Sam Hartman on getting ready for the NFL and his epic hair flips
Yahoo Sports' Jason Fitz is joined by the Notre Dame quarterback on Radio Row at Super Bowl LVIII to discuss his Senior Bowl experience and how many years someone should play in college football. Sam joined Yahoo Sports on behalf of DirecTV.
Video Transcript
[THEME MUSIC]
JASON FITZ: Hanging out with Sam Hartman, joining us on behalf of DirecTV. We'll get to that in a minute, Sam. But first, we got to play a game, What's in the Cards.
It's simple. We're playing higher or lower. So I'm going to throw a card out. You're going to tell me whether the next card is higher or lower. You get it right, you get an easy question. You get it wrong, you get a hard one. Are you ready?
SAM HARTMAN: I'm ready. Let's do it.
JASON FITZ: This is going to be-- this is going to be not-- oh, this is a tough one. He gets a 9 out of the gate. That's right in the middle.
SAM HARTMAN: We're in Vegas. I'm going to go-- I'm going to go higher.
JASON FITZ: All right, he's going higher, higher. Oh! It busts out of the gates. We got a five going. That means you get a hard question out of the gates, OK?
So as you get ready for the draft process, how do you use your Senior Bowl experience to sort of move forward to what you want to do next?
SAM HARTMAN: Yeah, I think it was a lot. I mean, you're always kind of growing for everything you do. I think people look at it-- I thought the practices went really well. I learned a lot. We had a lot of interviews with different teams.
It was kind of the first dip into that territory and getting interviewed doing NFL stuff, being around NFL people. The game was a game. You know, I learned-- I learned a lot.
The game's a little faster. People are moving. And you know, I had some throws I'd like to have back. But I enjoyed it all. And I think that's the cool thing about this process, enjoying it.
JASON FITZ: Isn't there-- like, just to be real, you're asked to digest so much information with different guys from different places. They're all digesting so much information while you're going through it. Like, I just think that sometimes we lose the fact that the Senior Bowl, in and of itself, is meant to create some chaos. Like, it's meant to make everybody they're a little uncomfortable, right?
SAM HARTMAN: Oh, for sure. And I think that, you know, the thing was is just bouncing back from it and how you handled it. I don't-- I don't really believe that everybody's looking at it like, oh, the game, the stats, the performance.
I think it's more about how you handled all the situations after the game, throughout the, like, walkthroughs, lobby, how you sleep. I don't know. They probably got cameras everywhere, so we try to keep it as professional as possible.
JASON FITZ: Oh, it's all right.
Higher or lower? What are we going? 5 is where we are.
SAM HARTMAN: Higher. Higher.
JASON FITZ: He's going higher. He's going higher--
SAM HARTMAN: I'm sure it's going to be lower.
JASON FITZ: No, he's got this one.
All right, you know what you're doing with the hair flip thing, right? Like, just, like, when you flip the hair, you know what you're doing, right?
SAM HARTMAN: It's a wake up and go for me. I just always got to give a shout out to my mom. My mom, she blessed me with some good genetics, and I'm out here just rocking a little bit of a flow.
JASON FITZ: Yeah, but, like, there's this move. You got that-- you even did it when you came up. When he came up and got ready, right before, he goes, ha! That's what happened. When you have perfect hair, you just go, wah! And it just fixes, right?
SAM HARTMAN: Yeah, I mean, I got to fix it. I don't want it to be in my face for an interview.
JASON FITZ: But there's no, like, fancy routine? Like, we're not--
SAM HARTMAN: Wake up and go?
JASON FITZ: Higher or lower on 4?
SAM HARTMAN: We'll go higher.
JASON FITZ: 4, it's a bust. All right, so we'll get you another one. Higher or lower on the 4?
SAM HARTMAN: We'll go higher.
JASON FITZ: He's going higher again. It's a 3! Oh, no. All right. So let's-- what was the toughest part of transitioning to Notre Dame?
SAM HARTMAN: The biggest challenge was probably getting under center. I think we did so much on the gun at Wake Forest, and everything was very fast and quick. And Notre Dame was very much more methodical.
And getting in and out of the huddle, calling plays from a wristband, all those different things were so unique and new that, like, the first time, I'm like, dude, have I ever played football before? Like, I'm getting under center, not knowing how to do it.
But it was also why I did it. I think that's something in the NFL you've got to be ready to do and be able to do as soon as you show up. And so that was probably one of the more difficult ones.
JASON FITZ: Are you going higher or lower than a3?
SAM HARTMAN: I'm going to go lower. I'm going to go lower.
JASON FITZ: He wants it.
SAM HARTMAN: Yeah, I want it.
JASON FITZ: He wants to jump on-- all right. How many years is too many years to play college football?
SAM HARTMAN: I don't think-- you never graduate. College is amazing.
JASON FITZ: You're going to be one of those, like, nine-year guys? Like, come on.
SAM HARTMAN: If I could. No, I enjoyed it. And I think-- I think I look at it as-- it was a cool opportunity. I think I learned so much and grew up so much from when, you know, when I got my draft eligibility. And when I could have declared or might have declared, I wasn't ready.
And I think that the thing about this process is just to run your own race. I think, like, to start comparing that this guy's already playing-- like, I saw Trevor Lawrence last night, and, you know, like, oh, he did it in three. I'm like, yeah, but I ain't Trevor Lawrence, man. I don't look like him at all, maybe the hair.
JASON FITZ: No, your hair is way better than Trevor's
SAM HARTMAN: I appreciate that. And so I think that whole process is how it's got to go. And this whole process going through the draft is-- you know, I'm training with some of the best guys in the quarterback, you know, draft class right now.
You can get caught up wondering how they're, doing what they're doing. And as long as you just keep doing what I do and how I've been doing it for the past six years of college, I'll be all right.
JASON FITZ: Do you feel ready now?
SAM HARTMAN: I do. I better be ready.
JASON FITZ: I love that. You're here hanging out with us on behalf of DirecTV. What do you got going on?
SAM HARTMAN: So the cool thing about this process and, I think, about the transition to Notre Dame is I got to partner with a really cool company called the Ronald McDonald Charity House. And it's an unbelievable organization that I get to work with.
And we got to go before games, meet Coach Freeman and a couple of players. And in the offseason, for me, I got to go as well where you just go, and you help. You help families in need that are sick or ill, whether, you know, it's a baby to, basically, a kid, a full-grown kid.
And you know, they do a lot, from housing-- and it's a home away from home. And I think for me, selfishly, I get a lot out of it because it reminds me how lucky and how blessed I am to be in this position.
And then, you know, with DirecTV's help, it's the ability to donate as much as we can. And they're doing a great thing out here. So they have families in Vegas that are in need, and they're going to do an event for them this weekend.
And it's just a cool-- it's a really cool organization, and the people there are the salt of the Earth. And you know, every time I get a chance to get over there-- and I know when I go back for Pro Day I'm going to go down and donate some stuff and just spend time with people.
It, you know, really, really takes you out of this grind, the radio road grind, whether it's-- or it's the draft process grind. You know, there's some bigger things than what we do and to give back as much as we can.
JASON FITZ: Man, I appreciate you doing that. That's awesome. Thanks for hanging out with, me brother.
SAM HARTMAN: I appreciate you.