SOUTH BEND — From one quarterback to another, Steve Beuerlein wanted to welcome Sam Hartman to Notre Dame football.

“He said he went through a lot in college and didn’t know how it was going to all work out as a sixth-year guy,” Beuerlein, 58, said of their brief conversation during the Golic SubPar Classic charity event last month. “He said, ‘I get a lot of grief because people think I’m almost 30 years old.’ “
Not quite.
On Saturday, three days after Notre Dame opens its first (and only) preseason training camp of the Hartman era, the Wake Forest graduate transfer will celebrate his 24th birthday.
“I know,” Beuerlein said with a chuckle. “It’s amazing.”
To put that in context, at 24 Beuerlein was in his second season with the Los Angeles Raiders, flinging NFL passes to former Notre Dame teammate Tim Brown. By the end of 1989, Beuerlein already had eight NFL wins as a part-time starter.
Hartman, who leads all active FBS quarterbacks in career passing yards and touchdowns, is already older than such established pros as Trevor Lawrence, Brock Purdy, Sam Howell and Zach Wilson. Lawrence (Jaguars) and Purdy (49ers) led their teams to three combined NFL playoff victories six months ago.
The first snap Hartman takes against Navy in Dublin on Aug. 26 will be career No. 3,439 for the ACC’s career leader in passing touchdowns (110). Already 19th in NCAA history with 12,967 passing yards, Hartman has a realistic shot at climbing all the way past former Hawaii star Timmy Chang (17,072) for the No. 2 spot all-time.
And Hartman, who threw for 4,228 yards in 2021, won’t even have to break his personal mark to get there.
“I was very excited from the moment I saw that he was coming,” Beuerlein said. “I thought it was an absolutely fantastic development. A guy with his experience? I don’t care what kind of offensive philosophy he was in. You can tell by looking at a kid if he’s a player and if he’s a playmaker or not.”
When healthy, that’s never been a question for Hartman. In exercising his COVID-19 bonus year of eligibility, he gets to chase a national title, contend for the Heisman Trophy and improve his NFL draft stock.
“Just look at the film, and you see him constantly making plays,” Beuerlein said. “I love his confidence. I love his leadership. I think he’ll fit in great. In talking with him, he’s so engaging. He just gets it.
“I think he understands the opportunity he has here for the rest of his life to be able to say, ‘I played quarterback at Notre Dame.’ And, as importantly, he really has a chance to put his label, put his stamp on the program and be a quarterback that people will remember and talk about for a very long time.”
Beuerlein, who went 21-18 as Notre Dame’s starting quarterback while bridging the Gerry Faust/Lou Holtz eras, knows that feeling.
“I think this team, with the right guy pulling the trigger, can be a really good football team,” Beuerlein said. “I think he’s the guy.”
'The game has slowed down' for Sam Hartman
Allen Pinkett, author of three straight 1,000-yard rushing seasons (1983-85) at Notre Dame, smiled knowingly at the question: What does Hartman’s age mean in the context of this fall?
“At 24 I was going into my third year (in the NFL),” said Pinkett, a third-round pick of the old Houston Oilers. “Mo’ years makes you mo’ better.”
How so?
“Ultimately, what happens is the game slows down,” he said. “I remember when I first joined the pros how fast the game was. I remember the instant that it slowed down for me.”
Oilers coach Jerry Glanville “actually jumped up and down” when he saw Pinkett, without hesitation, make the proper cut through the proper gap on a running play.
“The NFL ends up being a game of angles,” said Pinkett, the former Notre Dame radio analyst (2001-17) who still ranks second in Irish history in career rushing yards. “I figured out the angle.”
At the college level, Hartman seemingly solved those calculations years ago.
“The game has slowed down for Hartman,” Pinkett said. “You can see it in how he can take his time reading and making the right pass and how accurate he is. And being able to put a good running game on top of that, it takes the pressure off him.”
Pinkett paused again and smiled.
“In contemporary college football, you either have that guy at quarterback or you don’t,” he said. “It looks like we have that guy.”
Hartman has been there, done that
Former Notre Dame offensive guard Mike Golic. Jr., who started on the 2012 team that reached the BCS Championship Game, got to know Hartman over dinner this offseason out in southern California.
They linked up again on campus when Hartman made an appearance at the Golic SubPar Classic fundraising dinner. The younger Golic came away floored by the maturity and presence of Notre Dame’s new quarterback.
“It’s an exciting time to have some buzz around that position at Notre Dame and to see a guy with that much experience,” said Golic Jr., a national voice on the sports-talk scene. “It’s almost like having another coach when you have a player that old.”
Still just 33 himself, Golic Jr. can only imagine what it would be like to have a sixth season playing college football.
“I can remember my fifth year, sitting around in summer school with a couple of my buddies going, ‘All right, we feel like we maybe know some guys on the support staff and some of the coaches a little more interest-wise than we do some of the younger players on our team at this point,’ “ Golic Jr. said. “We already felt like the old men on campus. I’m sure for Sam there will be some of that, but clearly relating to his teammates, being in the mix with the guys in the locker room, hasn’t been any issue for him.”
Not only is Hartman a finished product physically and between the lines, he adds an emotional maturity that can only benefit those around him.
“I think that’s a huge part of it,” Golic Jr. said. “We talk about all the things Marcus Freeman is learning for the first time as the head coach. From a quarterback standpoint, there’s going to be very little that Sam Hartman hasn’t seen or experienced.”
With Gerad Parker replacing Tommy Rees at offensive coordinator and new faces guiding the quarterbacks (Gino Guidugli) and offensive lineman (Joe Rudolph), the adaptability of the new star quarterback is vital.
“There’s a been a lot of change, and you’ve always got roster churn in college football every year,” Golic Jr. said. “To have a guy playing the most important position in football, the quarterback spot, who is as comfortable under fire and has so much experience that not only he can draw on for himself but that he can draw on in the way he leads during the game, when he talks to guys in practice, I think that’s such a massive resource.
“For Notre Dame to have someone with that experience coming over is going to pay off in a lot of ways that maybe we don’t even see.”
Kyle Rudolph: Hartman grasps 'the magnitude of everything'
For former Notre Dame tight end Kyle Rudolph, recently retired after playing 12 years in the NFL, his 24th birthday came late in his third season with the Minnesota Vikings.
Rudolph already had one Pro Bowl appearance and his first 109 receptions and 15 touchdowns under his belt. He would miss the final eight games that season with a broken foot, but his best years were still ahead.
“Certainly, had a lot of knowledge,” he said. “I think that’s something (Hartman) brings to this locker room. Just experience, knowledge. The moment is not really too big for him.”
Just starting his television career as a game analyst, Rudolph did extensive film study of Hartman’s Wake Forest oeuvre and got a sense of Hartman’s vibe while prepping for the Blue-Gold Game on NBC’s Peacock streaming app.
“I felt just this kind of calm confidence about him when we spoke in production meetings,” Rudolph said. “He’s been around for so long; he just understands the magnitude of everything.”
That includes the importance of building rapport with a new group of targets, including a talented receiving corps that skews young.
“The ability to do stuff away from the organized team workouts,” Rudolph said. “I hear he’s in the building all the time and out in the indoor (facility) getting extra work in, and that’s really invaluable for all the other younger players on the team, especially the offense.”
If Hartman and his receiving corps can make as much progress over the next month as they did over the course of spring ball, Week 0 in Dublin could be quite an official rollout.
“Sam is as prolific a passer as we’ve seen in college football history,” Rudolph said. “You watch the spring game and the way he operated his three drives on the field. He was very efficient with the ball, he knew where he wanted to get it, he got it into his receivers’ hands so they could catch it and run.”
Even in his former life in the Deacons’ distinctive attack, the same held true.
“You watch his tape at Wake Forest, obviously every play is that slow-mesh RPO type stuff,” Rudolph said, “but you could see his comfort level growing with the traditional footwork. The arm talent is there, and you see it on tape.”
Ask Rudolph for a comparison, and his mind goes back to another pass-happy era in South Bend.
“Honestly, I think back to guys that we had here, before me Brady (Quinn) and when I was here Jimmy Clausen,” Rudolph said. “Just that elite talent at the quarterback position.”