Notre Dame football: Sam Hartman will be legitimate Heisman threat

Notre Dame football fans should feel fortunate. Marcus Freeman went into the portal this offseason and landed arguably the highest-impact quarterback on the market.

Sam Hartman spent five years with Wake Forest and put up some incredible numbers. He started pretty much every year he was in Winston-Salem and finished with 12,967 career passing yards, 38 touchdowns, an 8.1 yards per attempt average, and a completion rate just around 59 percent. Not bad for a quarterback who attempted nearly 1,600 career passes.

Now that he’s with the Irish, he’s surrounded by more weapons and a better overall team. That’s not a knock on Wake Forest because Dave Clawson has done an incredible job there, but Notre Dame has a legitimate shot to make the playoff this year.

And with Hartman leading the way, that should be the expectation. He’s the missing piece that the Irish have been waiting for since Ian Book left.

Team accolades should come, but people seem to be overlooking him in the Heisman race.

Sam Hartman could bring the Heisman home

While he was with Wake Forest, Hartman was never really a Heisman threat. He put up some numbers like 4,228 yards and 39 touchdowns in 2021 and 3,701 yards and 38 touchdowns in 2022, but he never played for a good enough team to really enter that race.

That changes this year.

As long as Notre Dame is in the playoff hunt in the second half of the season and he’s on pace to throw for around 4,000 yards and 30-35 touchdowns, people should absolutely be including him in all Heisman conversations.

Did you see how he played in the spring game? He was in the middle of a “QB battle” and he fared so well that Tyler Buchner transferred.

On top of that, he is bringing in three talented four-star weapons from the 2023 recruiting class to throw to along with Virginia Tech transfer Kaleb Smith and a handful of veteran targets.

The odds may not be great for Hartman right now, but I’m buying some Heisman stock in the Wake Forest transfer before it skyrockets.