SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame’s lack of receivers, both in quantity and quality, has been harped on plenty this season, as well as last. The Irish had not produced a 100-yard receiver in 23 straight games, dating back to Lorenzo Styles and Kevin Austin each reaching triple digits in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day of 2022, those being the names underscoring how long it had been.
So in fairness, Notre Dame’s impressive freshmen trio earned ample praise in Saturday’s 45-7 win against Wake Forest (4-7), even if they may try to downplay it for the time being, media training showing through.
“That’s big for us, but we can’t give into that yet,” Irish freshman receiver Rico Flores Jr. said after he caught eight of nine targets for 102 yards, part of a rookie trio that caught 15 passes for 212 yards. “We still got to keep laying these bricks down, game by game, practice by practice, and keep going at it every week.”
If it seems like Flores, Jaden Greathouse and Jordan Faison took too long to impress this year, then realize how far ahead they are of recent freshmen at Notre Dame. Combine all freshmen receivers from the last six Irish seasons and they tally 34 catches for 493 yards and three scores, led by Styles’s 24 receptions for 344 yards and a score in that 2021 season capped by his Fiesta Bowl showing.
Flores alone has 26 catches for 387 yards and a score this year.
Combine his numbers with Greathouse’s and Faison’s, and they have exceeded all recent freshmen with 52 catches for 765 yards and seven touchdowns.
“It’s just a testimony to just continue to battle, continue to prepare, continue to work,” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said. “Because you don’t know when the opportunities present themselves.”
Those numbers would be even gaudier if a balky hamstring had not sidelined or slowed Greathouse for about half the season. Would that have been enough to get the Irish past Clemson? Probably not, but it would have helped the cause given Notre Dame receivers caught just eight of 20 targets in Death Valley.
The trio of Flores, Greathouse and Faison, not to mention fellow freshmen Braylon James and KK Smith, represent the passing foundation the Irish have sought all season.
“We found ways to get the ball into the hands of our playmakers and getting multiple playmakers on the field at the same time,” Freeman said Monday. “We did some different things trying to get a couple different wideouts on the field in different packages at the same time.”
The quintet alone — Smith sidelined by injury this season and James (one catch for 12 yards) working on the scout team — could be half the wanted number of scholarship receivers on a healthy roster. The lack of that stability has repeatedly cost Notre Dame the last two seasons. The thought of that changing would raise the Irish ceiling in 2024.
And not just in the fall of 2024.
Freeman has been public about his intention to find a fourth scholarship quarterback this offseason, almost certainly through the transfer portal.
In retrospect, it may be a surprise that Sam Hartman jumped to Notre Dame last January; he had to have had some idea how woeful the Irish receivers were. Maybe he was optimistic Tobias Merriweather would be more than a decoy or Virginia Tech graduate transfer Kaleb Smith (no relation) would look the part rather than get passed by in spring practices to such an extent he retired. Perhaps the name, image and likeness possibilities around Notre Dame are better than folks realize.
Regardless, Hartman’s up-and-down 2023 could have scared off the next wanted transfer, or at least given reason to hesitate. Hartman can claim some of that fault as much as he wants — “You put on a tape from the weeks before and it’s one guy here, myself here, this person here, and [Saturday] was just a complete game,” he said. — but fellow college quarterbacks who watched him star at Wake Forest will look at his 2023 stats and wonder what went awry.
A lot did, to be clear.
Greathouse was injured, as was junior Jayden Thomas. Tight end Mitchell Evans was lost for the season after eight games. But also, Flores and Faison needed a bit of time.
Now, they may look alluring to that next quarterback, whomever it may be.
The last week has seen Cam Rising announce a plan to stay at Utah and Jalon Daniels one to remain at Kansas, while Tulane’s Michael Pratt appears to have NFL draft intentions. The quarterback transfer pool may be a shallow one this offseason.
That dearth of outside options could elevate current sophomore Steve Angeli. His 19-of-24 passing for 272 yards and four touchdowns this season has been reasonably notable, his moments coming in low-pressure blowouts but still thoroughly accurate on Saturdays.
For the sake of this narrative, the thought of Angeli playing catch with Greathouse, Flores and Faison for the next two seasons stands out because their third year, 2025, will still be on NBC Sports.
Tack on another one why don't ya. #GoIrish pic.twitter.com/J8VJLliegX
— Notre Dame on NBC (@NDonNBC) November 18, 2023
Of Saturday’s lessons, the announcement from Notre Dame and NBC that they have extended their partnership through the 2029 season stands out more than anything the freshmen receivers put together. The agreement had been due to expire after the 2024 season, and entering the coming offseason with that yet an unknown would have become a distraction for even those receivers. That uncertainly would have extended beyond broadcast rights and this space’s future; the television contract “helps insure our independence,” to use the words of Irish director of athletics Jack Swarbrick.
The announcement coming on the day Swarbrick served as an honorary captain on his final home game in his role before resigning this coming spring was an obvious and somewhat expected closing credit from Swarbrick, one Freeman doubled and tripled down on as vital to wanted success.
“It adds to the value of what Notre Dame provides,” Freeman said Monday of the NBC deal. “That’s the ability for us to go sell it in recruiting. You’re the only college football program with an exclusive network. To me, it’s that Notre Dame value, the value this place truly provides you.
“Credit to Jack and his team and [incoming director of athletics Pete Bevacqua] to get this deal done. It will definitely be beneficial for us in recruiting because people want to know they’re special. I believe when you get a chance to play at Notre Dame and you have some of those things we just mentioned, you realize how special it is.”
The next set of receivers to buttress the quintet of current freshmen may not be entirely swayed by Notre Dame on NBC and certainly not by any scribblings here, but the national broadcasts certainly do not hurt Freeman’s recruiting efforts, be they of current high schoolers or of quarterbacks playing on Saturdays already across the country.
