As Notre Dame football takes the practice field Monday, the Irish wide receivers should be healthier following the off week.
Junior Jayden Thomas and freshman Jaden Greathouse have played in the past two games after missing the Duke game with hamstring injuries, but they should be in even better shape going into Saturday’s home game against Pittsburgh (2-5).
“They’re going to be as close to 100% this week than they’ve been all year,” said Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman. “JT was probably a step below where he was two weeks ago. So Louisville, he was probably at a higher level, in terms of how he felt, than he was versus USC, which dictated a little bit of what we did with him.
“Greathouse has continuously gotten better and better with his hamstring. Both of those guys will be as close to full-go as you’ll see all year.
“And that’s a week-to-week basis. We have to do things to try to prevent soft-tissue injuries from happening. We’ll continuously try to do that. But you never know in the game of football.”
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Thomas caught two passes for 33 yards against Louisville. Then he only played six offensive snaps against USC. Greathouse played 49 offensive snaps in the last two games but didn’t catch a pass and was only targeted once.
The Irish were relying on Thomas and Greathouse heavily in the first half of the season. And they’re still among the top four wide receivers in production despite low usage the last three games. Thomas has one fewer reception than Chris Tyree’s receiver-leading 16 receptions. Thomas totaled 228 receiving yards and one touchdown in seven games. Greathouse is fourth in receiver receptions with 12 for 166 yards and three touchdowns.
Notre Dame still won’t have junior wide receiver Deion Colzie available this week. Freeman said Colzie, who caught three passes for 45 yards and one touchdown in the season opener, will likely start to do some individual drills this week as part of his recovery. Colzie had arthroscopic knee surgery prior to the Duke game after playing in the first four games of the season.
“He’s probably a little bit behind of where we thought he would be with the scope on his knee,” Freeman said. “But I still see him coming back here in the next couple weeks and being able to be available.”
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