ABC has found its next leading man, and he’s currently on an NFL practice squad.
Sam Hartman, the Washington Commanders quarterback, will star in the 30th season of “The Bachelor,” the network announced Friday. Hartman is 27 and spent six seasons in college between Wake Forest and Notre Dame before making the jump to the NFL.
His season is set to premiere in March, giving football fans a little offseason entertainment. Hartman will also add another name to the list of athletes who have appeared on the franchise, either as the lead or as a contestant.
Hartman’s path to this moment runs through three clear stops over the past eight years. He began at Wake Forest, where he committed out of high school and spent five seasons with the Demon Deacons. From 2018 to 2022, he played in 48 games, started nine games in four of those seasons, and took over as the unquestioned starter from 2020 through 2022.
By the end of his Wake Forest run, Hartman had piled up 110 passing touchdowns, nearly 13,000 passing yards, 41 interceptions and a 59.1 percent completion percentage. Wake Forest posted winning records in four of his seasons, with the high point coming in 2021 when the team finished 11-3.
With a year of eligibility left, Hartman transferred to Notre Dame for the 2023 season and immediately became the starter. He threw for 2,689 yards and 24 touchdowns for Marcus Freeman’s team, helping the Fighting Irish finish 10-3 and cap the year with a Sun Bowl win.
Hartman then entered the 2024 NFL Draft, but in a deep quarterback class he went undrafted. He signed with Washington as a free agent, landing behind rookie Jayden Daniels and Marcus Mariota on the depth chart. Even so, he stayed with the Commanders for the entire season as they reached the NFC Championship Game.
He returned to Washington in 2025 on the practice squad, though he wasn’t elevated until the end of the season. The Commanders brought him back again this year, and he remains on the practice squad for a second straight season.
In Other News...
Wake Forest Has A Chance To Prove Its ACC Standing This Weekend
Wake Forest kept rolling with a lopsided win over Merrimack, a 77-0 result that did little to change the bigger picture around the program but did reinforce how comfortably the Demon Deacons have handled the stretch they are in. The latest ACC Football Power Rankings still place the Deacs at No. 2, where they have sat for seven straight weeks as Miami continues to hold the top spot.
The real test is still ahead, and it comes with far more weight than anything Wake Forest has faced recently. A trip to Dallas to meet No. 4 SMU now looms as the kind of game that can sharpen the league race and clarify where the Deacons truly stand in the ACC pecking order, with the rankings and the upcoming schedule both pointing toward a matchup that should say plenty about their championship path. [Read more 🡒]
Wake Forest Faces A Season-Shaping Test Against SMUs Dangerous Offense
Wake Forest heads into a pivotal regular-season matchup with SMU knowing the stakes reach well beyond one Saturday afternoon. With ACC Championship hopes still in play, this is the kind of game that can tilt a season one way or the other, and the Demon Deacons are staring at a Mustangs offense that has earned its reputation by making opponents defend every inch of the field.
The challenge starts with quarterback Kevin Jennings and running back Kendrick Raphael, but SMU also brings defensive pieces such as Marques White and Kilgore who can make life difficult in their own right. For Wake Forest, the margin for error is thin, and the result could end up shaping not just the conference race but the programs postseason outlook as well. [Read more 🡒]
Wake Forest Keeps Winning But The Respect Still Isn't Coming
Wake Forest has spent the 2026 season doing the one thing that usually changes the conversation around a program: winning, and winning often. Under Jake Dickert, the Demon Deacons have taken a roster that had to replace key pieces from a year ago and still turned it into one of the more surprising stories in the sport, with Gio Lopez driving the offense and Carlos Hernandez giving him a dependable target on the outside. What makes the run stand out is how far it has gone beyond preseason expectations, even as the national spotlight has mostly looked elsewhere.
The frustration for Wake Forest is that the rsum has not translated into the kind of respect that typically follows this sort of start. National media attention has been light, and the College Football Playoff committee has not treated the Deacons like a team forcing its way into the picture. For a program that has clearly outperformed the projections attached to it in August, the next stretch feels less about proving it can keep winning and more about whether anyone outside Winston-Salem will finally start paying attention. [Read more 🡒]