Notre Dame football: The matchup that could determine the Blue-Gold Game

Last year’s Blue-Gold Game was effective over at halftime. Quarterback Sam Hartman lit it up for 189 yards and 3 touchdowns on 13-of-16 passing. Notre Dame’s new quarterback at the time was the story of the day, something that won’t be the case this time with Duke transfer Riley Leonard sitting the game out with an ankle injury.

Hartman was nearly perfect, but he didn’t do it all on his own. Hello, Jaden Greathouse.

Then an early enrollee freshmen, Greathouse led everyone in yards from scrimmage with 118. He was Hartman’s No. 1 target. The Gold Team wouldn’t have won 24-0 without him. And for the second consecutive spring game, he might be the non-quarterback who most determines the outcome.

Both of Notre Dame’s best nickel corners, Arizona State graduate transfer Jordan Clark and sophomore Micah Bell, are on Greathouse’s Blue Team. Based on the way the Irish have been lining up in the latter half of spring practices, Greathouse is going to see a lot of linebacker Jaiden Ausberry in the slot.

Veteran corner Clarence Lewis isn’t around anymore to help out there. He’s on his way to Syracuse. That’s actually forced Bell to play on the outside. Ausberry, rather large for a defensive back at 6-2, 220 pounds, played quite a bit of nickel in last Saturday’s scrimmage. He’s going to see quite a bit of Greathouse lined up across from him if that remains the case this Saturday too.

There’s a case to be made for Greathouse as Notre Dame’s best wide receiver this spring. That’s saying something; Florida International graduate transfer Kris Mitchell has been good. So was Marshall transfer Jayden Harrison before he suffered a foot injury. Early enrollee freshman Micah Gilbert has turned heads. But Greathouse is bigger, stronger and faster than he was last year.

And, most importantly, healthier.

“I feel really good right now,” Greathouse said earlier this month.

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said moving Ausberry to nickel made sense in the face of the Lewis transfer, yes, but it also makes sense because of Ausberry’s immense athletic upside and needing to utilize it in any way possible. There are still some linebackers ahead of him on the depth chart, but as it stands Ausberry could win the No. 2 nickel job which would afford him quite a bit of playing time.

Notre Dame sees big things in his future.

“We got to put him at different places to see how we get him on the field,” Freeman said last week. “That’s a compliment to him and what he’s done. It was really probably over the last two or three practices we said, ‘Okay, let’s try Jaiden Ausberry at a couple of different positions because we’re not gonna be able to keep them off the field.’ He’s a talented individual.”

The only way Ausberry is going to get to that level of earned trust is if he can show he can stay in front of great slot receivers. Greathouse is one of those. The last thing Ausberry needs is for Greathouse to go off for similar statistics as the ones he put up in lat year’s Blue-Gold Game. If he does, we’re probably talking about a Blue Team win quarterbacked by junior Steve Angeli and an offseason full of thinking for the Notre Dame coaching staff in terms of who’s going to back Clark up at nickel.

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