Sam Hartman enters transfer portal

Sam Hartman is expected to enter the transfer portal on Tuesday and Notre Dame is the frontrunner to land the ACC’s all-time leader in touchdown passes, per ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

This news was first reported on Deacons Illustrated on Friday morning.

Hartman entered the portal around noon Tuesday.

It’s been expected that this would be Hartman’s final season at Wake Forest. He said back in the spring that this would be final season — though the interpretation at that point was that he would pursue a career in the NFL.

Notre Dame and Wake Forest play next season for the first time since 2018. That was a 56-27 win for the Irish against a freshman Hartman. Next season's game is scheduled for Oct. 28.

According to Thamel’s report, Hartman has a low-round draft grade. There’s also some thought in NFL circles — as there was when Wake’s previous starting quarterback, Jamie Newman, transferred — that Hartman will benefit from moving away from Wake’s offensive system and playing in more of a pro-style offense.

It’s felt for the past few weeks that the likely scenario was Hartman transferring, based on coach Dave Clawson’s comments.

“The way this name, image, likeness market is working, in some cases, with guys with eligibility left, they might have an opportunity to make more money by going to another school for a year,” Clawson said after it was announced that Wake Forest would play in the Gasparilla Bowl.

“If that’s the case, we can’t fault them. Whatever decision Sam makes, we support him. … When the bowl game is over, if there is some incredible offer for him to go to another school and get life-changing money, you know, how can we fault him for that?”

Hartman led Wake Forest to a 27-17 win over Missouri in his final game as Wake’s quarterback, and coincidentally was 27-18 as Wake’s starting quarterback over the last five seasons (he redshirted in 2019 but still started one game that season, and then started every game but one for the past three seasons).

Wake’s fifth-year quarterback leaves the school with virtually every passing record. His first touchdown pass against Missouri made him the ACC’s all-time leader, and he passed for 3,701 yards and 38 touchdowns this season.

Hartman had a medical scare in preseason when a blood was discovered, later disclosed as Paget-Schroetter syndrome. He had a rib removed and only missed one game.

Hartman graduated from Wake Forest this semester and participated in Senior Night ceremonies before Wake’s win over Syracuse.