Here's the postgame transcript from quarterback Sam Hartman. Questions are paraphrased.
SAM HARTMAN
What was Clemson doing up front in the second half? Were they confusing you up front to create pressure?
“Not even to answer your question, more of a statement. If you guys want to blame, put anything on anyone, put it on me. I played very poor today. Didn’t play well enough to be a winning quarterback, to be a winning football team. All the different situations, scenarios that we were in today is partly my doing and really all my doing. I just didn’t execute well enough. So if you want to mention people on Twitter, you want to blame OCs, you want to blame Coach Freeman, no — blame me. I’m big enough and man enough to admit that I didn’t play up to the standard that this team deserves, this fan base, this university deserves. That's the way it goes. That’s the Saturdays of college football. I’m going to stick my head up at the fact that happened. We’re going to bounce back. The only thing I can give back to this program is the last two games, give everything I have and just play better. We had ample opportunities to score. We had ample opportunities to make plays and, frankly, I just didn’t make them. The guys around me were busting their butts. Guys stepped up. People got hurt. It wasn’t good enough for me and for myself to go out there and play like I played. That ended up in a loss.”
How did you read out the pick-6 in the first half? How did Clemson play it?
“The guy got underneath the play and underneath the pass. I shouldn’t have thrown it. I just tried to force one in there. Especially backed up, you can’t do it, and I did it. It goes back to not playing well enough, not executing the calls that needed to be called. Kid made a good play and got underneath the route. He took it the other way.”
How big of a factor was it that your early drives were held to field goals rather than touchdowns?
“It was huge. That goes down to execution. A one-score game at the end of the day is all about execution. I didn’t do it personally well enough. We were down there. Rico was wide open on one of the rollouts and I didn’t throw it. It was a little late to it, I guess. I didn’t make plays when they needed to be made. Even later in that play, JG’s open in the end zone and I just overthrew him. Just unacceptable, honestly. If you want to blame somebody, you want to tweet at somebody, tweet at me. I deserve it.”
What kind of effect did it have on the offense to be starting so many drives deep in your own territory?
“The field’s the same length. You’re going to have to drive those drives. Our defense kept them out of the end zone, kept them out of scoring position. We didn’t give them any help all game. We haven’t given them all help really in the past couple games. It comes back to bite us when we don’t execute as an offense and I don’t execute as a quarterback.”
How did Ashton Craig handle playing center in a tough spot?
“Incredible. That goes back to what I said. Guys stepped up, people got hurt and didn’t flinch. I was really proud of the effort and the intensity that guys played with. It falls back on the quarterback when you don’t score in the red zone, when you have turnovers. Point at me when you want to blame somebody, you want to rant about somebody.”