Sam Hartman gives key to not putting too much pressure on himself against Ohio State

When quarterback Sam Hartman transferred to Notre Dame, he knew he was going to play in several marquee games. This week, he’s going to get a taste of one of those games when the Irish welcome the Ohio State Buckeyes to South Bend.

There could easily be a ton of pressure on Hartman, but as he explained, he has the key to keep from feeling too much pressure on his shoulders in the game.

“I think it starts with confidence in the coaches,” Sam Hartman said. “Our confidence in the schemes that we’re gonna get into and the players around me.”

Through four games this season, Sam Hartman has completed 71.1 percent of passes for 1,061 yards and 13 touchdowns. He hasn’t thrown an interception yet and the Irish are 4-0. This success, Hartman explained, comes down to the team around him.

“I think we have an unbelievable o-line that I have a lot of confidence in. Our running backs have all been playing incredibly well. Tight ends have been doing great and outside we’ve shown we have some explosive capabilities and the ability to spread the ball around when you need to and be able to run the ball when we can,” Hartman said.

“So, that’s really where it is, and our defense, we’ve been playing a lot of complimentary football. You look at the NC State game, there’s times where we get shut out or they let up a score and we kind of bounce back off each other.”

The NC State game was Notre Dame’s biggest test to this point, having played two Group of Five schools and an FCS program otherwise. Now, the Irish are going to be given possibly their biggest test of the regular season against Ohio State.

“It’s always gonna be about me doing my job as the best I can do and the plays are gonna come when they need to be, but a lot of it is just the trust. The trust and belief that everybody around me is doing their job, which they’ve been doing all year, and we’ve been doing since the spring,” Hartman said.

“So, it’s exciting. It’s an exciting opportunity to go out as a team and play a complete game.”

Senior Bowl director breaks down Sam Hartman’s place among quarterbacks

Ahead of Notre Dame’s game against Ohio State, Senior Bowl director Jim Nagy broke down Sam Hartman’s place among the quarterbacks.

“He’s in that mix. We’ve talked about it. It’s a huge class, right? So many of these guys came back for that extra COVID year, extra NIL year or whatever. Whatever got them back, a lot of guys returned. So far, Sam has done everything that he can do,” Nagy said.

“We had a scout at the game a couple of weeks ago against NC State. That was kind of his big first test coming off the Tennessee State and Navy games. He has played well, he’s played well.”