Dueling transfer quarterbacks face off in Notre Dame vs. NC State

Notre Dame needed quarterback help in the transfer portal. 

The Irish still liked sophomore signal-caller Tyler Buchner, a top-100 recruit in the 2021 On3 Industry Ranking, but 5 interceptions in three 2022 starts showed he wasn’t ready for the starting job. 

Junior Drew Pyne won eight of his 10 starts, but Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman decided he needed a quarterback he could win because of, not just with. 

Enter Wake Forest graduate transfer Sam Hartman, and the early returns look like Freeman hit the jackpot. Hartman completed 19 of 23 passes for 251 yards, with 4 touchdowns and no interceptions against Navy in his Irish debut Aug. 26.  

“You couldn’t draw it up any better,” Freeman said after the 42-3 win at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. “What I thought he did a great job of was putting our offense in a really good position to execute the play.” 

Roughly 754 miles southeast of Notre Dame Stadium, longtime North Carolina State starting quarterback Devin Leary entered the portal in early December. Leary missed the second half of the 2022 season with a torn pectoral muscle, and in his absence the Wolfpack finished 8-5 despite a 5-1 start. 

NC State needed quarterback help in the transfer portal, too. And a perfect fit was available in Virginia graduate transfer Brennan Armstrong. 

Hartman and Armstrong were the No. 1 and No. 3 quarterbacks in the 2023 On3 transfer portal rankings (Leary, who went to Kentucky, was No. 2). They’ll face off at 12 p.m. ET on Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, N.C. 

Armstrong Looks For 2021 Form

A familiar face at offensive coordinator played a key role in Armstrong’s decision to transfer to NC State for his sixth year and final season of college football. Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren hired Robert Anae, who held the same role at Virginia from 2016-21, to run his offense. 

Anae, who faced Notre Dame in 2022 as Syracuse’s OC, coached Armstrong throughout the first four years of his career. They peaked together when Armstrong was a redshirt junior in 2021. He completed 65 percent of his passes for 4,449 yards (8.9 yards per attempt) with 31 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. 

Armstrong’s Cavaliers went 6-6, losing shootouts to North Carolina 59-39, Pitt 48-38 and BYU 66-49. 

In 2022, without Anae (who went to Syracuse), Armstrong was not the same player. His yards per attempt fell to 6.5, and he threw 12 picks to only 7 touchdowns. The hope for NC State is that Anae can unlock peak Armstrong, and if he does, he’ll have the reigning No. 1 scoring defense in the ACC at his back. 

“Coach Anae just lets me be me,” Armstrong told the Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer in late July. “I don’t feel confined. I don’t feel like I’m locked up at all. I am just allowed to go play how I want to play.” 

This will be Notre Dame’s first time facing the Armstrong-Anae duo. The Irish visited Charlottesville, Va. on Nov. 13, 2021, but Armstrong missed that game due to a rib injury. Without its QB1, Virginia’s offense was overmatched, and Notre Dame ran away with a 28-3 victory. 

Since joining NC State, Armstrong has impressed the Wolfpack for a few reasons. First, despite losing the experienced Leary, NC State hasn’t seen a drop-off in its quarterback’s veteran presence. 

“It’s like having an extra coach,” Doeren said in early August, per WRAL Sports in Raleigh. “He can get guys in the right spot. He can talk to players from a coach’s point of view, because he’s had those conversations for years with Coach Anae. 

“He can get people lined up and answer questions sometimes, maybe off to the side. He might see a receiver confused and be able to help him on a play.”

The Wolfpack added another veteran to its offense in late July: graduate student wide receiver Bradley Rozner, who transferred from Rice for his eighth — yes, eighth — year of college football. Rozner missed the 2016, 2017, 2020 and 2021 seasons due to injuries, which gave him the necessary eligibility.

Rozner has seen it all, albeit at a Group of Five school, and he led Rice with 876 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns last season. But he said Armstrong has taught him a thing or two since he arrived in Raleigh. 

“Having a veteran quarterback who has played Power Five football in the ACC, he’s got a lot of experience,” Rozner said. “Being able to learn from him at this level has been huge.”

Armstrong also gives the Wolfpack something Leary did not. Leary was not a threat to run, but Armstrong, according to Doeren in an interview on ACC Network, once ran for an 80-yard touchdown in spring practice. 

NC State clocked him at 20 miles per hour on its GPS. Doeren, in his 11th season in Raleigh, said he has not had a quarterback in his time with the Wolfpack who could do that. He believes an offense led by Armstrong, if he’s at his best, can be incredibly dangerous. 

“I think the ceiling is being the best in the league,” Doeren said at ACC Kickoff in late July. “That’s our goal. We can’t control the stats and all the things outside the ACC. We have to try to win the ACC.” 

Notre Dame’s Hartman Takes Aim At Old Nemesis

Hartman is 1-2 in his career against the Wolfpack, and he made some throws he’d like to have back in 2021 and 2022. The former Demon Deacon threw 6 interceptions in those two games — first in a thrilling 45-42 win but then in a 30-21 loss last year. 

Of the three NC State defensive backs that picked off Hartman in the Wolfpack win, two return in 2023: senior safety Jakeen Harris and junior cornerback Aydan White. 

White is the star of NC State’s defense, intercepting 4 passes and defending 9 more on his way to a first-team All-ACC season. White played 482 coverage snaps in 2022, according to PFF, and did not allow a touchdown. That was the most in the nation. 

Harris had the first pick. Hartman faced pressure on a third-and-13, so he tried to step up and hit slot receiver Taylor Morin near the first-down marker. He didn’t see Harris waiting underneath, and he threw it right to him. 

On the first play of the fourth quarter, with NC State holding a 13-point lead, Hartman made his final big mistake of the night. Again under pressure, Hartman fired a pass that was short and behind receiver A.T. Perry. White, trailing in coverage, made Wake Forest pay. 

“That’s a really good defense,” Wake coach Dave Clawson said. “We had a good week of practice, and we gave good effort, but I thought our execution at times was not there. We just made too many mistakes, and we are a team that can’t turn the ball over.” 

Hartman came close to an interception in the third quarter of his otherwise stellar Notre Dame debut. He threw to senior slot receiver Chris Tyree, running a 10-yard curl route, on third-and-11 at the Navy 24-yard line. He did not see Midshipmen safety Rayuan Lane sitting on the route, and if Lane timed his jump correctly it could have been six points the other way. 

On Aug. 28, Freeman told reporters that Hartman could have made a better read there. But he admitted he was being picky. Notre Dame’s aggressiveness in the transfer portal rewarded the Irish with a star at the most important position in football. 

Doeren and the Wolfpack hope their graduate transfer gambit pays off, too.