What does Notre Dame really have at wide receiver? Why it’s a mixed bag

Jayden Thomas said it seriously. The Notre Dame junior wide receiver made a bold statement, with conviction. Full belief, zero fabrication.

“This is the most talented I’ve ever felt like this room has been,” Thomas said of the Notre Dame wide receivers. “It’s the most talented wide receivers I’ve ever played with in my life.”

No disrespect to Thomas’ Pace Academy in Atlanta, but no high school wide receiving corps is ever going to match that of a college program — especially one as esteemed as Notre Dame. Not even IMG Academy’s. It’s as silly as suggesting the NCAA national champion any given year could beat the worst team in the NFL.

Nope.

All that in mind, Thomas only has three years of Notre Dame wide receiver rooms to judge against each other. And, despite four of nine scholarship wideouts on this year’s Irish roster being true freshmen, another being a former walk-on and one more being a former running back during his entire career to this point, Thomas is probably right.

This IS the most talented wide receiver room Thomas has ever been a part of at Notre Dame — on paper.

“It’s remarkable,” Notre Dame wide receivers coach Chansi Stuckey said. “We send out two and a half groups right now, when everyone’s healthy, that play at a high level.”

Talent doesn’t equate to catches and scores. Talent is only as important as what the players who posses it do with it. Stuckey is always quick to remind his guys of that. Reality checks are immensely important right now, exactly two weeks before the season opener. It’s easy for the media to see smooth routes on air and come to the same declarative conclusion as Thomas.

What happens when the operation actually has to go up against people wearing different color uniforms?

“Practice is one thing. You do four reps, five reps and you’re out,” Stuckey said. “But a game is a totally different thing.”

Everyone can be a superstar in practice. Game days are different indeed. When they start rolling around weekly, Stuckey said he has a core contingent of seven Notre Dame wide receivers who are in line to see consistent, meaningful playing time.

Thomas, graduate student Matt Salerno, senior Chris Tyree, junior Deion Colzie, sophomore Tobias Merriweather and freshmen Rico Flores Jr. and Jaden Greathouse are in. Freshmen Braylon James and KK Smith, who had summer shoulder surgery, are out.

James might be the fastest wideout on the team, which is saying something considering Tyree is now an official member of the unit and Merriweather’s long strides are as akin to a racehorse barreling down the final straightaway as it gets on the gridiron.

And yet, he’s still on the outside looking in.

“You’ve got NFL teams playing with four guys, three guys sometimes,” Stuckey said. “…Nine guys is a lot. I don’t know what team in the country has nine guys to play.”

Notre Dame is currently two-deep at the field (Merriweather, Flores Jr.) and boundary (Thomas, Colzie) spots and three-deep (Tyree, Greathouse, Salerno) in the slot, only including Stuckey’s core seven. If seven is set in stone as Stuckey’s magic number, it’s not like James is out of the running for good. Colzie could drop out and James could climb in.

A leapfrog of that nature isn’t as far away as it may seem.

“He’s on the same path that [Greathouse and Flores Jr.] are on,” Stuckey said of James. “He’s just at a deeper position.”

Colzie has already fallen out of the starting lineup, which is where he spent the entirety of the spring, and further tumult isn’t impossible — especially with James getting bigger and better as his freshman campaign pushes along. Blazes along may be more appropriate verbiage for him.

The one thing Colzie has on all of his position mates is size; nobody stands over him at his height of 6-4 3/4. A couple inches can easily be substituted for speed, though. If Colzie isn’t utilizing his physical tools, a better complement to the 6-1 1/2, 221-pound Thomas might be the faster 6-2 1/8, 202-pound James. Time will tell.

“You want him to be available as he grows, all the freshmen,” Stuckey said. “Get to game six and seven and those guys are like, ‘Okay, we’re veterans.’ Understanding what it’s like is the goal for every freshman.”

Time will also tell just how good these guys actually are. All of them.

The combined career receiving statistics of Notre Dame’s projected starting trio of Thomas, Tyree and Merriweather: 82 catches, 874 yards, 8 touchdowns. The kicker? Tyree has roughly half of all of those stats — 56 catches, 461 yards and 4 touchdowns — all while spending the first three years of his career as a tailback.

Accumulating aerial numbers will be much different as a full-time wideout for the speedster who struggled with breaking tackles and making cuts as a RB the last two seasons. He can’t just slip out of the backfield and gain a few yards running in a straight line anymore. His 5.8 yards per reception total in 2022 was the worst mark on the Notre Dame roster.

“He’s so used to seeing everything out front back there with the quarterback and now a lot of times his back’s turned to the defense,” Stuckey said. “…Just understanding concepts and where he needs to be and being there on time has been the biggest thing. There’ll be another jump once he starts playing games, understanding what people are trying to do to him and what’s the scouting report on him and, ‘How can I break those things and get away from tendencies?’”

The combined career stat line of Notre Dame’s second-team wide receivers, meanwhile, is 13 catches for 259 yards and 1 touchdown. Every single one of those numbers belong to Colzie, whose place in the lineup isn’t solidified to begin with.

There have been multiple practices in fall camp when it seemed like the Notre Dame wide receivers weren’t playing their part in the offense. Whether it was a timing issue or an inability to create separation, it was the kind of theme Stuckey can’t have showing up from week to week once the season starts.

If this truly is the most talented wide receiver corps Notre Dame has had recently, and it sure seems to be on paper considering a player Stuckey said ran 23 miles per hour in practice can’t get on the field, then that should translate to actual games. And if it doesn’t, maybe Thomas was wrong.

Maybe we were all wrong. It’s time for Stuckey’s group to prove everyone right.

“I’m freaking excited about our seven and who we have that will play,” Stuckey said. “As coaches we’ve got to get them ready to play and then ultimately win games.” 

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