Cam Hart returned to Notre Dame for a fifth season with an opportunity to prove his shoulders could hold up through a whole season, that he belonged in the NFL Draft and he could lead the Irish cornerbacks to play at a higher level.
He accomplished all three in 2023 and will start to prepare for the pre-draft process immediately. Hart, one of Notre Dame’s four captains this season, announced on Wednesday he will skip No. 16 Notre Dame’s Sun Bowl matchup with No. 19 Oregon State on Dec. 29 and end his Notre Dame career.
Four fellow Notre Dame starters — quarterback Sam Hartman, right tackle Blake Fisher, left tackle Joe Alt and linebacker Marist Liufau — have also announced they will not play in the Sun Bowl as they get a jump on their NFL preparation.
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Hart spent last winter and spring recover from offseason labrum surgery on his left shoulder, an injury that occurred late in Notre Dame’s 2022 season. It was the third major shoulder surgery of his career with two on his left shoulder and one on the right one.
Perhaps inarguably, the 6-foot-3, 207-pound Hart played the best football of his career in ND’s 2023 regular season. Hart’s traditional statistics don’t tell the full story. He finished with 21 tackles, three tackles for loss, three forced fumbles, one recovered fumble and four pass breakups.
But the statistics Hart allowed best illustrate how well he played. According to Pro Football Focus, the players Hart covered were targeted only 28 times with 15 catches for 137 yards in 12 games.
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Pro Football Focus assigned Hart an 84.2 coverage grade, which ranks No. 16 among the 270 FBS cornerbacks who played at least 262 pass defense snaps. Fellow Irish cornerback Benjamin Morrison is ranked No. 18 with an 83.5 grade.
Hart came to Notre Dame as a three-star recruit projected initially as a wide receiver. But he quickly flipped to cornerback during his freshman season. Rivals ranked Hart as the No. 53 athlete, a designation given to recruits who could play multiple positions, in the 2019 class out of Olney (Md.) Good Counsel.
Hart graduated in May 2023 from Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters with a bachelor’s degree.
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