Newsstand: Where Notre Dame, Sam Hartman rank in ESPN’s quarterback situation tiers
There was a consensus when Notre Dame nabbed Sam Hartman from the transfer portal: The Fighting Irish got the best quarterback on the market. ESPN’s Pete Thamel said so himself. How is Hartman viewed by ESPN in the outlet’s QB situation tiers, though?
Not as favorably as the original claim suggests.
ESPN came up with over 20 tiers to put all 133 FBS quarterback situations in a specific category. The categories got increasingly less flattering as they went on, but only slightly. Not everybody can be USC’s Caleb Williams and North Carolina’s Drake Maye, after all. They were the only two QBs to make the top tier.
Fourteen other schools’ signal-callers appeared before Hartman.
Hartman landed in tier 4b, which was titled, “consistently very good.” He shared the grouping with Coastal Carolina’s Grayson McCall, Duke’s Riley Leonard, Kansas State’s Will Howard, LSU’s Jayden Daniels, Oklahoma’s Dillon Gabriel and Tulane’s Michael Pratt.
In addition to Williams and Maye, here are the other quarterbacks who popped up on the list before Hartman.
Tier 1b: Florida State’s Jordan Travis, Oregon’s Bo Nix, Utah’s Cam Rising and Washington’s Michael Penix Jr.
Tier 2: Arkansas’ KJ Jefferson, Kansas’ Jalon Daniels, Michigan’s JJ McCarthy, UTSA’s Frank Harris
Tier 3: Alabama’s Tyler Buchner, Jalen Milore and Ty Simpson, Clemson’s Cade Klubnik, Georgia’s Carson Beck or Brock Vandagriff, Ohio State’s Kyle McCord or Devin Brown, Penn State’s Drew Allar or Beau Pribula, Tennessee’s Joe Milton III or Nico Iamaleava
Tier 3 was named the “never question the system” tier for those wondering why Buchner, a player who left South Bend because he couldn’t win the starting job, is ranked higher than Hartman.
Notre Dame tweets of the day
The countdown has begun. It’s 99 days now.
Huge win for the Fighting Irish.
And now it’s doubleheader time with Notre Dame needing to win one to take the series.
Quote of the day
“Notre Dame has a rich history with tight ends. They get tight ends, they develop them and they use them. I like that and how coach Gerad Parker is the tight ends coach and the offensive coordinator. I know he will use the tight ends in his offense.”
— 2024 tight end recruit Jaden Reddell on Notre Dame
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