Some Sam Hartman National Rankings Are Head Scratchers

A look at some of the rankings and evaluations of Notre Dame transfer quarterback Sam Hartman are downright bizarre

There have been plenty of quarterback rankings coming out in advance of the 2023 season, and there has been plenty of variety when it comes to Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman. Some tend to be fair, even if I don't agree with the conclusion, but far too many are at the least puzzling, and at worst disrespectful.

There are plenty of evaluations that Hartman ranked as a Top 10 national quarterback, which is the range I rank the former Wake Forest quarterback. There are others, however, that view Hartman outside of that ranking, which is hard to comprehend. That was the topic of our latest Irish Breakdown podcast.

The two biggest culprits of these puzzling rankings for Hartman were from ESPN and The Athletic. In a recent quarterback breakdown, The Athletic college football writers Bruce Feldman and Stewart Mandel released their tier system for the nation's returning quarterbacks.

In that breakdown, The Athletic ranked Hartman as a tier four quarterback, and they had him the No. 12 overall quarterback. That's an interesting ranking for the player that has thrown for more yards and accounted for more touchdowns than any returning quarterback in college football. Having quarterbacks like Grayson McCall (Coastal Carolina), Jayden Daniels (LSU), Frank Harris (UTSA), Michael Pratt (Tulane) and Devin Leary (Kentucky) were hard to embrace. I'm a big fan of Arkansas quarterback KJ Jefferson, but his production is nowhere near that of Hartman's.

The worst of all the rankings was the tier system provided by ESPN's David Hale, who also had Hartman as a tier four quarterback. In this particular ranking, Hale had 21 different quarterbacks/teams ahead of Hartman. That's ironic, since Hartman ranks 19th all-time in college football history in passing yards and 18th in passing touchdowns. Yet there are 20 quarterbacks ahead of him for the 2023 season.

One of the "quarterbacks" ahead of Hartman was basically whoever starts at Alabama, which includes former Notre Dame signal caller Tyler Buchner, who transferred to Alabama after getting beat out by Hartman. Why Hartman ranks so low says more about Hale's poor view of Notre Dame, and also his poor logic.

"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." - David Hale, ESPN

Pointing to 1,000-yard receivers as evidence of the talent around Hartman is a very weak, well reasoned way to rank quarterbacks. That says far, far more about the offense's that the teams employed, and the quality of quarterback play at Notre Dame, than it does Hartman. Hale is making the argument that Hartman is actually going to a team in Notre Dame that has inferior talent to Wake Forest.

Seriously.

Even if you grant Hale's premise that Wake Forest has better wide receiver talent, he writes as if we are getting ready for a 7-on-7 tournament. Last I checked, offensive linemen and running backs are an important part of this equation as well. Last season, Hartman passed for 337 yards and six touchdowns while leading Wake Forest to 45 points in a matchup against Clemson.

Wake Forest lost that game.

Notre Dame beat Clemson 35-14 in a game where its quarterback passed for 85 yards, and 43 of those yards were on completions behind the line of scrimmage.

Ignoring that reality is what makes Hale's analysis lazy and faulty. Yes, Hartman is leaving a more proven group of wide receivers, even with AT Perry off to the NFL. But even granting that premise, as stated above, the gap between the Wake receivers and the Notre Dame receivers is not nearly as great as the difference in talent and production from the Notre Dame running backs, the Notre Dame tight ends and the Notre Dame offensive line.

Hartman also never played on a team whose defense gave up fewer than 28.3 points per game. He'll be playing with a team that has a far, far better defense. 

Yet moving to Notre Dame will somehow be a negative for Hartman? That's a really rough argument to make.

I also don't actually grant that premise, and even if Hale only used the recruiting rankings of ESPN, who he works for, he'd have a tough time making that argument. For one, experience at wide receiver, and proven production at wide receiver, can be very overrated at the college level, which I've pointed out plenty of times in the past. Anyone who studies Notre Dame's film last season should also see the play of the wideouts was better than the production.

Three of Notre Dame's wide receivers were ranked as Top 100 recruits by ESPN (Chris Tyree, Deion Colzie, Braylon James), and every other receiver on the roster outside of Matt Salerno and Kaleb Smith were four-star players that ranked in the ESPN300. Every tight end on the roster other than Mitchell Evans was an ESPN300 recruit. Running back Jeremiyah Love was an ESPN Top 100 recruit (No. 93), and Gi'Bran Payne, Jadarian Price and Devyn Ford were all ESPN300 recruits.

So the only regular who wasn't an ESPN300 player coming out of high school is Audric Estime, who has proven that ranking was way off.

I just don't see how someone that has any knowledge of the Notre Dame offense, at all, even a little, could make this kind of argument.

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