WINSTON-SALEM – Sam Hartman underwent surgery to address a non-football medical issue and will be out indefinitely, Wake Forest announced Wednesday morning.

Those are the nuts and bolts; going deeper means being shrouded in mystery of what happened with the health of Wake’s star quarterback and when could he return to the field.

The answers will come later – for now, we address what’s known.

“Tuesday was a frustrating day, but I am extremely grateful for our medical staff and for Dr. Chris Miles and Niles Fleet for staying with me throughout this process,” Hartman said through a news release. “I look forward to attacking this rehabilitation process and I am so appreciative of the support I have received from my family, teammates and coaches.”

Wake’s star quarterback was a full participant in Monday morning’s practice, and Tuesday was a scheduled off day for the Deacons.

Hartman is a fifth-year quarterback who holds or is close to holding every career passing record at Wake Forest; last season he led Wake Forest to 11 wins and became the third ACC player ever responsible for 50 touchdowns (39 passing, 11 rushing) in a season.

Now Wake Forest will be without him for an unknown period of time.

What we know: Hartman had surgery of some kind Tuesday and was at practice Wednesday morning, Wake’s players and staff were told of the situation Tuesday night, and that he’ll be out indefinitely.

There is no timeline for Hartman’s return.

Hartman was at Wednesday morning’s practice – though coach Dave Clawson did not confirm that as an indication that this was a non-life-threatening issue.

“I can’t get into … you know, something came up that was kind of a little unexpected,” Clawson said. “Our medical team did an incredible job of diagnosing it and determining what the course of action was.

“And bang, they took care of it in incredible time and speed and efficiency.”

Wake Forest is hopeful that Hartman returns this season – again keeping in mind that this was a serious situation that had his wellbeing, not wins and losses, as the primary concern – but it’s too early to put a timeline on his return.

In addressing media after Wednesday morning’s practice, Clawson used some version of Wake Forest hoping Hartman is back five times in a 7-minute span without ever putting a timeline on it. That means that two words – *this year* - were never applied to this situation.

The reality is that there simply is no timeline for Hartman’s return – just that he’s expected to return at some point.

“We expect him to be back,” Clawson said. “It’s just too early to tell what the timeline is. So anything that would be said is just speculation right now.”

It is worth noting that this is not the first time a non-football medical issue has put Hartman in a hospital a few weeks before the start of a season.

That story is explained here:

Hartman addressed the team in a post-practice huddle Wednesday morning, something that was only out of the ordinary in the fact that he was not in pads.

“He always does that, so we were kind of expecting it,” fellow fifth-year captain Rondell Bothroyd said. “But yeah, he’s always going to act like he’s perfectly fine. He could lose a toe or whatever and nobody would know.

“But it’s cool to see him out here and have him around the team, talking with us and just letting us know he’s fine.”

By the account there and by observation from afar, Hartman was in as-good-as-could-be-expected spirits Wednesday.

Time will tell when Hartman is fine enough to rejoin Wake Forest on the field.

Here were my observations during Wake Forest’s eighth practice of fall camp (this is going to be considerably lighter given the mood of the day):

Equipment: Helmets and shoulder pads, shorts.

Was today won by the offense, defense or neither: Neither

I mean, it was a distracted day of practice. It felt balanced, big plays made on both sides of the ball.

I made note of a Malik Mustapha interception and a couple of big catches by Jackson Hensley and Wesley Grimes.

Catch of the day: Wesley Grimes

This was a fantastic catch against superb coverage and I hate that I didn’t write down the cornerback.

It was a sideline route in which Grimes adjusted well and made a leaping, falling-down catch on a nice pass from Michael Kern.

Quote of the day: Eh, the quote from Bothroyd about Hartman projecting a strong front even if he lost a toe* serves as the quote of the day.

* I have it on good authority that Hartman has as many toes now as he did two days ago.

Freshman/newcomer of the day: Wesley Grimes

Big day for Grimes – or he just happened to make a play at the intermittent times that I wasn’t working on other things up on my observation deck.

Positional observations: Just one that matters right now, right?

Mitch Griffis is in line to be the starting quarterback in the opener against VMI. That bit came at the end of our time with Clawson after practice.

“Right now Mitch would be one and Michael Kern would be two,” Clawson said. “They’re still competing. But Mitch got most of the one-reps today. We wanted that competition to go on, but with what happened we kind of felt like, ‘Hey, Mitch was ahead, we’ve got to feed him those one-reps and get him ready.’”

Griffis is a third-year quarterback who has appeared to have the inside track on being Wake’s QB of the future – despite a subpar spring game. Throughout the previous 14 spring practices and continuing into this fall camp, Griffis has displayed the ability to effectively run Wake’s offense at a high caliber.

“He’s got savvy, he anticipates throws,” Clawson said of Griffis. “He’s a little bit like Sam in terms of how important football is. … Our team knows how hard he’s worked and how hard he’s prepared.”

News of the day: You’re kidding, right Mr. Editor?