40 days until Notre Dame football: Can Sam Hartman throw for 40 touchdowns?

BlueandGold.com will release a countdown article highlighting a significant Fighting Irish football statistic every day until the 2023 Notre Dame season opener against Navy in Dublin, Ireland, on Aug. 26. Today, there are 40 days until the Fighting Irish and Midshipmen kick off at Aviva Stadium.

Sam Hartman has seemingly seen it all and done it all in college football. But there is at least one thing the man who has started 45 games and thrown for 110 touchdown passes has not done.

He hasn’t thrown for 40 touchdown passes in a single season.

Of course, no Notre Dame quarterback has ever done that. So he wouldn’t just be in rare air if he accomplished it this fall. He’d be in a class of his own.

Brady Quinn owns the Notre Dame single-season touchdown record with 37 in 2006. A Notre Dame QB has only thrown 30-plus in a season on two other occasions; Quinn had 32 in 2005, and Ian Book had 34 in 2019. If Hartman didn’t at least put forth the fourth-ever 30-plus passing touchdown season in Notre Dame history, it’d probably be disappointing. He can roll out of bed and hit that number in his sleep, supporting cast aside. And all things considered, he should have a better one in South Bend than he had at Wake Forest.

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Hartman threw 39 touchdown passes in 2021 and 38 in 2022. He’s been knocking on the door of 40 for a while now. Wake Forest had a pass-happy offense, though, so Hartman is going to have to be very efficient to set a career-high and break the Notre Dame record.

Hartman attempted 508 passes two seasons ago. Last year, the Irish only had 338 pass attempts as a team. That ranked 110th nationally. When Jack Coan, a pure pocket passer, quarterbacked Notre Dame as the starter in all 13 games in 2021, the Irish ranked 27th nationally with 451 total passing attempts. That’s a number Hartman could work wonders with.

Hartman can still have a wildly successful season with 30-35 touchdown passes, especially if the Irish running game is doing its part with junior Audric Estimé leading the charge. But if Hartman does indeed become the first Irish signal-caller to ever throw 40 touchdown passes in one season, securing him for his graduate season will forever be viewed as one of the biggest transfer portal victories in Notre Dame history.

Generally, only a handful of QBs hit 40 touchdown passes every year. In 2022, four of them got there; USC’s Caleb Williams (42), Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud (41), Western Kentucky’s Austin Reed (40) and Houston’s Clayton Tune (40). Hartman tied North Carolina’s Drake Maye right behind that quartet with 38.

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