Jaden Greathouse seems to make a big impression in the title game: ‘He is built for the moment’

Nicole Giles couldn’t watch.

With 4:38 left in the Orange bowl And Penn State leading Our Lady 24-17 on consecutive touchdown drives, fighting Irish quarterback Riley Leonard took a step back and found a wide open spot Jaden Groothuis for a 54-yard draw. On the play, Greathouse lined up, pushed a defender to the ground, noticed he was alone, caught the pass and dropped a second defender before racing into the end zone untouched.

Entering the game, Greathouse, a sophomore, had caught just 29 passes for 359 yards and a touchdown this season. In the College Football Playoff semifinals, he made seven catches for 105 yards and a touchdown, becoming the first Notre Dame wide receiver this season to have more than 100 receiving yards in a single game. Two of those catches came on the tying score, including an 11-yarder coming off a second-and-14 situation, and then one for 6 yards on the ensuing third-and-3.

“That game was definitely a confidence booster,” Greathouse said this week.

In the locker room, teammates then referred to Greathouse as “one of the ones,” a nod to a recent “Gunna” album, Greathouse explained. But Giles, Greathouse’s mother, sitting in her seat at the Orange Bowl, didn’t see any of the big plays her son was making. She had to keep her head down and her eyes covered.

“I didn’t look because I was so nervous,” Gildes said to FOX Sports this week, laughing. “I know, isn’t that a psychopath? Every time I didn’t want to look, they did something really good in attack, and I’m superstitious, so I continued that trend throughout the second half.

“Like everything I do affects the game,” she continued. “I know it’s not true, but I’m just a psychopath, I guess.”

Cornerback Christian Greywho, along with Greathouse, was a member of Notre Dame’s 2023 recruiting class, intercepted the Penn State quarterback Drew Aller later in the fourth quarter. When the Fighting Irish got the ball back, Greathouse made a crucial 10-yard catch on another third-and-3 to kicker Mitch Jeter a few extra yards before scoring a game-winning 41-yard field goal. Now the Irish face a heavily favored Ohio State team in the CFP National Championship game on Jan. 20 in Atlanta.

Leonard, who is in his first season at Notre Dame after transferring from Dukehas shown exceptional strength and toughness as a runner, which has been a staple of the Fighting Irish offense this year. While Notre Dame has a top 15 rushing attack (210.8 yards per game average), it actually has one of the worst passing attacks in the country, ranking 102nd nationally (194.3 YPG). The team’s receiver-by-committee approach is one reason why no player before Greathouse had surpassed the 100-yard receiving mark.

To beat Ohio State, the passing game will have to be more effective. The Buckeyes’ defense plans to make it a challenge for Leonard to take off — be it on a designed run or scramble — and force him to be one-dimensional. Either way, he’ll have to look for reliable options like Greathouse, with whom he’s developed chemistry over the past year.

The 6-foot-4, 215-pound wide receiver is capable of coming up with clutch plays on a stage like this. After all, he’s done it before.

Greathouse won three consecutive Texas high school state championships with Westlake in Austin from 2019-2021. In his junior year, Westlake defeated Denton Guyer 40-21, and Greathouse had seven receptions for a state title record 236 yards and three touchdowns en route to being named Offensive MVP.

Giles didn’t see that entire match either. She and Greathouse’s younger sister, Riley, walked around AT&T Stadium to distract themselves. Before Westlake pulled away, the game was close, with Denton Guyer leading 14-13 at halftime. Then Greathouse caught “ultimate big bombs,” as Westlake head coach Tony Salazar described, from the then-future Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik for 69- and 71-yard touchdowns in the second half.

“We could hear cheering,” Giles said. “When it was safe to look again, I did.”

Heading into Monday night’s national championship game, Greathouse will look to build on its standout performance in the Orange Bowl. And if Leonard can get him the ball, he’s never had a problem playing. His mother’s favorite was his first catch for Notre Dame, which played in last year’s season opener vs. Navy in Ireland.

“I mean, you’re talking about a guy who was MVP on the biggest stage of high school football in Texas, so he’s not afraid of that moment,” Salazar told FOX Sports. I think he was built for this moment. And I really hope he can have another great game this week so that his team can come to the top.

“I think he has the skills and the strength to do that, but it will be difficult. There will be tight windows, contested catches and [Ohio State is] is going to be very good, just like Notre Dame is going to be very good. He’s a confident young man and I think you can see that in the way he plays.”

Recalling what it was like to coach Greathouse in high school, Salazar quickly brought up being the first freshman to make varsity in Salazar’s 11 years in the program.

The summer before Greathouse’s freshman year, he was the starting receiver on Westlake’s 7-on-7 team that won the summer championship. He started the next four years, was voted captain by his teammates as a senior, earned a three-peat and was part of the program’s 54-game winning streak.

Salazar said Greathouse is the type of athlete who “practices how he plays, and that doesn’t come naturally in sports.” And what stood out most to him when Greathouse was in eighth grade was that he already had the necessary ball skills to contribute in a meaningful way.

“He can make those circus catches,” Salazar said. “He can jump over people, he can jump through people, he’s got a great frame, his legs are really built, he’s got big shoulders. He’s just a physical specimen and he’s never dropped any footballs. I can’t imagine represent a single image.” big-Jaden-Greathouse-dropped-that-ball type moment in every practice or game we’ve ever played. He has great hands.

“Every time they threw it to him, you’d say, ‘This kid is different,’” Salazar added. “Every time he touches it, he scores. He was probably more physically developed than most eighth graders. He had to be when he was a freshman playing in 6A Texas high school football. Most freshmen aren’t strong enough or big enough , and so he was.” .”

Greathouse received some of those physical gifts from his parents, both of whom were college athletes. Giles, who coaches girls sports at Westlake, once filled in as her son’s high school basketball coach, but that was the first and last time. “I think we had a fight and it didn’t go well,” she said, chuckling. Greathouse also has an uncle, Oscar Giles, who is currently the defensive line coach Houston and spent part of his career on the staff of Texas.

“He was raised by a coach and he understands the hard work involved [are] no shortcuts,” Salazar said.” He practices at full speed all the time and never said, ‘Hey, I’ll wait until Friday to play my best.’ No, that happened every day, and I think that’s why he is where he is today.”

Greathouse didn’t want to give too much away, but did admit that he had been working on the moves he used on those two Penn State defensive backs during that huge fourth-quarter drive.

“I’ll certainly take credit for falling on that,” Greathouse said, smiling. “It’s something I work on offseason, inseason, in practice every day, just working on different releases and things like that. And throughout the game I was working on different releases and seeing what worked against them. , and I was able to take advantage of this.”

As the CFP title game approaches, Mom is feeling nervous again. Giles isn’t sure yet whether she should avert her eyes or keep her head down on Monday. But she will be at Mercedes-Benz Stadium anyway.

As for Greathouse, that confidence and “not being afraid of the moment” came to the fore again this week when he received a text from Westlake offensive coordinator Kirk Rogers, who coached the team’s wide receivers.

“Go get it, go finish it,” the text message read.

Greathouse’s response: “You already know. We’ll leave it all behind and be the best team we can.”

Laken Litman covers college football, college basketball and football for FOX Sports. She previously wrote for Sports Illustrated, USA Today and The Indianapolis Star. She is the author of “Strong Like a Woman,” published in spring 2022 in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Title IX. Follow her up @LakenLitman.

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