Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1539887
12 OCT. 4, 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME I think our understanding and our ability to com- municate with those guys — not just game plan- wise, but when we get them on the sideline with the iPad — and the adjustments that we're able to make with those guys is elite." — Eric Hansen NOTRE DAME WIDE RECEIVERS EMBRACE BLOCKING ROLES Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love used his freaky athleticism and speed to turn a routine handoff into a 46-yard touchdown against Purdue. Love, a junior, received the ball with a clear running lane off the right edge of the offensive line thanks to good blocks by redshirt junior right tackle Aamil Wagner and senior tight end Eli Rari- don. Love likely would have picked up an easy 10 yards if he stayed on that track and forged forward into the second level of Purdue's defense. Instead, Love cut to the outside and used blocks from junior wide receivers Jaden Greathouse and Jordan Faison to turn the corner and create a race to the goal line. Love had to stiff-arm one defender before getting around the sealing block by Faison, but then it became a foot race. Love doesn't lose many of those. "I know where my guys are at on the field," Love said. "Once that play started, it was just a wide, big-ass hole. I took that, saw a guy on my periph- eral trying to come bite, and I cut. I didn't know that I would score a touchdown. "Jaden and Faison had two great blocks, which allowed me to turn the corner. Then, I showed off some speed, outran them and then scored a touchdown." Love, who finished the Purdue game with 19 carries for 157 yards and 2 touchdowns, made his spectacular play sound ho-hum. But he didn't minimize the impact of the blocks by Greathouse and Faison. He appreciates how Notre Dame's wide receiver unit has embraced run blocking assignments to aid himself and fellow running back Jadarian Price, a redshirt junior. "They really do play a big factor in the run game," Love said. "We saw that last Saturday from my run, a couple of JD [Price] runs. They're out there doing what they've got to do with the ball or without the ball. They take a lot of pride in block- ing." Love and Price combined for eight runs of 10-plus yards in the 56-30 victory over Purdue. On most of those long runs, at least one wide receiver made a meaning- ful block. Notre Dame head coach Marcus Free- man described the perimeter blocking as reaching a level as good as he's seen for the Irish. He made sure he shared that praise with wide receivers coach Mike Brown. "You're seeing a buy-in from wideouts to say, 'All right, if we don't have to throw the ball, we won't throw the ball,'" Free- man said. "But in order to be able to score points sometimes, we need you to block. We're not going to ask you to just go run down the field. They're buying into that. "There were some huge blocks — Jaden Great- house and Faison had a block on J-Love's touch- down. We're loving Jaden Greathouse and Jordan Faison for how they're blocking right there, and our O-line. That's what I want to celebrate. That unselfish, tough, gritty play. That's what great offenses have." Even redshirt freshman wide receiver Micah Gilbert, whose snaps are limited as redshirt senior Malachi Fields' backup, laid a punishing block on Price's 9-yard touch- down run against Purdue. Young players like Gilbert will feel compelled to fill that role if the older players above him are do- ing the same. "At the wideout position, it's stuff we live for," Faison said. "Technically in the run game, we're not a big part of it. But when you're able to become a big part of it, it's a great feeling. "It really helps the O-line which works so hard on the interior, and it bounces a run for them to go to the end zone. Help- ing out with that, it's a big thing, and we love it." — Tyler James FRESHMAN KICKER ERIK SCHMIDT BECOMES MORE THAN PLAN B A prolonged hip injury to kicker Mitch Jeter last season produced a collective "a-ha" moment for Notre Dame special teams coordinator Marty Biagi and head football coach Marcus Freeman. Maybe focusing only on one-and-done portal kicking specialists needed a bit of a modification. Like a Plan B coming out of the high school ranks, just in case that scenario repeated itself. Enter 6-foot-2, 210-pound freshman Erik Schmidt, who already is turning out to be kind of a Plan A in some regards. Schmidt has officially taken over kickoff responsibilities after walk-on junior Marcello Diomede started the season in the role. Redshirt senior Noah Burnette, 7 of 7 on extra points and 3 of 3 on field goals so far this season, will do the place kicking, provided there's not an injury setback. Schmidt made his college debut in a 56-30 pounding of Purdue while Burnette was sidelined with a right hip injury. Schmidt went 8 of 8 on point-after tries, missed a 31-yard field goal at- tempt in the fourth quarter, and hit eight touch- backs on his kickoffs after shanking the initial boot out of bounds. "I think it was big for Erik to just go through that experience of a first game and being in the stadium and in front of the crowd," Freeman said. "And I know the first kickoff was out of bounds. And I always kind of say freshmen have to go through some of those growing pains. There's a human element of the pressure, the external factors that you put on yourself. And we encourage them to try not to allow those things to affect them. But for a lot of people, it's human nature. "I thought he did a good job in his first oppor- tunity in Notre Dame Stadium. He's continuously working on the consistency in his technique, and I think he has a really bright future here." — Eric Hansen Redshirt freshman Micah Gilbert (right) is part of a wide recover room that has bought into being strong blockers. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER Schmidt saw the first game action of his career against Purdue, and eight of his nine kickoffs went for touchbacks. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER