re kind of in the heat of the schedule,” he said. “Everybody’s beaten up; everybody’s tired. It’s kind of where the great teams sperate themselves.”

Players, too. They can go from good to great. Hartman’s been good to date. Now …

In September, Hartman experienced his one memorable play when he stared down a fourth-and-16 call late in a game Notre Dame trailed at Duke and somehow scrambled for 17 yards. Two plays later, Notre Dame was in the end zone. Thirty-one seconds later, it was walking off the field of Wallace Wade Stadium winners.

In October, Hartman experienced his one memorable moment. On his way to the post-game media room, Hartman leaned out over the tunnel of Notre Dame Stadium to celebrate with exiting fans after dismissing USC. That’s how they do it in that rivalry game around these parts, and Hartman was going to experience all of it, even if he didn’t play his best.

Play? Check. Moment? Check. Game? Game?

Can Sam Hartman tap his inner special?

We’re still waiting for that one Sam Hartman game where you look at his work and his stat line and the final score and realize that that’s why he’s here, on this football team, in this college football town, as a one-year rental. It’s not going to be a game where Hartman throws for 500 yards and a half-dozen touchdowns. That’s not happening in this offense, not this season.

It’s going to be a game where he controls everything. Plays like a 24-year-old.

For Hartman, the time to have that game is running short. Why not Saturday in South Carolina? In a state that his parents now call home? Why not Hartman doing Hartman stuff and pushing Notre Dame one win closer to that 10-win finish? He’s the first to insist that a win Saturday would mean a lot to the program. It would mean a lot to him.

“I know that this is the last chance that I’ll ever get to be a college football player and a college quarterback,” Hartman said of navigating November. “Nothing after this is guaranteed. Nothing after this is permanent.”

A 10-2 finish and a NY6 bowl sure would be for Notre Dame. Getting to win No. 8 should be easy, but Hartman’s been around too long to acknowledge easy. Notre Dame, on paper, is good. Clemson, on paper, is not. But turn on the tape, Hartman offered earlier in the week. Watch the Tigers do what they do on defense. They don’t look like a 4-4 team. A play here, a play there, and they well could be 6-2. Maybe 7-1.

There will be struggles Saturday, even at noon in a place they call Death Valley, but there also should be success.

“It’s going to be a challenge,” Hartman said. “That’s why you come here; that’s why you play at this place. That’s why the games in November matter. People remember November.”

Win Saturday, and people will remember Hartman even more. His Notre Dame days are closing quickly. A month from now, it will be only bowl prep (should he not opt out). After that, pro prep. Hartman eventually will move into the next phase of his football life. He’s said it before and said it again earlier this week — this year has been nothing been memorable for myriad reasons.

For the games. For the moments. For the guys that he’s gotten to know in his short stay around the Gug, guys that Hartman insists will be a part of his life for the rest of it.

For weddings, for when they have kids, for life after football, Hartman said this group that he’s bonded with like brothers since he arrived will forever be a part of it. They’ll call. They’ll text. They’ll meet up when there are no more games and share laughs, share stories, share stuff they don’t dare tell the media.

Eight months ago, he barely knew Joe Alt or Zeke Correll, but they’ve had his back from Day One, if for no other reason than he’s their quarterback.

“Probably the closest team I’ve been a part of,” Hartman said.

So many memories already, but a few more to make. To share. To chase. Starting Saturday.

Welcome, November. Glad you’re back.

Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact: (574) 235-6153.

No. 12 Notre Dame (7-2) vs. Clemson (4-4)

When: Saturday, Nov. 4, noon. EDT

Where: Frank Howard Field at Clemson Memorial Stadium (81,500), Clemson, S.C.

Rankings: Notre Dame is No. 12 in both the AP and US LBM Coaches Polls and No. 15 in the College Football Playoff rankings. Clemson is unranked.

TV: ABC

Radio: WSBT (960 AM), WNSN (101.5 FM)

Line: Notre Dame opens as a 2.5-point favorite

Series: Clemson leads all-time series 4-3

Last meeting: Unranked Notre Dame defeated No. 5 Tigers, 35-14, on Nov. 5, 2022 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Ind.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Sam Hartman still has chance to make only season in South Bend special