Sam Hartman Girlfriend & Wife: Tyla Ochoa Relationship

The former Notre Dame and Wake Forest quarterback has stayed in the football conversation for years, but heading into the 2026 NFL season, attention on the athlete has shifted between his roster situation in Washington and lingering questions about his personal life. Sam Hartman’s name keeps coming up alongside Tyla Ochoa, a former Wake Forest soccer player, though the details many sites repeat about the two of them don’t all hold up.

Here’s an updated, corrected look at what’s actually known about Sam Hartman’s girlfriend, his relationship with Tyla Ochoa, and where things stand in 2026.

Who Is Sam Hartman’s Girlfriend?

Sam Hartman has never publicly named a girlfriend, but the connection fans have made to Tyla Ochoa, a former Wake Forest University soccer defender, remains the most credible one on record.

The link traces back to an April 2024 podcast appearance on On The Homefront, where Hartman was asked directly whether he was single. He said he was not, and described his girlfriend as a soccer player at Wake Forest with a year of eligibility left. He never gave her name. When a clip of the exchange went viral in May 2024, fans matched the description to Tyla Ochoa, a senior defender on the team’s roster at the time. Neither Hartman nor Ochoa has confirmed the connection by name, then or since.

Who Is Sam Hartman’s Wife?

Sam Hartman is not married and has no wife. There is no public record of an engagement either.

Who Is Tyla Ochoa?

Tyla Ochoa was born on February 8, 2003, in Encinitas, California, and played defense for Wake Forest from 2021 through 2024. Before college, she was named MVP Defender and team captain at La Costa Canyon High School, led her team to CIF Championships, and won six Surf Cup Championships with the San Diego Surf Club. She also ranked third nationally in the 4×100 relay in 2019.

At Wake Forest, she started 10 of 18 games as a freshman in 2021 as part of a defense that set a program record for fewest goals allowed. She scored her first collegiate goal, a match-winner, as a sophomore in 2022, and continued to see regular minutes through her junior season. Her senior year was cut short after just 29 minutes in the 2024 season opener due to an injury.

One correction worth making: several widely circulated articles say Ochoa graduated with a degree in Politics and International Affairs and that she helped lead Wake Forest to its 2024 national championship. Neither is accurate. Her own professional profile lists a Bachelor’s in Biology, earned Cum Laude in May 2024, that included a defended Honors Thesis. And while Wake Forest did win the national title that year, her season had already ended before the tournament began, so she wasn’t part of that run on the field.

How Sam and Tyla’s Relationship Began

Reports describing Sam and Tyla as having met at “North Carolina College” between 2018 and 2022 get both the school and the timeline wrong. The school is Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, and the 2018 start date doesn’t line up with Ochoa’s age — she was still in high school in California that year and didn’t arrive at Wake Forest until fall 2021. The only period the two overlapped on campus was 2021 and 2022, Hartman’s final season before transferring to Notre Dame.

The first public sign of a relationship surfaced in January 2022, when Ochoa posted TikTok videos of the two of them together, including one of them lip-syncing while Hartman drove, footage from a fishing trip, and a filter clip pairing them as characters from Moana and Tangled.

Where Things Stand in 2026

As of 2026, the relationship between Hartman and Ochoa remains unconfirmed in either direction — not officially together, and not officially over. In early 2025, fans noticed the two had stopped following each other on social media, and a comment on Ochoa’s TikTok asking about the relationship was reportedly deleted, with the commenter blocked. Neither has addressed it publicly since. There’s no confirmed breakup, but there’s also never been a public confirmation that the relationship existed by name in the first place.

Addressing Rumors: Rachel and Kennedy Cook

Sam Hartman’s rising profile has produced a few other names in the rumor mill over the years, including a woman referred to only as Rachel and, separately, Kennedy Cook. Neither claim has any substantial evidence behind it, and both appear to be the product of fan speculation rather than anything sourced. Tyla Ochoa remains the only name tied to Hartman with any real basis, however unconfirmed that connection still is.

Sam Hartman’s NFL Career in 2026

Hartman’s path with the Washington Commanders came to an end on August 30, 2026, when the team waived him as part of final roster cuts ahead of the season. He had spent training camp competing for the No. 3 quarterback job behind Jayden Daniels and Marcus Mariota, but Washington ultimately gave that spot to rookie seventh-round pick Athan Kaliakmanis. Hartman appeared in three preseason games, completing 25 of 46 passes for 207 yards with four interceptions.

Hartman first joined Washington as an undrafted free agent in 2024 and spent most of his two seasons there on the practice squad, without appearing in a regular-season game. Reports following his release indicated the Commanders would like to bring him back to the practice squad if he clears waivers, so his time in Washington may not be fully over even after the cut.

Off the field, Hartman’s résumé also includes recovering from Paget-Schroetter syndrome, a rare blood-clotting condition that required rib-removal surgery in 2022, on top of a thyroid surgery earlier in his life.

Tyla Ochoa’s Life After Wake Forest

Since graduating in 2024, Ochoa has relocated to the Charleston, South Carolina area and joined TEKsystems as a Sales Development Representative in September 2025, working in tech talent placement. Her academic and early career record, built around a Biology degree and original research, sits apart from the soccer and relationship coverage that continues to follow her name.

Conclusion

Heading into 2026, the facts around Sam Hartman’s personal life are thinner, and less settled, than a lot of recycled coverage suggests. The connection to Tyla Ochoa still rests on a 2024 podcast comment and a handful of 2022 TikToks, with neither side ever confirming it directly, and no clear signal on where it stands today. On the field, Hartman’s NFL future is similarly uncertain after being cut loose by Washington, leaving both storylines — his relationship and his roster spot — open heading into the new season.

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