Notre Dame football: Rumblings to sit Sam Hartman have begun
There are some in the Notre Dame Football community who believe it’s time to bench Sam Hartman and start looking towards the future.
The Notre Dame Football season isn’t quite done. However, there are some who believe that for all intents and purposes, the Fighting Irish goals for 2023 are unattainable and that it’s time to start working for 2024.
Among the topics of conversation for the end of the season is whether or not it’s time to see what the Irish have at quarterback. Sam Hartman is a one-season rental. He is the guy who was supposed to take Notre Dame back to the playoffs.
Things haven’t worked out that way. The Irish are 7-3 and with two games left against Wake Forest and Boston College, there is no real chance to get back into the playoff conversation. And that’s why a conversation about whether to give up on Hartman entirely has started.
It’s not loud yet, but John Kennedy of Fighting Irish Wire is among those who have started asking if Notre Dame Football should bench its starting quarterback for the final two games. And he makes the case why the benching makes sense.
"“Firstly, the remaining games carry no national weight and are against mediocre teams. These are ‘low-risk’ opportunities to evaluate the potential future starting signal callers for upcoming teams. Secondly, the way the offense and Sam Hartman have been performing lately, I’m not certain that without Hartman the team is any closer to another loss than they would be with Sam under center. The offensive operation has been that awful. Notre Dame will enter this off-season with yet another QB decision to make, and the more real game snaps there are to inform that decision the better.”"
Notre Dame Football considering a change?
The argument against benching Hartman is fairly obvious. The first is that a team that wants to be taken seriously doesn’t operate that way. They don’t put the final two games of the season in jeopardy to “build for the future,” if you’re 7-3.
The second is that the future of the Irish at quarterback isn’t on the roster. Even if Steve Angeli performed well against Pittsburgh in mop-up duty.
Notre Dame Football is almost certainly going to be looking for the next starting quarterback through the transfer portal.
There’s almost no chance that the Irish will sit Sam Hartman down. It’s not something teams do, even in this era of the sport. But the fact that the conversation has started around Notre Dame Football circles shows just how off the rails this season has gone.