Marcus Freeman insists Notre Dame still has a quarterback battle

Sam Hartman looked as though he put any questions of a quarterback competition to bed after his Notre Dame debut in Saturday’s spring game. After the game, Irish head coach Marcus Freeman came to the aid of Tyler Buchner, the No. 2 QB, saying the battle hasn’t been won just yet.

“I think we still have a quarterback battle. You can’t determine a winner or a loser based on one practice, practice 15. And again, you can’t base a decision off of what we view as a certain outcome. There’s a lot that goes into it,” Freeman said. “There’s a lot that goes into a quarterback battle, but obviously the quarterback play. We’ve got to go back and watch the film. We’re not blocking the end, there are some protection issues, and we’re dropping balls. We’ve got to go and look, were the routes exactly precise? 

“I’m always going to defend the quarterbacks because, as I’ve always said, that position is most like the head coach. They get praise and criticism. Everybody’s going to praise Sam for how we played today, they’re going to criticize Tyler. They both probably played pretty well.”

On paper, Hartman looked to be in mid-season form completing 13-of-16 passes for 189 yards and two touchdowns. Buchner, who was playing with the second offense, completed 8-of-18 passes for 44 yards and an interception.

It’s also worth noting the discrepancy in talent out wide that the two QBs were working with. Buchner’s top wideout, Deion Colzie, had 192 receiving yards last year and two of his top four leading receivers were running backs. Hartman was working with Jayden Thomas, the top returing wideout for Notre Dame this season — not to mention the breakout game from true freshman Jaden Greathouse, who hauled in 11 receptions for 118 yards on the day.

Hartman is the No. 2 overall player in this year’s transfer portal cycle, according to On3’s College Football Transfer Portal Top Players rankings. Last season playing for Wake Forest, Hartman threw for 3,701 yards (11th best in NCAA) and 38 touchdowns (tied for 5th). Over his five-year career in Winston-Salem, Hartman has thrown for 12,967 passing yards and has a career 110-to-41 touchdown-to-interception ratio.

Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame didn’t go through an intense recruiting battle to secure Hartman’s commitment for nothing. Still, it’s commendable for Freeman to allow Buchner, who is entering his third season with the Irish, to get a fair shot at competing for the job — even though the outcome is obvious.