Brady Quinn sets high expectations for Sam Hartman, Notre Dame in 2023

There are high expectations at Notre Dame, especially with a top quarterback like Sam Hartman and Brady Quinn would know.

The former Fighting Irish star basically said it’s the College Football Playoff or bust, seeing how Notre Dame doesn’t play for a conference title. But after some positives in Year 1 under Marcus Freeman, Hartman’s grad transfer year shows Notre Dame is going for it all.

Quinn explained what’s at stake when he joined the Rich Eisen Show.

“Anytime you’ve got a guy who’s, I think, the all time leading passer in ACC history coming in for a sixth year, you’ve got high aspirations at Notre Dame,” Quinn said. “And Sam is a very mature, very productive, smart player, tough player, that always was the thing that stood out to me watching him on tape. He’ll stand in that pocket, he’ll deliver a throw and he’ll take a shot after doing it. 

“So he’s very well suited to take over a role, there is going to be a national prominence and certainly their schedule, right? You got to play USC, OSU and Clemson this year. Those are three big dogs. I mean all three of those teams you can make the case it’d be top 10 at a minimum, if not maybe on top five depending on how the season plays out.”

In his career with Wake Forest, Hartman finished 12,967 yards, 110 touchdowns, 41 interceptions and a 59.1% completion percentage. With that type of pedigree, Notre Dame could be a big favorite against a lot of its scheduled opponents.

“That’s not to mention, you know the rest of their schedule, which won’t be easy either,” Quinn said. “So you know, having him gives you a huge shot at doing that. Their offensive line, it’s a bunch of future NFL players so they’re gonna be able to run the football …

“And defensively it’s just continuing to kind of build on what Marcus started as the defensive coordinator now as a head coach … They’ve done a tremendous job to really be in that stable place. But now we got to have some stars emerge … We’ve got to have some of those leaders step up and emerge and that’s going to be the biggest thing.”

Hartman made it to an ACC Championship Game at Wake Forest, but it was a loss to Pitt. Getting to a game like that and not finishing on top is not the standard Notre Dame wants to set.

“So there’s always high aspirations when you’re playing Notre Dame right,” Quinn said. “You talk to players and coaches, their goal is to win the conference, (but) at Notre Dame you’re just trying to get in that playoff trying to win a national championship.”