© Angela Driskell, Irish Breakdown
Jaden Greathouse Is Showing Off A More Explosive Game
Notre Dame sophomore wide receiver Jaden Greathouse is showing an improved game this spring
The 2023 season got off to a fast start for Notre Dame wide receiver Jaden Greathouse. Then a true freshman, Greathouse had three receptions, two of them for touchdowns, and 68 yards in Notre Dame’s season opening 42-3 win over Navy.
Greathouse remained a consistent contributor through the first five games of the season before a hamstring injury and a move out of the slot nagged him from late September through the middle of November. The rising sophomore looks healthy now as he goes through his second spring workouts.
"I feel really good right now,” Greathouse said after the latest Notre Dame spring practice. "Big emphasis on taking care of my body. I’ve been getting a lot faster since the winter. I’ve been getting a lot stronger as well. So, my body feels really good at the moment and it’s only going to keep developing throughout spring.”
The Austin, Texas native had 12 receptions for 166 yards and three touchdowns prior to the injury. He had six receptions for 99 yards over the last eight games (including the Sun Bowl) to finish his injury-slowed freshman campaign.
"It was definitely frustrating, for sure,” Greathouse recalled. "Injuries are a part of the game, but it’s definitely something that we can manage and minimize and that’s why I’m taking care of my body so well. I feel really good. Having that experience was definitely frustrating for me, so just trying to do everything that I can to not put myself in that position again.”
The road to full strength began in the weight room in January under new director of football performance Loren Landow. Greathouse, who already looked quick and explosive before his injury last fall, has looked even more sharp in those departments on the practice field this spring.
"I definitely think that I’ve been able to put it a lot on display this spring and just feeling more confident with myself,” Greathouse explained. “You know, I’m in year two now and I’ve seen the game. I’ve seen what college football is like. So, I just think that’s attributed to my confidence and my ability, the things that I can do and that just helps me play even faster.”
Greathouse has a new position coach, Mike Brown, and a new offensive coordinator, Mike Denbrock, this spring. The 6-1 sophomore has continued to primarily work in the slot, which makes him unique.
"He's a bigger body playing in the slot, which is a little bit different,” Brown said of Greathouse. “Most of the slots are smaller guys, but he still has the quickness. He understands how to set defenders up and how to move guys. He understands zone coverages and spaces and zones and knows where to sit. So he's got a really, really good feel. Natural feel and then his catch radius is really good. He's made some really tough, contested catches here in camp. Even if you're there, you put the ball in his vicinity he's done a really good job of coming down with it.
"We'll have to figure out different ways to use him and move him around,” Brown continued. "We've challenged him, we've thrown him outside, we put him inside, we put him to the field, to the boundary. He's got a unique skill set that I think can handle a lot of things."
The move to Brown came after Greathouse’s first position coach, Chansi Stuckey, was fired shortly after the end of the 2023 regular season. The move made for a bumpy few weeks before the Fighting Irish faced Oregon State in the Sun Bowl, but things have smoothed out in the four months since then.
"I think it’s been great for the whole group,” Greathouse said of Brown’s addition to the Irish staff. "Obviously, it’s a struggle when you get a new coach towards the end of the season, during the season, bowl prep, all those kinds of things. It could definitely be an adjustment, for sure. But I think we welcomed him just as much as he welcomed us, and we’ve just been trying to take his guidance as much as we can and really just learn as much as we can from him. That’s definitely why I think the group has just steadily improved, day-in and day-out. Since last year, the group has made tremendous strides. Everybody in the whole room.”
Greathouse finished last season with 18 receptions for 265 yards and a team-leading five touchdown receptions. He and fellow rising sophomore Jordan Faison, who is splitting time playing lacrosse this spring, are Notre Dame’s top two slot receivers.
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