My Take: Context matters in discussing Dave Clawson’s comments

The short of it is that Notre Dame played Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” when Hartman’s day was finished Saturday, marking the final home game for Hartman’s season with the Irish. He spent the previous five seasons at Wake Forest, where he threw 110 touchdown passes, the most in an ACC career.

Clawson was asked Tuesday about Duke coach Mike Elko’s comments a day earlier, that college football is less than two weeks away from the opening of the transfer portal and, “complete anarchy and the wild west.”

After lauding his former defensive coordinator as one of the smartest assistant coaches he’s ever had on a staff, Clawson asserted — as Elko did, too — that the process has already begun.

Which is when you remember the timing of the news that Hartman was going to transfer to Notre Dame, coming on the morning of Wake’s bowl game last December.

Why would anybody think Notre Dame waited until after Hartman entered the transfer portal (about five days after Wake’s bowl)?

That’s part of where Clawson is coming from when he says what he did last week — that it’s tough for him to watch Notre Dame this season because it’s playing with the Wake Forest quarterback.

And it’s all a contextual build-up to what he said Tuesday.

“The public is going to see the anarchy in a couple of weeks. But trust me, behind the scenes, it’s all going on now,” Clawson said, starting to chuckle. “You’ve gotta laugh sometimes so you don’t cry. It’s — it’s insane. But it is the new reality. And there’s no point in complaining about it.

“We saw it last week in South Bend. Here’s a guy that we recruited and we developed and they’re putting a video of him up saying, ‘We will always love you.’ I’m like, ‘You only dated him for a couple of months, it can’t be love. We’re the ones that love him, we had five years with him. You rented him for a season.’

“They bought him and rented him for a year and now they love him. So, you know, when that video played it was like, ‘Holy cow, this is where college football is now.’”

So, yes, it’s a little awkward and cringey. But as always, context matters.

The reminder, as always, is that Hartman was not planning a return to Wake Forest. He posted on social media shortly after the 2021 season that the 2022 season would be his last one at Wake Forest and confirmed in spring practices last year. He reiterated the point several times throughout last season, including a chuckle at the notion of returning when it was mentioned during a virtual interview before his final home game.

The hypothetical that we'll never know — because hypotheticals are always for losers — is whether any of this gets discussed if Wake's quarterback situation doesn't devolve into the mess that it's been this year.

On that subject, Clawson declared Tuesday that the spring will see open competition at the position while acknowledging that the participants of that are not yet known.

“Clearly, we’ve got to get the quarterback thing figured out,” Clawson said. “I also know that some of those years we left the season feeling like that was not a good position and it turned out to be good — and I’m not saying we’re not going uncover every stone we can to try to fix it.

“We also have quarterbacks in our program that we’re hoping they’ll develop and get better, too.”

Fifth-year QB Michael Kern, who started for the first time against Notre Dame, and third-year QB Santino Marucci, who started Wake’s lone ACC win against Pittsburgh, both participated in Senior Day. Kern has another season of eligibility, should he choose to use it.

“Clearly, we’ve got to play much better at quarterback than we have this year,” Clawson said. “I think we’ve got to let the position compete in the spring. We’re not going to name the starter going into the spring. That will be an open competition and whoever wins that job, whether they’re on the roster now or not on the roster now, will be the best quarterback.”