How Notre Dame WR Jaden Greathouse shined in two-touchdown debut
Before the video Notre Dame football posted on Twitter even started, Jaden Greathouse was open.
Sure, if graduate quarterback Sam Hartman threw the ball right then and there, it wouldn’t have worked out so well. But the freshman slot receiver had inside position and a half-step on Navy safety Rayuan Lane as he entered into a seam route. He was even, so he was leavin’. And Hartman, a second or two later, put the throw right on the money.
Caught. Touchdown. Greathouse has arrived for Notre Dame, and he’s here to stay.
“It was amazing,” Greathouse said. “I’ve dreamed of this ever since I was young. The opportunity is finally here. I was able to make the most of it.”
The best part of Greathouse’s first game, as far as the Irish coaching staff was concerned: it was nothing they hadn’t seen before.
Greathouse’s releases, route running, spatial awareness and toughness at the catch point got him on the field in Week 0 against Navy, and they scored him his first touchdown. Lane caught up to Greathouse a split second before the ball got there, but Greathouse saw the ball and Lane didn’t.
The Austin (Texas) Westlake graduate maintained focus and hauled it in, shook off a last-ditch tackling attempt from Lane and tumbled into the end zone. He stood up and yelled with joy as his teammates mobbed him.
“Consistently doing your job, especially at that position, and you’ll be in a position to be rewarded,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said. “To see Jaden Greathouse go out there and score two touchdowns today, it’s a reflection of, hopefully, what [wide receivers] coach [Chansi] Stuckey has done with that room.”
It was as successful a debut as anyone could have hoped for, even for one of the most productive receivers in Texas high school history. But for No. 19, “it really just felt like another day.”
“My teammates, helping me, I couldn’t have done it without them lifting me up and elevating my level of play,” Greathouse said. “When we come back to the sideline, everyone is cheering and happy for each other. It’s really a good feeling.”
On Greathouse’s second score, Hartman evaded pressure and scrambled to his left. Greathouse broke free in the front-left corner of the end zone, and Hartman delivered an easy pitch-and-catch on the run.
Greathouse said Notre Dame had been working on the route combination used on that touchdown throughout fall camp.
“Coaches really did a good job with the game plan and seeing what coverages they were going to do, what kind of plays we have that would work against them,” Greathouse said. “We called it up and I knew exactly what I needed to do and Sam put it on me.”
Greathouse celebrated that second touchdown with junior receiver Deion Colzie and freshman receiver Rico Flores Jr., respectively. That’s significant because those are the three second-team Notre Dame receivers, and they were on the field at the same time.
Colzie got in on the action, too, with a 25-yard catch-and-run touchdown in the fourth quarter.
Freeman believes he has seven wideouts, Greathouse being one of them, that he can count on this season. Saturday’s game supported that.
“This game experience is so valuable, because they are talented,” Freeman said. “And now, to show that they have the ability to do it in a game, to me, is fantastic.”
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