Jordan Faison Abandons Lacrosse to Become Notre Dame's Top Receiver

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Jordan Faison arrived at Notre Dame as a highly touted lacrosse prospect, with football serving as a secondary pursuit for a prep quarterback who operated in a Wing-T system. Now, those roles have flipped entirely.

After initially being content to walk on to the football team, Faison stepped away from lacrosse to become a key target on a national championship contender. The third-ranked Fighting Irish (5-0) have witnessed the payoff: Faison paces the squad with 25 receptions, 371 receiving yards, and four touchdown catches this season. Notre Dame's offense is putting up 41.2 points per game, and the team has reeled off 15 consecutive victories, all by margins of 10 or more points.

"I felt better prepared," Faison said, reflecting on his first five games since leaving lacrosse. "Going through the spring and then ultimately fall camp (with football), I can kind of tell there was a difference in the little break I gave my body, and then ultimately now."

The 5-foot-11, fourth-year receiver is thriving. In rainy conditions at North Carolina last weekend, he hauled in a career-best eight passes for 132 yards. "I'm feeling great," Faison said. "That's also a testament to our support staff, training staff who take care of us, and then us taking care of our own bodies as well."

His path to this point has been neither easy nor conventional. As a freshman, Faison helped Notre Dame capture the 2024 lacrosse national championship, all while learning to play in a more traditional offensive scheme as he juggled both sports. Then last spring, he made football his sole focus, and everything changed. "I didn't really know much about receivers my early (college) years," he said. "Seeing how far I've come is definitely huge. From little things, from footwork and techniques to understanding defenses, understanding offense, looking back and seeing how far I've come is pretty cool."

Key Analysis

What distinguishes Faison from other receivers? Head coach Marcus Freeman attributes it to Faison's ability to execute moves at full speed. "I think it's the speed in which he runs his routes, the precision of when he makes his cuts, the timing with the quarterback getting him the ball," Freeman said. "He can attack you in many different ways through quickness or overall just straight-line speed. I think all those things contribute to him finding ways to get open and (gain) the confidence (quarterback C.J. Carr) has in him being open to throwing the ball."

Notre Dame needed Faison to elevate his game after losing its top two running backs, Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price, in the first round of April's NFL draft. So Faison committed to dedicating more time to football. The result is a chemistry with Carr that has reached another level. "There's not a time I can remember that we were not on the same page," Faison said. "(Defenses) are definitely just throwing a bunch of different looks at us, trying to confuse us, trying to hide things. So we've definitely got to dive in during the week, studying game plans and studying defenses and understanding tendencies and what they're going to do."

Even though Faison now has more time for football with lacrosse out of the picture, he insists he hasn't altered his approach to a sport that could soon become a career. "We're all going to go out there and perform," Faison said. "Coach is going to call plays. We're going to run them, it's beat the guy in front of you. That goes for all the guys on offense. Win your one-on-ones, and it obviously will (be enough to) win the game."

Notre Dame's next challenge comes Saturday against another longtime rival, Stanford (2-3).

Originally reported by yourvalley_net.