Notre Dame QB Sam Hartman names two NFL quarterback role models
Twenty-four-year-old Sam Hartman said on The Official Heisman Trophy Podcast sometimes when he walks around the Notre Dame campus he sees students who look like 12-year-olds to him. He sympathizes.
“I looked like that when I was a freshman,” Hartman said. “I was 170 pounds soaking wet. No facial hair, no nothing.”
Hartman has been through a bunch since then. His beard is strong and his career résumé might be even stronger. Given that he’s been in the game at this level since 2018, he’s had more time to watch and study it than all of his college quarterback peers. Watching and studying is not limited to his contemporaries, obviously. The Notre Dame starter named two current NFL quarterbacks who pique his interest in terms of how they operate and how they play the position.
Aaron Rodgers of the New York Jets and Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles.
“Aaron Rodgers, the style, who he is, his persona of playing the game and playing it the way he wants, I’m obviously thinking about him with the injury,” Hartman said. “I know that’s got to be devastating for really the National Football League with his performance and his caliber and what he brings to the table.”
Hartman added, “I love Jalen Hurts. Just his story and who he is as a person from what I’ve heard is incredible. And the way his college career went and the highs and lows of his life. You look at him and say, ‘Oh, it’s probably super easy for him,’ I think that is a guy I look at and like to watch. I wish I could run like him and throw like him, but he is someone I have a heavy respect for and know he’s one of a kind.”
Rodgers is a four-time NFL MVP and a Super Bowl Champion. Hurts finished second in MVP voting last season and led the Eagles to a Super Bowl appearance. He’s only 25, one year older than Hartman, and seems to have a lengthy, successful career ahead of him. That’s after he lit up college football in three years at Alabama and one magical season at Oklahoma when he accounted for 52 touchdowns in 2019.
Rodgers, meanwhile, is 39 and just suffered a season-ending Achilles injury four plays into his first year with the Jets. He doesn’t have anything left to prove, though. Whatever happens for him on the field from this point forward is icing on the cake.
For Hartman, the remainder of this season at Notre Dame is all about elevating his next-level potential and potentially parlaying a successful last year of collegiate eligibility into an NFL Draft selection.
No matter what, Hartman’s time at Notre Dame has already been a hit. In his first four Notre Dame starts, he has completed 71.1 percent of his passes for 265.3 passing yards per game with 13 touchdowns and zero interceptions.
“The fans and the national, global outreach that we have as this brand and this university is special and something I don’t think I’ll ever truly comprehend until I’m out of it,” Hartman said. “But it’s definitely a cool thing to be a part of.”
