We all saw Hartman's freshman year and it was good for a freshman starter, but not great. He's also smaller than Newman and got hurt running the offense.
I remember it as very good, not great against top 15 defenses.
Riley Skinner in 2006, his frosh year: 14 games, 171-260 (65.8%), 2051 yards, 7.9 passing yards per attempt, 9 TDs, 5 INTs, Passer rating of 139.6
Sam Hartman in 2018, his frosh year: 9 games, 161-291 (55.3%), 1984 yards, 6.8 passing yards per attempt, 16 TDs, 8 INTs, Passer rating of 125.2
Riley's stats were down a bit sophomore and junior years and fairly amazing senior year (passer rating of 147.8).
I will say it again. We will miss Newman. He was a beast. It was a luxury having a guy of his size who could literally knock helmets off linebackers, but maybe because of how he had to wait his turn and understanding the quarterback battle between Hinton and Wolford was often about who made the fewest mistakes - Newman was fairly conservative in his RPO reads. Hartman is going to whip the ball around in comparison. We'll be naturally a little more dynamic on offense next year, but defenses will not need to prepare to try and protect against scrambles from a 240 pound quarterback.
I would like to see us add some things to the offense. With the backs we have coming back, I'd like to see us pitch for end runs, for example.
As I recall, when Hartman was really going well (against inferior competition, but also against Louisville and Syracuse this year), the fact that he whips the ball around AND is able to get the offense to the line just as fast as Newman created fatigue on the defensive side. It sort of reminds me of NBA teams going up against the Spurs during the Duncan-ginobili-Parker hey day in which they threw 10 passes per possession and teams just got tired whipping their heads around by the 4th quarter. Ditto for Hartman led drives that get to that 5th or 6th play in the 2nd half. I never felt that with Newman. He bullied teams instead. But going up against Newman, there were plays you just knew he was going to hand off or run it himself, almost as a breather. In hindsight, I wish we would have thrown the slot screen on those plays. Bakc to Hartman, I don't remember those types of "breather" plays.