ESPN Quarterback Tier Rankings Show Head Scratching View Of Sam Hartman

ESPN released a tier ranking of the nation's quarterbacks and its ranking and view of Notre Dame QB Sam Hartman was quite odd

Notre Dame made a big splash in the transfer portal this offseason when it landed quarterback Sam Hartman. The former Wake Forest standout heads into the 2023 season ranked 19th and 18th in college football history in passing yards and passing touchdowns, respectively.

Hartman is widely considered the best transfer portal quarterback during this most recent cycle. The North Carolina native also led the Deacons to 18 wins the last two seasons, including an 11-3 record in 2021. 

Over the last two seasons, Hartman threw 77 touchdowns and accounted for 89 total touchdowns. Only Bryce Young (Alabama) and CJ Stroud (Ohio State) - the No. 1 and No. 2 NFL Draft picks - passed for more touchdowns than Hartman the last two seasons, and no quarterback accounted for more total touchdowns.

All of that is what makes ESPN's recent ranking of Hartman as a tier four quarterback so ..... well ..... ridiculous. 

So ESPN college football writer David Hale broke down the 133 quarterback "situations" into 20 different tiers. Beyond the absurdity of having 20 different tiers, the top level breakdown was a head scratcher, and that's being kind. Unfortunately, the breakdown only feeds into the belief among Notre Dame faithful that ESPN has a clear bias against the Irish program.

The ranking for Hartman, and the description that followed, backs that up.

"Much has been made of Hartman's adjustment to a new offensive system after so much success in Wake Forest's slow-mesh option, but that may overlook the bigger change to his offensive surroundings. In five seasons at Wake Forest, Hartman played with five different receivers who finished with at least 1,000 yards. Notre Dame has had just one 1,000-yard receiver since 2015. While Notre Dame may be the team with more blue-chip talent, the Deacons surrounded Hartman with some top-tier receivers.

"Of course, Hartman could have made Wake's receivers look a lot better, as one ACC coach noted: "He's super accurate. But with what he was doing at Wake, he's as good a passer as we've played against. Balls that were incomplete were because we had to fight them out." - David Hale

Hale is literally making the argument that Hartman is leaving behind a more talented group of skill talent at Wake Forest in order to come to Notre Dame. He then ignores a comment he was given by an ACC coach about Hartman. Having Hartman behind Grayson McCall (Coastal Carolina), Riley Leonard (Duke), Will Howard (Kansas State) and Jayden Daniels (LSU) within the tier four breakdown was bad enough, but it gets worse.

The top tier quarterbacks were Caleb Williams (USC) and Drake Maye (North Carolina), which is spot on. The next tier was the "1b" category, and this is where Hale's breakdown goes off the rails. 

He has Florida State quarterback Jordan Travis as the top quarterback in this category. I'm actually a big fan of Travis, and his return for a sixth season makes the Seminoles a legit ACC title contender. Hartman leaving Wake Forest helps their cause as well. Hartman was 3-0 as a starter against Florida State, including a 2-0 record in matchups against Travis. 

On top of that, Hartman led Wake Forest to 18 wins the last two seasons while Travis led Florida State to 15 wins. Despite missing a chunk of fall camp and the season opener with a health issue, Hartman still produced more than Travis. Hartman 3,830 total yards (319.2 YPG) and 39 total touchdowns, while Travis racked up 3,631 total yards (279.3 YPG) and 31 total touchdowns.

Oregon QB Bo Nix and Washington signal caller Michael Penix Jr. are coming off tremendous seasons, so I have no beef with them being in the 1b tier. Having Utah's Cameron Rising ranked in this tier, and Hartman being in tier four, is legitimately comical, and not serious.

What's the argument for having Rising so much higher than Hartman, and placing him in the "The most prolific QBs not named Williams or Maye."

Seriously? Did no one check his work?

There is literally not a more prolific quarterback returning in college football in 2023 than Hartman. See my notes above about his rankings and how he stacks up from a touchdown standpoint compared to the rest of college football. Are you seriously going to argue that going to Notre Dame - a team that went 9-4 last year with dreadful quarterback play - means Hartman should drop three whole tiers? Really?

Is it about wins? Rising has been a starter for 18 wins the last two years. Hartman has been a starter for 18 wins the last two seasons for a program that doesn't have Utah's track record.

Hartman passed for over 300 yards twice in 2022, and he has just three games with at least 300 yards in the last two seasons combined.

Hartman had more 300+ yard games than that in the month of November 2022. He had 8 games of at least 300 yards in 2022 and 7 more games in 2021.

So that's 15 games of at least 300 yards for Hartman in two years, to go with 8,421 total yards and 89 total touchdowns the last two seasons. Compare that to Rising's 3 games of 300 yards or more and his totals of 6,491 yards of offense and 58 total touchdowns.

That guy was put in a category about being prolific, while Hartman is in tier four.

Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels, a player who has not played an entire season of college football, was in tier two. UTSA quarterback Frank Harris is fun to watch and he's a player Irish Breakdown fans are familiar with having listened to our shows, but him being two tiers ahead of Hartman is ridiculous. Having Michigan quarterback JJ McCarthy two tiers ahead of Hartman is also strange.

Here's the best part. 

Hale put Alabama's quarterback situation ahead of Notre Dame's. Yes, that Alabama, the place where the guy Hartman beat out transferred to. The reason? Well, it's Alabama.

No bias there.

Yes, Alabama has had a great run of quarterback play in recent seasons with Bryce Young, Mac Jones, Tui Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts.

But Nick Saban isn't infallible when it comes to quarterback play. The three quarterbacks to start games prior to the run that started with Hurts, Alabama started Blake Barnett, Jacob Coker and Blake Sims.

Simply putting them in there because "well, it's Bama" isn't going to help the case for the whole "we're not biased towards the SEC" argument.

Georgia's Carson Beck, Ohio State's Kyle McCord and Penn State's Drew Allar have a combined one career start between them. Yet all three were ranked ahead of Hartman.

Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton III (or freshman Nico Iamaleava) were also ranked ahead of Hartman. Milton was literally beaten out by Cade McNamara while at Michigan, and he has a career completion percentage of 57.8 and has thrown for just 2,540 yards and 17 touchdowns in his career. Yes, he has a huge arm, but you're seriously going to try and argue that he should be ranked ahead of Hartman?

There's just so much wrong with this evaluation, and the argument that Hartman should plummet down the tiers ranking because he's now at Notre Dame. I don't know Mr. Hale and won't speak to his motivations, so I won't sit here and argue this has anything to do with any anti-Notre Dame sentiment. As an analyst, I will simply say this is an evaluation and ranking that is beneath an organization that is supposedly the "world wide leader" in sports.

Sam Hartman is at worst a tier two quarterback, and the case for having him in the tier 1b should seem pretty obvious and easy to anyone making an honest argument about the state of quarterback play heading into the 2023 season.

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