What the 2023 team captain choices mean for Notre Dame football

For just the second time in the last seven seasons, Notre Dame only has four team captains. In the same span, as many as eight team captains were named in 2017.

This year, Notre Dame went with quality over quantity.

There were definitely other players worthy of inclusion, though. For instance, the Fighting Irish are set to start two graduate student linebackers in addition to JD Bertrand, one of the four team captains. Marist Liufau and Jack Kiser have toiled in blue and gold uniforms for just as long as Bertrand. Neither has started more games or collected more tackles than Bertrand, though, so if only choosing one, the Irish picked the standout.

That went along with the theme of selecting this year’s captains.

Junior right tackle Blake Fisher could be a future first-round NFL Draft pick, and Zeke Correll is the oldest offensive lineman who, as if Aug. 13, is projected to start the season opener in less than two weeks. But junior left tackle Joe Alt is undoubtedly a future first-round selection, and he’s been dubbed the best offensive tackle in the country per Pro Football Focus.

If there could only be one offensive lineman named a Notre Dame team captain, Alt was the way to go. He’s become as synonymous with Notre Dame as tight end Michael Mayer. He really got to that status as a sophomore. Now, he’ll be a team captain as a junior — just like Mayer was.

Sophomore Benjamin Morrison might be Notre Dame’s best cornerback, but Cam Hart played on a team that went to the College Football Playoff. He played with and became best friends with elite defensive back Kyle Hamilton, who is already on the fast track as a notable NFL safety He was in the room when Marcus Freeman was promoted to head coach in December 2021. Morrison wasn’t.

Let’s be clear; it’s not like anyone was openly lobbying for Morrison to be a Notre Dame team captain in just his second year. But if you figure one more defensive player in addition to Bertrand needed to be a team captain, and you wanted to choose from the pool of graduate students, there were only nine candidates to pick from. Three were transfers, and two were the aforementioned linebackers. Hart stood out even before whittling down the contestants. His experience is respected and when he’s healthy, his on-field play is pivotal.

And then there’s the quarterback.

Any team’s QB seems like a lock to be a team captain every year, but Notre Dame hasn’t had a signal-caller wear the “C” on his chest since Ian Book in 2020. Hartman has also only been with the program for eight months.

Hartman earning the nod via a vote from his teammate says two things. He’s every bit the alpha male he comes across as from an outsider’s perspective, and Notre Dame players also want to go into the 2023 season with their quarterback as the face of the program. It’s been a while since that was the case. Since Book, perhaps, when he led the Irish to the CFP in two out of three seasons.

Reaching the playoff is the ultimate goal. Playoff teams seem to be led by not just talented QBs but ones who are unequivocally among the most important players on the roster, on and off the field.

Look at what TCU’s Max Duggan meant to the Horned Frogs in last year’s improbable run to the national championship game. Stetson Bennett meant the world to Georgia in back-to-back championship campaigns. Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy has people believing in him to the point of being viewed as one of the best returning QBs in the country, and Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud was the No. 2 overall pick in this year’s draft.

That’s just a rundown of last season’s playoff quarterbacks. It’s like that every year.

When he’s at the right place and surrounded by the right people, Hartman can presumably be a playoff quarterback himself. Notre Dame could be the right place. The right people just voted him a team captain. Now it’s time to play football.

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