By: Nick Kremer⏐Editor⏐Twitter: @NickKremerIT⏐Profile: @NickKremer
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The goal headed into the off-season for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish was clear; find an elite quarterback in the transfer portal. Tommy Rees was hitting the road after the season, but his whereabouts were mostly unknown. It was clear that the Irish wanted to keep their quarterback targets under wraps to ensure they could get the guy they wanted.
It was a little over a month ago that Tommy Rees was able to salvage the quarterback position for the 2023 recruiting class by picking up Kenny Minchey. Coach Rees has done it again. Rees and the coaching staff have secured a commitment from one of the best college quarterbacks in the country by landing Sam Hartman.
Photo Credit - Roanoke Times
If you would have asked me who my pick would be to transfer to Notre Dame, outside of Drake May, Hartman would have been my clear number one choice. Hartman is a player that comes into the program and immediately upgrades this team to a potential playoff contender. What Hartman has been able to accomplish at Wake Forest is extremely impressive.
Throughout his Wake Forest career, Hartman completed 921 passes on 1561 attempts for a 59% completion rate. Those completions equated to 12,687 yards, 107 touchdowns, and 40 interceptions. Additionally, Hartman rushed for 841 yards and 17 touchdowns.
Hartman stands 6’1 185 lbs and was ranked as a three star prospect coming out of high school in South Carolina.
Hartman’s film is extremely impressive. His greatest asset is his accuracy. He shows great ability to hit his target right in the numbers and fit the ball into tight windows. He puts phenomenal touch on his passes and knows when to put more zip on the ball when needed. Along with his ball placement, Hartman shows great pocket presence and knows when to escape the pocket to make something out of nothing.
Hartman shows solid athleticism that allows him to scramble when it is needed. He is not a true dual-threat quarterback, but he has enough quickness to still be a threat running the football. He has good, not great arm strength but shows the ability to make all the necessary throws at the college level. He continuously shows the ability to put the ball where only his receiver can catch it, even with defenders in tight coverage.
Hartman shows great touch on short to intermediate routes from check-downs, to drags, to deep outs on the opposite hash. Additionally, Hartman is very good when throwing the deep ball. He is able to attack a defense vertically with seam routes, flag routes, and post routes with impressive touch. All together his biggest strengths are his accuracy/ball placement, touch on passes, and his ability to improvise in bad situations.
Photo Credit - Kyle Rowe/The Tailgate Podcast
While Hartman shows a lot of promise at the quarterback position, there are still some areas that he needs to improve. Hartman has a tendency to put the ball in dangerous situations while trying to make a play, which has led to him throwing interceptions. Additionally, he will take sacks at times while trying to make a play instead of throwing the ball away or to a check down.
The good thing about those two weaknesses is that they can be corrected, or limited. Tommy Rees is a smart Offensive Coordinator who puts his quarterbacks in good situations with his play-calls to limit interceptions. Also, Hartman will be playing behind a much better Offensive Line at Notre Dame than the one he had at Wake Forest.
Along with everything mentioned above, it is clear that Sam Hartman has an exceptional football IQ. He has great situational awareness as the leader of an offense and its obvious that the team follows him. He goes through all of his reads and has a quick trigger when he finds his open receiver. Furthermore, Hartman shows an impressive ability to read defenses and uses that to his advantage to throw his receivers open. It is clear that Hartman is an all around outstanding football player.
Photo Credit - Total Pro Sports
Most people expected Sam Hartman to declare for the NFL draft after he announced in November that this would be his last year at Wake Forest. Make no mistake about it, he is absolutely NFL ready if he would have declared. He would not have been a day one draft pick, but a team would have picked him up.
By moving on to Notre Dame, Hartman has a chance to improve on his game in a pro-style offense, gain national exposure, benefit from NIL, and possibly compete for a National Championship. This Notre Dame team has the talent at every position to compete with any team in the country. The only thing missing is an elite quarterback, and I believe they now have that in Sam Hartman.
Overall, Notre Dame fans should be very happy to have Sam Hartman coming to Notre Dame. His experience, leadership, ball-placement, touch, and football IQ will be a perfect fit for this team. Get excited, Irish Nation, Sam Hartman will have us in the playoff hunt for the 2023 season.
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