SOUTH BEND, Ind. — When Deion Colzie caught a screen pass from quarterback Sam Hartman at Navy’s 25-yard line on Saturday, the Notre Dame wide receiver had one thought in mind.
Touchdown.
The 6-foot-4, 210-pound Colzie might not have been near the top of the list of Irish wide receivers expected to break free on a screen pass, but nobody could tell Colzie differently with the football in his hands.
“I mean every time a play is designed to go to somebody, my first initial reaction is touchdown,” Colzie said Tuesday after Notre Dame returned to South Bend following its 42-3 victory in Dublin, Ireland’s Aviva Stadium. “You don't think anything other than scoring a touchdown. So when I caught the ball, that was the only thing on my mind was getting in the end zone.
“We have this big rule in the wideout room: we never let one guy tackle us. I knew it was only one guy stopping me from scoring a touchdown, and I wouldn't have heard the end of that if I let him tackle me, so I couldn't let that happen.”
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Colzie let tight end Holden Staes take care of cornerback Andrew Duhart with a block to the outside. Rather than wait for a hard-charging Rocco Spindler, Notre Dame’s right guard, to seal off safety Eavan Gibbons, Colzie made Gibbons miss on his own and finished in a sprint with no one else in front of him.
The touchdown, which put Notre Dame up 42-0 with 11:54 remaining in the fourth quarter, wouldn’t have happened if Colzie didn’t make sure to focus on completing the catch first. Sophomore wide receiver Tobias Merriweather dropped an easy screen pass earlier in the game, but Colzie made sure he wasn’t thinking too far ahead when the ball was heading his way.
“I think that's where a lot of people make mistakes. They try to make the move before they catch the ball, and then there's no touchdown,” Colzie said. “So, I just thought about securing the ball. And then after that, I just let my natural abilities take over.”
Colzie couldn’t have been much more productive in his seven offensive snaps against Navy. He was on the field for four passing plays. He was targeted three times. He caught all three of those passes from Hartman for 45 yards including the 25-yard touchdown.
"You take advantage of your opportunities — seven reps," head coach Marcus Freeman said of Colzie. "And he took advantage of every single opportunity he got."
Hartman threw his way on Colzie’s first snap of the game. He made a sliding catch on an out route to the wide side of the field for a seven-yard gain.
“The first catch of the season is always one of those nervous ones,” Colzie said. “You want to make sure you just secure the ball nonetheless. But after that, I got all the juices back, got all the blood flowing and then was trying to play ball after that.”
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Colzie, now a junior, had to wait a lot longer to make his first catch of the season last year. That didn’t come until the eighth game of the season in Syracuse in which Colzie caught three passes for 44 yards. He finished the season with nine catches for 192 yards and one touchdown.
That kind of production didn’t quite qualify as a breakout sophomore season for the former four-star wide receiver from Athens (Ga.) Academy. Colzie, who was dealing with a knee injury to begin the 2022 season, tended to make his limited catches in big moments including third downs. All nine of his receptions gained first downs.
He hasn’t let a lack of opportunities bother him to this point.
“Honestly, I wouldn't say there was any frustration,” Colzie said. “Everybody has their own path, and I felt like I wouldn't be on that path for no reason. So, I just kind of put my head down and did the gritty work that nobody sees, and did the things that doesn't really get talked about.”
Both Colzie and freshman wide receiver Jaden Greathouse, who caught three passes for 68 yards and two touchdowns on eight snaps, made strong cases for more playing time moving forward. But they’re both playing behind trusted veterans: Colzie behind fellow junior Jayden Thomas and Greathouse behind senior Chris Tyree.
Though Thomas is in the same class as Colzie, he’s considered Notre Dame’s top receiver and led the Irish in receptions last weekend with four for 63 yards and one touchdown. That doesn’t mean Colzie can’t also be a leader within the group.
“Some of the guys look up to me,” Colzie said, “and I want to show them that it doesn't matter how many reps you get, it doesn't matter if you ran that play during practice at all. Just know if your number is called, you have to be prepared, and you have to be willing to do things that you haven't done all week.”
Colzie wouldn’t have been targeted as frequently as he was if Hartman didn’t trust him.
“We work after practice on those short, timing routes,” Colzie said. “We've worked on those all week. We knew that was going to be something that we're going to attack, and I feel like we're doing a great job with the timing right now. It can only get better from here, so we have to continue working on that and building that trust and confidence.”
The more Hartman trusts a receiver, the more likely he will be to give that player an opportunity for contested catches as well. At Colzie’s size, he should be able to make those catches. His second reception at Navy required him to leap for the football as Hartman took a hit as he threw Colzie’s way. Colzie came down with the football despite being hit immediately by Duhart.
Hartman’s willingness to make those kinds of throws make a difference for guys like Colzie.
“It gives the receivers confidence,” Colzie said. “We make those type of plays at practice, and so he has the trust in us to make those same exact plays in the game. He knows that if he can just give us a catchable ball that it's not really a 50-50 ball anymore. It's more of an 80-20, 90-10 type of ball.”
The confidence from Colzie’s end has only continued to grow as the Irish prepare to play FCS Tennessee State on Saturday in Notre Dame Stadium (3:30 p.m. EDT on NBC).
“I knew what I was capable of,” Colzie said, “and I got to show bits and pieces of that, but I'm just happy to keep moving forward and keep doing that the rest of the season.”
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