Let’s not buy into the Sam Hartman hype just yet

Sam Hartman certainly came to play for his Notre Dame debut, but you need to do more than beat Navy to truly take the nation by storm.

Former Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman had quite the standard to meet as he entered his debut with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and boy did he not disappoint.

In short, Hartman put on about as efficient of a display as one could ask of him in ND’s 42-3 win, breaking 250 yards while throwing as many touchdowns as incompletions (4).

With his time at Notre Dame getting off to that hot of a start, he has found himself involved in much hype on social media; said hype not only surrounds his potential as a player, but ND’s potential as a contender—a situation that I find quite questionable for a couple of reasons.

For starters, there’s no other way to put it: Navy sucks. I’ll give the Irish credit for the Midshipmen being FBS-level rivals that they met on a neutral field, but that’s about it. Beyond that, they have been historically terrible against Notre Dame (now losing 80-13-1 all-time) and are following up on a 4-8 season. In other words, they don’t exactly make for the toughest season-opening matchup known to man.

My other cause for concern falls on neither Navy nor Notre Dame as teams, but on Sam Hartman alone. It is something that can hang a question mark over any young QB as he creeps closer to the NFL: Inconsistency. While Hartman is undoubtedly talented, his inconsistency found ways to show its hideous face on multiple occasions during his time as a Demon Deacon.