Where Notre Dame quarterbacks rank in ESPN’s annual QB rankings
Every year, ESPN releases a ranking of the best quarterback contingents in the country based on current rosters and committed recruits. Notre Dame landed at No. 13 on the hierarchy going into the 2023 season.
The addition of Wake Forest graduate transfer Sam Hartman vaulted the Fighting Irish up from last year’s ranking of No. 20. ESPN called Hartman “the biggest prize of this winter’s quarterback transfer cycle.”
Hartman was set to work with offensive coordinator Tommy Rees, but Rees left his alma mater and where he had been coaching since 2017 to become the OC at Alabama. Instead, it’ll be Hartman and tight ends coach turned offensive coordinator Gerad Parker teaming up to lead the Irish offense. Hartman, Parker and the Irish will be forced to counteract the country’s top two QB rooms according to ESPN in the upcoming season.
ESPN’s top 15 quarterback rooms in the country
- USC
- Ohio State
- Oklahoma
- Georgia
- Alabama
- Michigan
- Texas
- Tennessee
- Florida State
- Oregon
- Washington
- LSU
- Notre Dame
- Utah
- Penn State
“How Hartman meshes with Parker and Notre Dame’s offense will go a long way toward determining how successful the team will be in coach Marcus Freeman’s second season,” ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg wrote.
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Rittenberg said junior Tyler Buchner “could be Notre Dame’s answer for 2024 and 2025,” but he mentioned “strong recruiting” will have Buchner fending off other worthy options at signal-caller. The 2024 Notre Dame roster is slated to boast four scholarship players, including Buchner, from four different recruiting classes. The others will be junior Steve Angeli, sophomore Kenny Minchey and freshman C.J. Carr.
Notre Dame has taken a graduate transfer QB from the portal in two of the last three offseasons, but if Buchner sticks around it doesn’t seem it will be necessary to make that three of four. Had Buchner not injured his shoulder and missed 10 games as a sophomore, he’d have likely started all 13 games in 2022 and made a case to not take in Hartman this year. But the injury hindered Buchner’s development, and Notre Dame didn’t want to go into the season with a corps of quarterbacks with three total starts to their names. So the Irish did take Hartman, and they jumped up the annual ESPN quarterback rankings as a result.
