Notre Dame Football: Sam Hartman expected to play in bowl

Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman understands some players might sit out the bowl game, but he expects Sam Hartman to play.

The end of the regular season is here and it’s time for many teams and players to start planning for their future.

For Notre Dame football there’s still one more game to play because the Golden Domers truly start thinking about what they’re going to do next.

We’re in an era of college football where part of planning for the future can mean sitting out a bowl game. Head coach Marcus Freeman said as much earlier this week when he gave his final press conference of the “regular season.”

Freeman talked about the fact that he knew there were going to be Notre Dame players that choose to sit out the team’s bowl game. After all, no one in South Bend yet knows just when that game will be or who they’ll be playing.

However, during that same press conference, Freeman made it clear that there’s one player he expects to play in the bowl game. And that might be a bit of a surprise for some Irish fans.

Freeman believes that quarterback Sam Hartman intends to play for Notre Dame football this postseason, no matter where they end up going bowling. That’s an interesting development for no other reason than Hartman doesn’t have much else to prove.

Notre Dame football coach thinks Sam Hartman will play in postseason

One would think that Hartman would also want to make sure he stays nice and healthy for Notre Dame’s Pro Day as well as the NFL Combine, which are both going to be coming in the next few months.

Perhaps that’s why Freeman did offer the caveat that he still needs to talk to Hartman to make sure a bowl game is in the quarterback’s plans. It will be interesting to see if Notre Dame football faithful will get to see the adopted son in one more game.