Jayden Thomas always put team first during his Notre Dame football career, ’til the very end.
And the end has come for the timeshare wide receiver after he submitted his name into the transfer portal on Wednesday, two days after Notre Dame lost to Ohio State, 34-23, in the CFP National Championship Game in Atlanta.
The same city where the Paulding County, Ga., product attended high school, at Pace Academy.
With his ND degree in hand, the 6-foot-2, 218-pound senior will have one season of eligibility at his new school.
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Fellow senior wide receiver Deion Colzie made his announcement with the intent to transfer minutes after Thomas did. The fellow Georgian, the third post-title game transfer portal plunger, also had one year of eligibility at a new school.
Sophomore offensive guard Sam Pendleton was the first Irish player to take advantage of a special five-day transfer-portal window afforded players on ND and Ohio State’s teams that closes at the end of the day on Saturday.
The imminent departures of Thomas and Colzie leave Notre Dame (14-2 in 2024) at 101 scholarships, 16 over the current NCAA max with the likelihood, but not certainly, the 85-scholarship limit gets raised ahead of next season.
As far as wide receivers, ND arrived back in South Bend from Atlanta on Tuesday with 13 wide receivers projected for the 2025 roster, including Thomas and Colzie. That also includes three freshmen — Elijah Buress, Jerome Bettis Jr., and Scrap Richardson, and more notably two incoming transfers, Wisconsin’s Will Pauling and Virginia’s Malachi Fields.
Fields is a good bet to become ND’s No. 1 option at the boundary receiver, the position Thomas plays. Thomas was displaced as a part-time starter by Clemson transfer Beaux Collins this past season.
He still played in all 16 games for Notre Dame, amassing 18 receptions for 167 yards and two TDs. That followed two more-productive seasons. In 2023, injuries limited him to 11 games, with five starts, but Thomas still managed 21 catches for 310 yards and two TDs.
His best season came in 2022, when he had 25 receptions for 361 yards and three TDs.
The former four-star prospect played in three games as a deep reserve in his 2021 redshirt season and did not catch a pass.
Colzie also played in all 16 games for the Irish this past season, but in a much smaller role. He had five catches for 41 yards and a TD, but was valuable in run-blocking situations and on special teams.
In his four seasons in South Bend, he played in 44 games with one start in 22. That was his most productive season as well, with nine receptions for 192 yards and 1 TD. Colzie, who has his Notre Dame degree, took a medical redshirt year after missing most of the 2023 season.
Three Irish players migrated to the transfer portal when it opened on Dec. 9, two of whom didn’t play a down for the Irish this season — defensive tackle Tyson Ford and defensive end Aiden Gobaira.
The third, cornerback Jaden Mickey, elected to redshirt after Game 4 this season to preserve a season of eligibility and add that to his reserve at his new school.
Both Ford and Mickey transferred to Cal. Gobaira has landed at James Madison.
Notre Dame, meanwhile, began spring-semester classes on Jan. 13.
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