Sam Hartman: 'I feel incredibly prepared for the NFL'
Sam Hartman spent six seasons playing college football. Now, he’s ready for the next step in his career. In a conversation with On3’s Andy Staples, the Notre Dame quarterback revealed how he feels as he prepares for the NFL process.
“I feel incredibly prepared. It’s a cool experience,” Hartman said. “They call it drinking out of a firehose right now. It’s just the ability — playing for so long and doing this for as long as I have — the ability to want to do that and then also be able to step back and kind of take a deep breath and rely on the people you’re closest to and roll with the punches.
“Practice yesterday started out rough for me with one-on-one reps and I wasn’t throwing it great and you try and get on a team and make some plays. That’s how it goes. It’s not always going to be the perfect throw, perfect play, perfect call, and you just gotta roll with it.”
Hartman transferred to Notre Dame ahead of the 2023 campaign after spending five seasons at Wake Forest. While there, Hartman amassed 12,967 yards and an ACC-record 110 touchdowns.
He also holds single-season records in passing yards, passing touchdowns, completions, attempts, yards per game and total yards in the conference’s storied history.
In his lone season at Notre Dame, Hartman went 191-of-301 (63.5 percent) for 2,689 yards, 24 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. The North Carolina native finished his career with the fifth-most passing yards (15,656) in NCAA history. He’s tied with Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell for the third-most passing touchdowns (134).
Sam Hartman ready to impress in Senior Bowl
Now, Hartman is prepared to unofficially add to his laundry list of accomplishments with one more game against collegiate competition. On Saturday, Hartman will play in the Reese’s Senior Bowl. He praised his fellow invitees ahead of the game.
“These guys are really good,” Hartman said. “It’s cool. They kind of make you look good a lot of the time. It’s a hats off to these guys. I mean, they’re unbelievable.”
Obviously, it’s not that difficult to make Hartman look good on the gridiron. Nonetheless, even a future college football legend needs a little help from time to time. To close the interview, Staples asked Hartman what advice he would give to his high school self. Hartman didn’t skip a beat.
“Hold on, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.”
Watch Hartman in the Reese’s Senior Bowl at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday. The game will be broadcast on the NFL Network.