Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 29, 2025 5 E very season has its side stories. Go back to last year. Riley Leon- ard supposedly injured his shoulder versus Northern Illinois, and any time he didn't look up to snuff as a passer every- one pondered just how hurt he really was. Jaden Mickey left the team with intent to enter the transfer portal on a whim, too. This year, there have been a lot of folks wondering why Jaden Greathouse hasn't done the same thing. There's your side story. Without explicitly saying the junior wide receiver is staying in South Bend, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Free- man did his best to give an encouraging, thorough update on Greathouse's injured hamstring in his Nov. 17 press conference. "It's taken him longer than we thought to get healthy, but he's as close to being healthy right now as he's been," Freeman said. "But is it right for us to make him play these last two games and cost him a year if we can get away with saving him a whole year by not playing in these last two games? And so right now that's our mindset, is if we don't have to play him this week, let's try not to. "He'll be ready, he'll be ready. But we're going to try to hold off on playing him in hopes of being able to redshirt him for this year, and if we play beyond Stanford, then he'll be ready to go." There you have it. There is a difference in what Mickey did and what Greathouse is doing. Mickey played in four games, left the team and saved a year of eligibil- ity for a future program, which ended up being Boise State. Greathouse has played in four games but has remained on the team. He's as locked in on the sideline as anyone, even though he hasn't played in a game since Sept. 27 at Arkansas. In that game, by the way, he made what was probably Notre Dame's No. 1 catch of the year candidate until Mala- chi Fields took that title with authority at Pitt with what might be the catch of the year in all of college football. Greathouse isn't seeking any subjective accolades. He just wants to get back on the field. And, as Freeman said, it's been a more tedious, painstaking process than he or anyone else would've thought. He had hamstring issues as a true freshman, but even those weren't enough to totally de- bilitate him and hold him out for months. It will all be worth if it Notre Dame qualifies for the College Football Play- off with Greathouse as healthy as he's been all year going into it. The redshirt is nice, giving Greathouse career flex- ibility moving forward, but the short- term vision is still balling out in the 2025 season. This is the same guy, after all, who caught 13 passes for 233 yards and 3 touchdowns in the Irish's two biggest games of the 2024 season — versus Penn State in the Orange Bowl and Ohio State in the national championship game. Wisconsin transfer Will Pauling has been outstanding. The level of his play might be part of the reason Notre Dame hasn't felt inclined to rush Greathouse back; the Irish just keep winning and win- ning and winning, and Pauling has played a major role in that. Quite frankly, Notre Dame hasn't needed Greathouse in uni- form to go on the surge it's enjoyed since falling to 0-2 at the start of the season. That could very well change in the playoff. It will very well change in the playoff. Do-or-die games are all hands on deck. Greathouse lit the world on fire last January, yet Notre Dame still came up a tad short of its ultimate goal. This Irish offense, though, might be a little more well-rounded than last year's, save for some short-yardage woes and a far from satisfactory kicking game. Those elements aside, Notre Dame's offense is objectively better when Greathouse is a part of it. Pauling isn't going anywhere; the coaches can find the right mix of play- ing time for the two of them in the slot. The important thing is realizing Greathouse has been doing everything he can — including a blood extraction from his hamstring for the purpose of expedited healing in early November — to suit up for this football team. This football team. The one that wears blue and gold. Not any other. The portal isn't his destination. The playoff is. "Mentally, he's been in a good place," Freeman said. "He's as frustrated as anybody. He wants to be out there. So we've just got to [say], 'Hey, keep work- ing.' And we'll see what happens here in the next days, weeks, depending on how he heals." ✦ Greathouse, a junior wide receiver, hasn't played since Sept. 27 because of a hamstring injury, and the plan is to save him for the postseason. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER Jaden Greathouse Redshirting Is A Win-Win Tyler Horka has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2021. He can be reached at thorka@blueandgold.com. GOLDEN GAMUT TYLER HORKA