Joe Montana praises early performance of Sam Hartman at Notre Dame

Notre Dame‘s season is well underway with the opener against Navy going almost perfectly through the first half and early in the third quarter. Transfer quarterback Sam Hartman has been electric, throwing three touchdown passes through the first 36 minutes of play.

Fighting Irish great Joe Montana is in Dublin, Ireland, for the game and chimed in on Hartman’s performance early on.

“Yeah, I think in the beginning they kind of got the running game going, then all the sudden they turned him loose,” Montana told the NBC broadcast crew. “We were sitting up there going, ‘OK, at some point they’re going to let him go.’ Yeah, he’s been great so far. It’s been fun to watch.”

With 9:36 remaining in the third quarter, Hartman had a stat line that read 16-of-19 passing for 231 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions.

He’s been essentially perfect, and he’s had a strong Irish ground game to lean on as well.

That kind of balance in the offense could allow Notre Dame to be a potential College Football Playoff contender should it carry over to the more difficult opponents on the schedule.

Montana, for one, raved about Hartman and what he can provide to the Notre Dame offense.

“He’s got a lot of experience, thrown a lot of touchdowns,” Montana said. “I think it’s great for Notre Dame and brings something different to the table for them and gives them a little juice on the offense.”

Montana’s praise is noteworthy based on his stature as a former player. He was a superstar, both at Notre Dame and in the NFL.

He was a four-time Super Bowl champion and a three-time Super Bowl MVP, while he was twice named the NFL’s regular season MVP. He finished as the NFL’s passing touchdowns and passer rating leader twice each, while finishing as the league leader in completion percentage five times.

So when he says Hartman looks good, it carries some weight.

Hartman arrived at Notre Dame after transferring from Wake Forest following a five-year career there. He threw for 12,967 yards with 110 touchdowns and 41 interceptions, one of the most prolific passers in the ACC.

Now he’ll bring that passing ability to a Notre Dame team hunting for a return to the playoffs.

So far so good in Week 1 for Sam Hartman and the Fighting Irish. Notre Dame led Navy 35-0 at the time of this writing, with about nine minutes to play in the third quarter.