Notebook: Would a Faison re-emergence help catalyze the Notre Dame offense?

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Jordan Faison’s college football delayed debut was a consolation prize of sorts the last time Louisville and Notre Dame clashed.

And there was plenty to console on Oct. 7, 2023, a night when the Irish flickering playoff hopes were not only soundly squashed in a 33-20 Cardinal upset, but their offensive flaws and lack of counterpunch to correct them were exposed and templated for headaches in future games.

In Saturday’s rematch with 15th-ranked Louisville (3-0), set for Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium (3:30 p.m. EDT, Peacock streaming only), the sophomore wide receiver/men’s lacrosse crossover could be part of Notre Dame’s offensive redemption, both short- and long-term.

Could be.

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► Chat Transcript: Does Notre Dame have the makings to be a line-driven team?

► Film Analysis: Is Riley Leonard finding rhythm in Notre Dame's offense?

► Coordinator Transcripts: OC Mike Denbrock | DC Al Golden

► Opponent Outlook: What to expect from Louisville's reshaped roster

► Notre Dame football depth chart projection for home game with Louisville

Whatever unfolds in the fifth-ever meeting between the two teams will happen in green jerseys for the Irish. ND head coach Marcus Freeman confirmed that his captains voted on Monday to wear green, as those in attendance have been asked to do.

Quarterback Riley Leonard’s evolution into a true dual-threat, and not a conceptual one, and the offensive line’s congealing and improving are huge keys to 16th-ranked Notre Dame (3-1) re-establishing and legitimizing a College Football Playoff trajectory in 2024. But the development of the outside field receiver position into something more than a complementary piece would likely quicken the other facets, perhaps significantly.

Think Will Fuller when you think “field receiver” position.

The former Irish All-American and NFL first-round draft pick led the Irish and spectacularly so in 2015, a year current Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock was calling plays during an earlier tour of duty with the Irish.

Fuller amassed 62 catches that season for 1,258 yards and 14 TDs with a 20.3-per-reception average. And his ability to take the top off a defense opened up the run game and other options in the passing game.

The only thing comparable on the field side in the 8 1/3 seasons since has been Chase Claypool’s 2018 production for ND’s first-ever CFP-qualifying team. ND’s brightest wide receiver stars in that run have typically been boundary receivers, and it could be argued Claypool fit that profile better on a team with Miles Boykin already filling the boundary role.

Last season, the Irish finally turned to freshman Rico Flores Jr., at the field position after the promise of Tobias Merriweather only minimally materialized. In Freeman’s first season as head coach (2022), it was Braden Lenzy filling that field receiver role with intermittent success.

Flores and Merriweather were two of the four wide receivers on the 2023 Irish roster to hit the transfer portal last December. Flores has nine catches for a team-leading 160 yards in three games for UCLA (1-2). Merriweather, with an undisclosed injury, has yet to play a snap for Cal (3-1) but was projected as a starter before the injury.

The three players who have manned the field receiver position for the Irish this season — Faison, FIU grad transfer Kris Mitchell and sophomore KK Smith — have combined for 10 catches for 94 yards and no TDs. Projected over a 12-game season, that would be a very un-Fuller-like 30 catches for 282 yards.

But they’ve given Freeman, Denbrock and wide receivers coach Mike Brown enough flashes in practice both to keep vaunted freshman Cam Williams incubating without an offensive snap this season as well as keep the faith that the numbers from that position will be better moving forward.

Faison, a slot receiver when he burst on the scene halfway through the 2023 season and ended up as the Sun Bowl MVP at season’s end, had to adjust to the new position — and with minimal spring football due to his status as a starter on the national champion Irish men’s lacrosse team. Adding to that, he missed 2 ½ games of this season and a couple of weeks of practice with an ankle injury.

Mitchell, prolific last season against mostly Group of 5 competition (64 receptions for 1,118 yards and six TDs), is still adjusting to the step up in competition, while Smith is a talented but raw option whom Denbrock recently compared to Fuller.

“I feel strongly about the position,” Freeman said in his weekly Thursday Zoom with the media. “I think it's deep. Faison's back to, I would think, his normal self or as close to as he can be. Kris has been playing well, and KK has done a good job in both of his opportunities in the last two games.

“So, I feel good about the room. They've had a good week of practice, and we'll see what the game dictates in terms of production. But I'm really pleased with the field wide receiver position.”

Faison played 32 catchless snaps Saturday in a 28-3 win over Miami (Ohio) in his first game action since the Aug. 31 ankle injury. But only 11 of those snaps came on pass plays.

His speed on the outside, and using it, is one of the ways to mitigate Louisville’s penchant to load the box against the run and try to make the opposing offense one-dimensional, as the Cardinals did last season against QB Sam Hartman, OC Gerad Parker and the Irish.

ND was limited to 44 rushing yards — 1.6 per carry, committed five turnovers and yielded five sacks.

Georgia Tech’s Haynes King, though, suggested a blueprint for how a dual-threat QB could put up big numbers in the Yellow Jackets’ 31-19 loss to the Cardinals. And Denbrock during that 2015 season used then-QB DeShone Kizer’s running prowess in games against elite defenses, Clemson and Temple, to offset them focusing on stopping ND’s traditional running game.

Meanwhile, the coaching staff also continues to see progress in practice from Leonard in the passing game, and believes it’s going to carry over into the games more profoundly in the coming weeks.

“You hope that the natural progression continues to build and that he takes from the confidence-building that there was in last week's game,” Denbrock said, “and continues to push on the gas and cleans up some of the cupcake throws that maybe we missed that we’ve got to hit. And he knows that very well.

“But I can see a progression. I don't know that it's obvious to everybody. Is it as fast as we all want it to be? It's not. I mean, I want it to be perfect tomorrow, just like you guys do, but I do see progress there.

“And I think it's attributed to the work that he's put into it and being mindful that he's got to be willing to do those things.”

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Notre Dame’s two replacement pieces on the offensive line, senior center Pat Coogan and senior right guard Rocco Spindler, followed up impressive fill-in duty against Purdue on Sept. 14 with even more impressive starts last Saturday against Miami (Ohio).

But the two training camp upstarts, who claimed starting positions late in August, are still working through inconsistencies on the left side of the line.

So how can the coaching staff help that process along for freshman left tackle Anthonie Knapp and sophomore left guard Sam Pendelton — this week and next week during ND’s first of two bye weeks?

“I think there's, No. 1, no substitution for experience,” Freeman said. “I've said that before. You know, we’ve got to continue to give them different looks in practice and continue to practice physically, in that playing offensive line, there's a physicality that you have to practice with that. That will take a toll on your body, too.

“And so, I think more than anything in the bye week, we’ve got to make sure those guys that have nicks and bruises are able to heal and also get better at the same time. Coach Rudolph has done a wonderful job really developing that offensive line, progressing them. And I'm very confident in our offensive line moving forward.”

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Because Irish vyper end Jordan Botelho was in the final class (2020 recruiting class) that can use a COVID-exemption year, the grad senior defensive end does have the option to play college football in 2025 if he so chooses.

Freeman confirmed Thursday that Botelho, lost for the season Sept. 14 at Purdue with a knee injury, would be welcome to do that at Notre Dame.

“More than anything, we wanted him to kind of get through the different emotions after having a surgery like he had,” Freeman said. “And we just want him to know that if he wants the opportunity to come back next year, we would love to have him back.”

While Notre Dame freshman Bryce Young’s potential at field end doesn’t necessarily show up in his film grades from Pro Football Focus on defense — yet, his upside surely is evident on special teams.

Among players who have logged 50 percent of possible special teams snaps, the 6-foot-7, 258-pound son of former Irish All-America defensive tackle Bryant Young ranks second nationally in special teams grades among all roles.

And Young fills a lot of them, having played on kickoff return, kickoff coverage, punt return, punt coverage and field goal block.

ND’s special teams leader, who doesn’t have the minimum-snap threshold, is sophomore safety Luke Talich – but just barely over Young (90.4 to 90.3). The rest of the top six rated special-teamers for the Irish a third of the way through the season are Josh Burnham, Justin Fisher, Jaiden Ausberry and Kyngstonn Vilamu-Asa.

Notre Dame senior quarterback Riley Leonard has been selected to be on the watch list for the 2024 Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year Award. Since its inception in 2017, the award annually has honored exemplary leadership by a college football player, and factors in an individual’s attitude, work to overcome hardship and ability to inspire others.

A 2024 Notre Dame team captain, Leonard has also been named to the 2024 watch lists for the Walter Camp Player of the Year, the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award and the Maxwell Award.

Among the other 51 players on the Witten Award watch list is former Notre Dame defensive end Nana Osafo-Mensah, now playing for TCU in his sixth and final college season.

Twenty semifinalists will be announced on Oct. 22. Three finalists will be named for the award on Dec. 16. The winner will be announced at the award ceremony at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Feb. 12.

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