Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1482992
16 NOV. 5, 2022 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY PATRICK ENGEL T he first of what Tobias Merri- weather hopes are many Notre Dame Stadium highlights came four weeks after a lowlight. That misstep, which occurred on the fourth snap of his career, was yet again a re- minder to the freshman wide receiver he was no longer in Camas (Wash.) Union High School's run-and-shoot offense. Notre Dame inserted Merriweather into the Sept. 17 game against Cal for a third- and-4 snap because sophomore receiver Lorenzo Styles needed a quick break. Ju- nior quarterback Drew Pyne turned his head toward Merriweather — in a bunch formation to the boundary — and waved his hand for Merriweather to motion across the formation. Merriweather did not know that was his job, though. The snap came to Pyne by surprise. He pulled the ball on a zone-read, and with just one blocker on the field side, lost a yard. Merriweather did not play another snap that day. Or the next week. For him, the 2022 green jersey game was a welcome-to-college moment. "I just heard the play, not the motion," Merriweather said. "[Offensive coordi- nator] Tommy [Rees] saw that, and that was the last play of the game. That's how it works. Just roll with the punches." The reward for rolling with them was sweeter than even he could have expected. One month after the teaching mo- ment, Merriweather made his first career catch in spectacular fashion. It wasn't on some anonymous 5-yard hitch route. No, Notre Dame called a shot play for him. The result was a 41- yard touchdown that gave the Irish a 14-13 lead over Stanford early in the fourth quarter of an eventual 16-14 loss Oct. 15. It remains Notre Dame's sec- ond-longest passing play of the season. "I knew it was going happen," Mer- BIDING HIS TIME Freshman wide receiver Tobias Merriweather stayed patient while building trust with Notre Dame's staff Merriweather has been putting in the work at practice to earn his coaches' trust. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER