Notre Dame Notebook: Jaden Greathouse Shines, Linebackers Thrive, Lorenzo Styles Departure
The 92nd annual Blue-Gold Game is history and the countdown (126 days to be exact) is on to the Notre Dame football team’s next official public appearance in Ireland in the 2023 season opener.
Jaden Greathouse Shines
Quarterback Sam Hartman made the biggest statement with his near flawless play in less than inviting conditions Saturday afternoon at Notre Dame Stadium, but Jaden Greathouse was one of a handful of other standouts.
The freshman early enrollee should be a month away from what would have been his senior prom in Austin, Texas, but he ditched an overpriced tux for a Notre Dame uniform this spring and wowed the Irish faithful with an 11-catch, 118-yard receiving performance in Saturday’s rain-soaked spring game.
"He stepped out,” Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said of Greathouse after the game. "He played well. I mean, he played really well. All three of those freshmen are going to help us and all three of those freshmen will play for us this year. I'm really confident that those three guys will help this football team. It's good to see Jaden step up today. Like I said, when the lights are on, you want to see who will step up and make plays and he's been, all three of them have been really, really good additions to our program throughout the spring. That wasn't just a one-time performance. All three of those guys have shown to be productive throughout spring.”
Greathouse was fortunate to have Hartman, who completed 13 of 16 passes for 179 yards in the first half, to throw to him before the grad transfer quarterback departed after just four first-half series for the Gold offense. Fellow freshman early enrollees Braylon James and Rico Flores Jr went without a catch for the Blue offense.
Linebackers Thrive
Always a hot topic of conversation, Notre Dame’s young linebackers showed out on Saturday as well. Sophomore Nolan Ziegler led all players with 10 tackles (nine solo) for the Blue defense, while fellow rising sophomore Jaylen Sneed led the Gold with seven tackles (three solo). Freshman Jaiden Ausberry also made several flashy plays.
"I was really pleased,” Freeman said of the group. "(Former Notre Dame safety) Kyle Hamilton asked me down the field like ‘Which group has stood out to you today’, and I said the linebackers because we know what JD Bertrand and Marist Liufau can do, right? They didn't play much this game. We kind of got them out of there. Jack Kiser was out but to see the production of the Nolan Zieglers of the Jaylen Sneeds, even those three freshmen all step up and make plays. That's a deep position and I'm excited to see how that depth was going to help us as we move into the fall.”
Final Lorenzo Styles Thoughts
In the course of barely a week, Lorenzo Styles went from wide receiver to experimenting with playing cornerback to entering the transfer portal. Styles was drafted as an “athlete” in Thursday’s Blue-Gold team draft, but by Friday he was in the portal and was not with the team for Saturday’s game. Freeman addressed the situation after the game.
"He just came and said he's going to enter the transfer portal and you wish him all the best,” Freeman explained. "The only thing I told him and his father was just I hate losing out on the opportunity to get a Notre Dame degree. That's the thing is that you know, we all have our players chase this NFL dream and chase this dream of starting and playing a lot of football and major college football and that can be achieved but the degree from Notre Dame is truly something special.
"I want that for every one of my players because I believe an education from Notre Dame and the degree from Notre Dame will take care of you the rest of your life," continued Freeman. "That's what I wish for all of our kids that come through this program but we love Zo. I love Zo and I wish him all the best.”
A Different Blue Gold Format?
As with any spring game, the format of Notre Dame’s Blue-Gold game was very vanilla. First, second and third team players on the depth chart were mixed with walk-ons. It can make it hard to extract much tangible information, but that’s exactly how coaches want it, especially since the game was televised for coaches from other teams to see.
"There's still an element of, you know it's televised nationally,” Freeman stated. "You know, every year, you're going to do some things differently schematically, and there's a part of that where you want to keep that in house and not just show everything you're going to do. I want to see success on both sides of the ball, but we know that the jersey scrimmage is really for that. Jersey scrimmage is for game planning. Like that's put your best out on the field, whereas the spring game is I want to get everybody a chance to play.
"Not everybody gets a chance to play at Notre Dame Stadium or will ever get the opportunity to play in a meaningful game,” Freeman continued. "So, it's a great opportunity to give the guys that you're counting on a chance to go out there and compete for a little bit, but also give the guys that might not ever step on that field in a meaningful game and opportunity to go out there and play in a real Notre Dame uniform in a spring game. I wouldn't change, I like it, I like it. I like what it provides for your team, I like what it provides for recruiting and what it provides for your fans.”
What About An Actual Opponent?
There has been growing sentiment from some FBS coaches around the country to ditch the intrasquad scrimmage spring game format and step out and play a scrimmage against another actual team. Freeman would welcome that idea if the NCAA were to ever allow it.
"Absolutely,” Freeman said. "A chance to play another team, it would be good. It would still be similar to a spring (game) you're not going to show everything and you're not going to want to get the guys you're counting on that have experience probably injured. So, you're still probably going to hold back a couple guys. But I think to play another opponent would be pretty cool. Logistics on that, and that's for Ron Powlus and Jack Swarbrick to figure it out, but it would be different but it's no different than almost like an NFL preseason game.”
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