Sam Hartman, Wake Forest football set for more success after reaching ACC title game
There were days, a few years back, when Sam Hartman’s future with Wake Forest looked bleak.
“We had some touch-and-go moments,” Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson said, looking back to 2019 when Jamie Newman, not Hartman, won the starting quarterback job for the Demon Deacons.
That’s a stark contrast to Wednesday when Hartman and Clawson were front-and-center at the ACC’s Kickoff media event, discussing how Hartman led the Deacs to the Atlantic Division championship last season and back seeking more success this season.
“It hasn’t been easy,” Hartman said. “There have been ups and downs.”
The high points are recent, like when Hartman completed 58.9% of his passes, throwing for 4,228 yards and 39 touchdowns as a junior last season when Wake went 11-3.
Yes, he threw four interceptions in the ACC championship game, when Pitt beat Wake, 45-21. But he followed that up throwing for 303 yards and three touchdowns as Wake blasted Rutgers 38-10 in the Gator Bowl.
That’s how Hartman’s career has gone, and he’s endured it all to reach his senior season leading a resurgent Wake Forest program.
“Day in, day out you take it on the chin and keep going,” Hartman said.
In 2019, after starting and throwing for 16 touchdowns in nine games as a freshman in 2018, Hartman saw Newman become Wake’s starting quarterback. Hartman played in just four games.
But he stayed true to Wake and, most importantly he said Wednesday, Clawson and staff did the same for him.
“My leadership has grown because Wake Forest stuck with me,” Hartman said.
It paid off in a major way last season, when Hartman and Wake’s offense averaged 41 points per game — second in the ACC — on the way to the school’s first ACC championship game appearance since 2006.
“Sam’s been incredible,” Clawson said. “As much as he’s grown physically, his growth mentally and in leadership is incredible.”
Hartman is poised for more success this season. Wide receiver A.T. Perry is back after a breakout sophomore season that saw him catch 71 passes for 1,293 yards and 15 touchdowns.
Hartman will also have wide receiver Donavon Greene available. One year ago this week, Clawson announced Greene would miss the season due to an undisclosed offseason injury.
Prior to that, Clawson said Wednesday, he and the staff believed Greene, not Perry, would be the team’s breakout star at wide receiver.
Now, Wake Forest has both healthy and ready to contribute.
“A.T. Perry is a household name now, with his athleticism and his ability to make a play on the ball, but Donavon Greene is special,” Hartman said. “A kid from Mount Airy, I don’t know if I have ever seen somebody as physically gifted as an athlete. His make-up genetically is nuts, to be honest.”
Because of all that talent returning, Wake Forest is expected to challenge for another Atlantic Division title in the final year before the ACC scraps its divisional alignment.
That Wake Forest, the smallest school in terms of enrollment among the Power Five conferences, is in line for more success speaks to the tremendous job Clawson has done since his hiring in 2014.
“Every year we come to these media days and people have low expectations of us, and we never let that dictate how we went about our weekly process or our preparation,” Clawson said. “We had confidence that we could be a good football team, maybe despite what people on the outside thought. Now that people have a different perception of us, we welcome that, but it can’t change the way that we operate. It can’t change our mindset and the way that we go about our daily tasks and our preparation.”
This story was originally published July 20, 2022 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Sam Hartman, Wake Forest football set for more success after reaching ACC title game."