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Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman named to Davey O’Brien Award watch list

IMG_7504by:Jack Soble•08/08/23•

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Notre Dame graduate quarterback Sam Hartman was named to the Davey O’Brien Award preseason watch list Tuesday.

The Davey O’Brien Award is given to the nation’s best quarterback. Its preseason watch list spans 35 names. The winner will be announced Dec. 7 on ESPN’s College Football Awards Show from a list of semifinalists announced Nov. 7 and three finalists announced Nov. 21.

The Wake Forest transfer would be the first Irish signal-caller to win the award since its inception in 1977. Three Notre Dame quarterbacks have been named finalists before: Tony Quinn in 1988 and 1989, Rick Mirer in 1992 and Brady Quinn in 2005 and 2006.

The award has honored the best quarterback in college football since 1981.

This past season, the O’Brien Award went to TCU senior quarterback Max Duggan, who finished second in Heisman Trophy voting to USC junior quarterback Caleb Williams. Duggan, a seventh-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, was the first Davey O’Brien winner not drafted in the first round since Texas QB Colt McCoy in 2009.

Hartman, in five years at Wake Forest, finished first on the all-time ACC touchdown pass leaderboard with 110 and second in passing yards with 12,967. He leads a Notre Dame team that went 9-4 in 2022 with junior quarterback Drew Pyne and sophomore quarterback Tyler Buchner at the helm.

Notre Dame will face three quarterbacks on the watch list throughout the 2023 season: Williams, Clemson’s Cade Klubnik, Duke’s Riley Leonard.

Here is the entire Davey O’Brien Award preseason watch list, in alphabetical order:

  • Carter Bradley (South Alabama)
  • Chevan Cordeiro (San Jose State)
  • Jalon Daniels (Kansas)
  • Jayden Daniels (LSU)
  • Quinn Ewers (Texas)
  • Dequan Finn (Toledo)
  • Dillon Gabriel (Oklahoma)
  • Taylen Green (Boise State)
  • Frank Harris (UTSA)
  • Sam Hartman (Notre Dame)
  • Seth Henigan (Memphis)
  • Will Howard (Kansas State)
  • KJ Jefferson (Arkansas)
  • Cade Klubnik (Clemson)
  • Devin Leary (Kentucky)
  • Riley Leonard (Duke)
  • Drake Maye (North Carolina)
  • Grayson McCall (Coastal Carolina)
  • JJ McCarthy (Michigan)
  • Joe Milton (Tennessee)
  • Tanner Mordecai (Wisconsin)
  • Bo Nix (Oregon)
  • Michael Penix Jr. (Washington)
  • John Rhys Plumlee (UCF)
  • Michael Pratt (Tulane)
  • Austin Reed (Western Kentucky)
  • Cameron Rising (Utah)
  • Will Rogers (Mississippi State)
  • Kurtis Rourke (Ohio)
  • Garrett Shrader (Syracuse)
  • Jeff Sims (Nebraska)
  • Taulia Tagovailoa (Maryland)
  • Jordan Travis (Florida State)
  • EJ Warner (Temple)
  • Caleb Williams (USC)

Hartman will begin his lone season at Notre Dame at 2:30 p.m. ET on Aug. 26 at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. The game will be nationally televised on NBC.

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