Why Notre Dame plans to use Jordan Faison, Jaden Greathouse at multiple WR spots
The legend of Jordan Faison adds new layers by the month.
Impress in fall camp as a freshman Notre Dame football walk-on? Easy. Step into the rotation mid-season and become the team’s most productive wide receiver from that point on? No problem. Earn a starting spot on a defending national champion men’s lacrosse team, despite spending that program’s offseason winning bowl game MVP awards? Light work. Help said men’s lacrosse team win a second-straight title, scoring a goal in the championship game? Special athlete.
And now, after two-three weeks of post-lacrosse season rest, Faison has expanded his game on the football field. He’s taken the majority of his reps at field receiver since coming back to the gridiron, despite playing almost exclusively in the slot in Year 1.
Standing at 5-foot-10, 182 pounds, it would have been easy for Notre Dame to pigeon-hole Faison to an inside role. But that’s not the way wide receivers coach Mike Brown sees it.
“He’s got good speed, he’s got good change of pace and he’s really, really good after the catch,” Brown said. “He’s a unique player, man, with the unique ability after the catch and tracks the ball well.”
Faison has embraced the added responsibilities, saying it’s helped him develop his game as a more complete wide receiver.
“Being able to go outside, you’re not going against a nickel anymore,” Faison said. “You’re going against a corner. It’s a little different.
“Corners, they say corners tell lies. So, it’s kind of helped kind of process my pre-snap reading and after-snap reading, and that definitely goes a long way.”
Faison added that he can use his heightened ability to read his defender in the slot as well. And he will be playing plenty in the slot, where he proved to be remarkably effective last season.
Faison’s classmate at Notre Dame, fellow sophomore wide receiver Jaden Greathouse, is preparing for a more versatile role as well.
Greathouse has worked with the first team in the slot, where the 6-foot-1, 215-pound wideout’s game plays best. Traditional wisdom says Greathouse would be better-served to move outside than Faison, given his size, but that’s not how either he or the Irish see it.
“For having a bigger body and being able to be a size-out matchup most of the time for a nickel corner, but then also being at the same time too quick and too fast for the nickels and linebackers,” Greathouse said. “It’s just being able to work in space, and being able to see the zone. Seeing what the defense is running and being able to sit in those zones is something that I like to do.”
The Irish had to move Greathouse outside out of necessity last season, with injuries and ineffectiveness piling up at the position group. It didn’t go well; he did not catch a pass between Sept. 23 and Nov. 18. But this year, the Austin (Texas) Westlake graduate feels more better splitting out to the field this season as well.
Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock said in spring ball that Greathouse pleasantly surprised him with his versatility.
“I feel a lot more comfortable,” Greathouse said. “Understanding what the offense is trying to do, understanding what my job is and what the purpose of the concepts that we’re trying to run. It definitely helps me, when I line up outside, too, because I still know what we’re trying to do and and what the goal is for the play.
“That just helps me be able to play fast and line up wherever I’m needed.”
In summary: Greathouse is primarily a slot guy right now, but he can also play the field. Faison is primarily a field guy right now, but he can also play the slot. From Brown’s perspective, that’s ideal for Denbrock’s offense.
“With the way that I kind of look at it, to be honest, is our two guys, the slot and the field guy, they do a lot of the same jobs, right?” Brown said. “Because we’ll switch formations around, where all of a sudden he’s in the slot and other guys — I want their abilities to be at least somewhat similar.”
The goal — and what makes this a different situation than it was last season — is that Greathouse and Faison don’t move around because the coaching staff has to. They’ll move around because the coaching staff wants them to.
Brown explained that the offense is “ever-evolving,” and Denbrock’s philosophy is that he wants as many wide receivers to play multiple spots as possible. The Irish are considerably deeper at the position than they were a year ago, and giving them the ability to do that.
“We kind of joke with [the newcomers], how last year we had guys dropping and we got really thin, and now it’s just so much different with how deep it got within the room,” Faison said. “They’re seeing how deep it is and we’re just loving the change. It’s been awesome.”
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