Notre Dame picked up big news for 2023 as it broke today that Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman is expected to grad transfer to Notre Dame for his final season of eligibility (per IrishSportsDaily, Irish Illustrated/247, and Blue & Gold Illustrated/On3, among others). Hartman was a 2018 3-star (0.8626) recruit for Wake Forest and was the 32nd rated pro-style quarterback in his class behind the likes of Trevor Lawrence, JT Daniels, Tanner McKee, Matt Corral, Cam Rising, Devin Leary, Michael Penix Jr, and Will Levis. In their current transfer portal rankings, 247 has Hartman re-rated at 0.9400 and ranked fifth overall in the portal (tied with Devin Leary as the top QBs).

Is he saying he’s committed to Notre Dame? Is he a fan of animated characters voiced by Chris Pratt and Tom Holland? Hard to say.

He’s played a ton of football in his college career. Hartman won the starting job out of camp as a true freshman and threw for nearly 2,000 yards before breaking his leg and missing the final 4 games of the season. This was the only season Hartman faced Notre Dame when the Irish completely harassed the Wake offense in Ian Book’s first career start (Hartman left the game mid-3rd quarter after taking several big hits).

Hartman would lose out to Jamie Newman for the job in 2019 (playing in only 4 games to preserve a redshirt, which combined with the Covid year, provides him a 6th season of eligibility) but has been the Demon Deacons quarterback for the past 3 straight seasons. Right before this 2022 season, he had surgery to remove a blood clot and was expected to be out for a while, but only missed Wake Forest’s opener.

Hartman holds dozens of Wake Forest school records and is the ACC all-time passing touchdowns leader (110 TD) and is 2nd all-time in the ACC with 12,967 passing yards behind only Philip Rivers. According to PFF, Hartman is the most valuable Power 5 player in the country over the past 2 seasons using their wins above average metric.

Sam Hartman Scouting Report

*Rankings out of 100*

Accuracy: 86
Arm Strength: 84
Pocket Presence: 87
Escapability: 78
Anticipation: 81
Mechanics: 85
Leadership: 92
Decision Making: 83
Vision: 93
Size: 73

In many ways, this is about as good of a grad transfer option as Notre Dame was going to find–a veteran with a ton of production coming from a high academic-minded school with enough skills to make the Irish fan base excited. What he’s not (due to lack of size and NFL intangibles like arm strength) is a high-valued NFL prospect and while he’ll be turning 24 right before fall camp opens next season an audition for the pros at Notre Dame in a different system is a good decision.

Speaking of systems, should we worry about the offense Hartman ran at Wake and transitioning to Notre Dame? I don’t see a lot of problems after watching film. There will be worries about the “slow mesh” feature from his time at Wake but if my understanding of the Rees/Hiestand partnership is correct I don’t think we’ll see it at Notre Dame, and if so very sparingly.

Wake Forest’s “slow mesh” ran against Clemson this year. 

One thing that I did like about watching the “slow mesh” and Hartman’s play in general is how often he will attack the middle of the field. He’s very good at using the play-action fake to great effect and punishing teams over the middle.

For someone not very tall, you have to be impressed with Hartman’s ability to stand in the pocket and deliver the ball over the middle. I was expecting Wake Forest’s offense to have a ton of screens, dump offs, quick outs, and a variety of throws close to the line of scrimmage. Those are but small features. Hartman at Wake Forest was really more in the mold of a controlled downfield gun slinger.

Hartman isn’t afraid to throw over the middle. 

It doesn’t take long watching Wake to realize that what makes Hartman such a good college quarterback is his ability to throw the ball to every part of the field. As a defensive coordinator, you’re really stressed defending the whole width and length of the field. He really excels at putting great touch on balls to all 3 levels of the field.

Hartman doesn’t have great arm strength, though. However, it’s plenty good enough for college football and it’s allowed him to have one of the best deep passing games in 2022. I’m sure Tommy Rees will be excited to open up the playbook a bit. For example, Hartman throws this long comeback route to the far side of the field:

For NFL standards, that’s nothing to write home about. A better throw would have more accuracy and get there a little quicker to allow the receiver to make play against the corner. Still, it’s a 1st down and the type of throw he’d be comfortable making at Notre Dame.

When it comes to making throws to all areas of the field, it’s tough to beat this throw down the sideline:

Dropped it in a bucket. 

When given time in the pocket, Hartman’s mechanics are on point. He has an effortless and quick delivery and can put some zip on the ball to most parts of the field. He also has a good base which allows him to be accurate on shorter throws to running backs and on slants to wideouts.

Perhaps nothing sticks out more when watching Hartman than his presence in the pocket.

He’s freakishly calm in the pocket. And he slides around and steps up in the pocket with the best of the quarterbacks across the country. Although, at times he can be a little too patient and it leads to far too many hits taken. I think a lot of Notre Dame fans will think it’s due to a poor offensive line but in 2022 Hartman took a lot of hits because he’ll sit in the pocket to try and make a throw. Hartman definitely needs to work on recognizing pressure and avoiding more sacks and fumbles.

This weakness is also part of his strengths as a player, and I get the sense he held on to the ball too long for Wake Forest knowing he had to make a play too often. There are so many times when it looks like he’s getting swallowed up by the defense only for the ball to come out of his hand for a completion.

Ideally, you’d like to see him take off and run a little more, too. Often, he’ll slide up in the pocket and wait 1.5 seconds before something bad potentially comes his way. Still, you can’t argue with some of the results:

Hartman is smooth in the pocket. 

Look at how calm his feet are when sliding up away from pressure. He wastes very little energy, keeps his eyes downfield, and delivers a dime for a touchdown against Clemson.

I like Hartman’s ability to escape and make plays outside of the pocket. It’s not a huge strength and he’s not quite the explosive athlete you’d maybe think he could be at just under 6’1″ and 208 pounds. But, he can move and is not afraid to find receivers late after the snap.

Hartman can improvise pretty well. 

As a runner, I don’t think Hartman is going to wow anyone. He’s a bit stiff. He’s pretty good avoiding pressure from a free defender (see above with his pocket skills) but he’s not the type of athlete with speed and juking ability in the open field. I would say he’s more of a “take what you can get” type of runner.

Wake Forest didn’t run Hartman quite as much in 2022 as 2021, dropping down from 11 touchdowns to just 1 score on the ground this past season.

Scootin’ a little bit. 

Nevertheless, when he does run good things have happened. With sacks removed over the past 2 seasons, Hartman has carried the ball 147 times for 889 yards, good for a 6.04 average.

If we’re looking at some weaknesses, Hartman has a tendency to throw high quite often. He’ll occasionally short a throw (lack of elite arm strength) but more often than not any accuracy issues were with the ball sailing too high. At times, he will throw off his back foot too much and it leads to the ball throwing without enough velocity and over a receiver’s head.

Hartman needs to tighten up the high throws. 

Obviously, interceptions have been an issue for Hartman at Wake Forest.

Over the last 2 seasons he turned it over through the air 26 times on 936 throws, or a 2.7% interception rate. That’s compared to Notre Dame quarterbacks throwing 21 interceptions on 789 throws since 2021, or 2.6% overall. It’s not a huge difference (Notre Dame’s figure drops down to 1.9% when you remove Buchner which is a bit of a difference) and the comparison highlights just how often Wake Forest asked Hartman to throw the ball and be the main focus of their offense with a pretty modest running game in support.

I’ll link to all of his interceptions over the last 2 seasons in the comment section. When looking at his turnovers there’s a very clear problem with throwing the ball high or not reading zone coverage effectively.

Sometimes you’ll see Hartman lock in on a receiver and his arm strength isn’t elite enough to get away with it all the time.

The Louisville game was rough for Hartman. 

In addition to throwing to all parts of the field and moving adeptly in the pocket, the 3rd thing that jumps out with Hartman is that he’s going to throw the ball down field to wide receivers who are not wide open. The Wake offense thrived on receivers making contested catches, hauling in back shoulder catches, adjusting and coming back to the ball, and drawing pass interference calls. If Wake Forest didn’t lead the country in pass interference calls, they had to be near the top. They drew a ton of flags.

At times, Hartman floats the ball down field, too.

Floating for flags. 

That’s complete with this really slow delivery trying to drop a pass over the top of defenders. It’s not something you’ll see on deeper throws but more on some short-to-intermediate throws. He also seems a bit nonchalant on some quicker throws (like the above pick 6) where he’s not putting as much heat on the ball as you’d like.

***

Prior to really digging deeper into Hartman’s playing I wasn’t that high on him. After watching him more, I’m much more of a believer. I can see why he wouldn’t be super coveted at the NFL level and people wouldn’t be enamored with his ceiling at this point in his career. That was kind of the angle I took prior to writing this, too.

You have to think great things could happen for Hartman at Notre Dame in a system with a better offensive line and a running game that hopefully can take a lot of the pressure off that the lack of help he received at Wake Forest to always drag the team down the field his his arm. For all of his flaws, Hartman threw a half dozen or more of the prettiest passes in the nation this past season and that’s enticing to bring aboard for the blue and gold.

It will be important not to take too much of the playmaker out of Hartman or ask him to get too conservative trying to cut down on the interceptions. He loves to throw the ball to receivers in 1-on-1 situations and tries to put the ball where his teammate can get it. It’ll be important for Notre Dame’s receivers to make those plays. It will lead to frustrating incompletions, and yes some picks, but you have to trust Hartman’s experience in executing those plays through the air.

Also, this guy is handsome.

Good looks equals 1.5 more wins per Vegas. 

There’s been quite a bit of debate and even consternation in some corners about A) taking a transfer quarterback B) not sticking with homegrown products C) fears of currently rostered quarterbacks leaving the program and D) skepticism about Hartman (too many interceptions, lack of elite skill set, stat padding against questionable ACC schedules, etc.) being a true difference maker.

As I mentioned at the top, this is just about the ideal scenario for Notre Dame. It’s one year, so it’ll have no effect on the incoming Kenny Minchey. Peanut Butter Angeli will probably feel a bit hard done by the move as his eligibility clock will start ticking in 2023 and he’ll be unlikely to get many reps with varsity until spring 2024.

I think this is exactly what Tyler Buchner needed, and he should probably be as excited as anyone! Thanks to his shoulder injury in September, Bucnher didn’t burn a year in 2022 and he’ll have 2 more opportunities in 2024-25 to be the starter. I think you could argue pretty reasonably that having him start the 2023 season while still being pretty raw as a passer was going to carry a lot of risk, especially with completely unproven backup options behind him.

Now, Buchner gets so much more time to develop, get comfortable, likely be inserted in some packages for 2023, learn behind a top 20 all-time passer (Hartman needs 3,680 more yards to jump from 19th all-time to 3rd all-time which will be an interesting march to watch–Tommy Chang at 4,105 yards away may be too far for 2nd place) and build a lot of confidence for 2024. In my view, this is the way we’ll get the best Tyler Buchner in college and that’s exciting to think about while Hartman starts in 2023.