Sam Hartman is taking it all in stride.

The Notre Dame quarterback left from Wake Forest as the ACC’s all-time touchdown leader and now joins the Fighting Irish for a sixth year.

It may not be the Irish offense Hartman thought it would be, however. Former offensive coordinator Tommy Rees left for Alabama. Late last week, Hartman, in an interview with David Hale on “The Paul Finebaum Show,” was asked about learning a new offense with Rees leaving.

“One of the reasons why I chose Notre Dame is just who he (Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman) is and his transparency through the whole process. We know good and well how college football is at this point with the transfer portal and coaching changes and just this, that and the other. As Coach Freeman always says, ‘The bumpier road, the better.’ I think it was a good opportunity for me to take this challenge on. It’s nothing that I’m not used to, things not always going the right way.

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“Again, it was an opportunity to grow as a leader and to really grow as a quarterback where, new system, new place and then new coach as well on top of basically having a new coach already. I think it also spoke to the locker room. I think the locker room really came together and understood that, yeah, we might have lost somebody, but we can grow from it and be even better for it.

“It gave me an opportunity to kind of take a step back and really hone in on my teammates and learning them, because going from Wake to Notre Dame, you’re around the same guys for five years and you kind of know everybody’s ins and outs like the back of your hand, and then you get to Notre Dame, you walk in and you don’t know a single guy’s name, or you know a couple guys’ names.”

Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.