Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman transferring to Notre Dame
Sam Hartman offered an emphatic confirmation in November that this year would be his last as Wake Forest’s starting quarterback. His exact words? “No shot” he would be returning for a sixth season with the Demon Deacons. That was the first hint of his 2023 plans, even if it came in the form of what they wouldn’t be. Maybe he’d turn pro. Maybe he’d go in the transfer portal.
The latter was his choice. And the destination is Notre Dame.
Hartman announced Thursday he is transferring to Notre Dame for 2023, which will be his sixth and final season of college football. He entered the transfer portal Dec. 27, four days after Wake Forest beat Missouri in the Gasparilla Bowl, and chose that route over entering the NFL Draft. ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that the Irish were the expected landing spot on the day Hartman’s name appeared in the portal. Hartman made the decision official during a visit to Notre Dame.
Hartman became the ACC’s all-time leader in touchdown passes (110) in the bowl win, passing former Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd‘s 107. He threw for 3,701 yards, 38 touchdowns and 12 interceptions this year, completing 63 percent of his passes and averaging 8.6 yards per attempt. Six of those interceptions came in a two-game span against Louisville and North Carolina State. He missed the season opener with a blood clot issue.
The 6-foot-1, 210-pound Hartman put forth a breakout campaign in 2021. He started all 14 games of Wake Forest’s 10-4 season, throwing for 4,228 yards, 39 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. He had a 58.9 percent completion rate and averaged 8.3 yards per pass. The Demon Deacons reached the ACC Championship Game, which they lost to Pittsburgh. They were ranked 15th in the final Associated Press Top 25.
Hartman has rushed for 17 touchdowns in his career, 11 of which came in 2021. He ran for a career-best 363 yards that season.
Wake Forest signed Hartman in 2018 as a three-star recruit out of Mount Pleasant (S.C.) Oceanside Academy. He was the No. 776 recruit in the 2018 On3 Consensus. He won the starting job in fall camp as a freshman and started nine games, throwing for 1,984 yards, 16 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. He made one start in 2019 and played in just four games, allowing him to preserve a redshirt. Hartman reclaimed the job in 2020 when the player who displaced him, Jamie Newman, transferred to Georgia. He started all nine games.
The professional route was previously seen as Hartman’s expected path, with Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson among those who held that belief.
“I think his intention right now is to prepare and try to go to the NFL Draft,” Clawson told reporters Dec. 6. “When the bowl game is over, if there’s some incredible offer for him to go to another school and get life-changing money, how can we fault him for that? It’s a good problem to have. He’s going to have many good options.”
Clawson made another reference Dec. 21 to potential transfer opportunities with monetary components being offered to Hartman, further fueling the idea that Hartman might instead play one more year of college. He did not name Notre Dame or another individual school when talking about those options.
“There are people right now actively through third parties trying to recruit him,” Clawson said. “I think Sam wants to go to the NFL. He’s been made aware that if he goes in the portal, there’s going to be some very lucrative [NIL] opportunities for him, and it’s from very specific schools.”
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“If Sam decides that’s what he wants to do, I wish him all the best. This guy has done nothing but everything right for five years at Wake Forest.
“I’m sure he’ll take some time afterward and figure out what he wants to do, and whatever decision that is, whatever choice that is, we support him 100 percent.”
RELATED: Sam Hartman is exactly what Notre Dame needed to add at quarterback
Notre Dame has five scholarship quarterbacks with Hartman’s addition: juniors-to-be Tyler Buchner and Ron Powlus III, rising sophomore Steve Angeli and incoming freshman Kenny Minchey.
Hartman and Buchner will likely enter spring as the two primary contenders to start. Buchner won the starting job last August, but suffered a shoulder sprain that knocked him out for the rest of the regular season. He returned to the starting lineup for the Gator Bowl vs. South Carolina. He was 46-for-83 for 652 yards, 3 touchdowns and 5 interceptions this season. He added 123 rushing yards and 4 rushing scores.
Hartman, 23, is the second grad transfer quarterback addition for Notre Dame in three offseasons. The Irish brought in Jack Coan as a transfer from Wisconsin in January 2021. Coan started all 13 games in the 2021 season, throwing for 3,150 yards, 25 touchdowns and 7 interceptions.
Wake Forest will play Notre Dame in South Bend Oct. 28, 2023 in the teams’ first meeting since 2018. Hartman, then a freshman, started the 2018 game for the Demon Deacons.
