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Notre Dame has a deep and talented wide receiver roster, but one of the keys to success in 2026 is still a breakout finally coming from redshirt junior Jaden Greathouse. The flashes have always been there for Greathouse, who led the Irish in receiving yards in 2024 after two dominant games to end that season. Greathouse had a disappointing end to the 2025 season thanks to injuries, and the hope is that he returns to full strength in 2026 and finally has that breakthrough season!
Becoming the player we all know he can be would give the Notre Dame offense a massive boost and help ease the loss of its star running backs from last season.
Here is our season preview and profile for Greathouse:
Class/Eligibility: Senior / Junior
Height/Weight: 6-1, 215
Hometown/High School: Austin, Texas/Westlake
2025: 4 catches, 73 yards, 18.3 YPC, 0 TD
2024: 42 catches, 592 yards, 14.1 YPC, 4 TD
2023: 18 catches, 265 yards, 14.7 YPC, 5 TD
Career: 64 catches, 930 yards, 14.5 YPC, 9 TD
Greathouse went into the 2025 season with incredibly high expectations, thanks especially to his dominant finish to the previous season. Greathouse caught a combined 13 passes for 233 yards and three touchdowns in the Orange Bowl win over Penn State and the title game loss to Ohio State. Unfortunately, the breakout season never materialized. Even before going down with a season-ending injury after the win over Arkansas, Greathouse wasn't making much of an impact. He played just 112 snaps and caught just four passes in the first four games as the slot position was being more and more handed to Will Pauling. The loss of Greathouse severely limited the rotation and not having Greathouse the remainder of the year seemed to impact Malachi Fields, who averaged 3.3 catches and 68.8 yards per game in the four games where Greathouse played, and just 2.9 catches and 44.4 yards per game in eight games without Greathouse.
The biggest key for Greathouse in fall camp is staying healthy, and there isn't a close second. We know what kind of player Greathouse can be, but if he can't stay healthy he'll never be that player on a consistent basis. Not only will it keep him from being on the field, but it will open up opportunities for players like Mylan Graham, Elijah Burress and even Bubba Frazier to either pass him up or at least take reps away from him. A healthy Greathouse this summer and in fall camp will have a chance to quickly get back to being an impact player for the Irish offense. There are parts of Greathouse's game that can improve, but beyond staying healthy the biggest key for him is just consistency from an effort, focus and production standpoint. The tools are there, he just needs to do it more consistently.
The expectations for Greathouse in 2026 is that he gets healthy, stays healthy and becomes a more consistent player. I use that word a lot, consistent, and there's a reason for it. That has been an issue for a lot of Notre Dame players the last couple of years, and Greathouse is the epitome of that. His flashes have been truly outstanding, and it's not just the two games at the end of the 2024 season that we saw that. Notre Dame will be okay if Greathouse doesn't become that player because of how much talent they have in the room, but I don't think we can argue that Greathouse living up to expectations - and doing that more regularly - will have a significant impact on the offense. Simply put, Greathouse can be a game changer thanks to his ability to be a impact third down weapon, a great contested catch receiver and the fact you have a high volume impact wideout in the middle of the pass game.
Greathouse is a quarterback's dream when he's locked in and consistently on the field. I broke down his 2024 numbers and compared it to top players from 2024 like Emeka Egbuka (Ohio State), Tez Johnson (Oregon), Jaylin Noel (Iowa State), KC Concepcion (NC State), Eric Singleton (Georgia Tech), Aaron Anderson (LSU) and Germie Bernard (Alabama). Greathouse had a higher yards per catch average than everyone but Bernard, had the best yards per target average and the highest completion rate when targeted. His contested catch rate topped all those players, and it was by over 20% better. In discussions about that performance I've had responses sound like this, "Well, if you take out the two playoff games" ... so I did that. What's ironic is that Greathouse had a higher contested catch rate in the regular season and first two playoff games (87.5%) than he did in the final two games (80.0%). He's a contested catch weapon, and the offense needs more of that, which is why Greathouse is so important to the offense.
Now it's up to Greathouse to stay healthy, be locked in, play with consistent fire and focus, and finally become the player he's capable of being. If he does that, opposing offenses will have a very tough time defending him while also having answers for Jordan Faison and whoever else is on the field at wide receiver and tight end.
One in which he can stay healthy, play with focus and become a consistently effective weapon in the Irish pass game. Greathouse can be a difference maker for Notre Dame, but he's never put it all together. We saw the flashes, whether it was his outstanding start to the 2023 season, his clutch performances in 2024, his dominance at the end of the 2024 season, we've seen him be an impact player. Consider that Greathouse has led the Irish offense in receiving touchdowns in each of his "healthy" seasons (2023, 2024). Now it's about him putting it all together, and that would be a good season for Greathouse.
———————
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Becoming the player we all know he can be would give the Notre Dame offense a massive boost and help ease the loss of its star running backs from last season.
Here is our season preview and profile for Greathouse:
JADEN GREATHOUSE PROFILE
Class/Eligibility: Senior / Junior
Height/Weight: 6-1, 215
Hometown/High School: Austin, Texas/Westlake
CAREER STATS
2025: 4 catches, 73 yards, 18.3 YPC, 0 TD
2024: 42 catches, 592 yards, 14.1 YPC, 4 TD
2023: 18 catches, 265 yards, 14.7 YPC, 5 TD
Career: 64 catches, 930 yards, 14.5 YPC, 9 TD
2025 SEASON IN REVIEW
Greathouse went into the 2025 season with incredibly high expectations, thanks especially to his dominant finish to the previous season. Greathouse caught a combined 13 passes for 233 yards and three touchdowns in the Orange Bowl win over Penn State and the title game loss to Ohio State. Unfortunately, the breakout season never materialized. Even before going down with a season-ending injury after the win over Arkansas, Greathouse wasn't making much of an impact. He played just 112 snaps and caught just four passes in the first four games as the slot position was being more and more handed to Will Pauling. The loss of Greathouse severely limited the rotation and not having Greathouse the remainder of the year seemed to impact Malachi Fields, who averaged 3.3 catches and 68.8 yards per game in the four games where Greathouse played, and just 2.9 catches and 44.4 yards per game in eight games without Greathouse.
FALL CAMP PREVIEW
The biggest key for Greathouse in fall camp is staying healthy, and there isn't a close second. We know what kind of player Greathouse can be, but if he can't stay healthy he'll never be that player on a consistent basis. Not only will it keep him from being on the field, but it will open up opportunities for players like Mylan Graham, Elijah Burress and even Bubba Frazier to either pass him up or at least take reps away from him. A healthy Greathouse this summer and in fall camp will have a chance to quickly get back to being an impact player for the Irish offense. There are parts of Greathouse's game that can improve, but beyond staying healthy the biggest key for him is just consistency from an effort, focus and production standpoint. The tools are there, he just needs to do it more consistently.
2026 EXPECTATIONS
The expectations for Greathouse in 2026 is that he gets healthy, stays healthy and becomes a more consistent player. I use that word a lot, consistent, and there's a reason for it. That has been an issue for a lot of Notre Dame players the last couple of years, and Greathouse is the epitome of that. His flashes have been truly outstanding, and it's not just the two games at the end of the 2024 season that we saw that. Notre Dame will be okay if Greathouse doesn't become that player because of how much talent they have in the room, but I don't think we can argue that Greathouse living up to expectations - and doing that more regularly - will have a significant impact on the offense. Simply put, Greathouse can be a game changer thanks to his ability to be a impact third down weapon, a great contested catch receiver and the fact you have a high volume impact wideout in the middle of the pass game.
Greathouse is a quarterback's dream when he's locked in and consistently on the field. I broke down his 2024 numbers and compared it to top players from 2024 like Emeka Egbuka (Ohio State), Tez Johnson (Oregon), Jaylin Noel (Iowa State), KC Concepcion (NC State), Eric Singleton (Georgia Tech), Aaron Anderson (LSU) and Germie Bernard (Alabama). Greathouse had a higher yards per catch average than everyone but Bernard, had the best yards per target average and the highest completion rate when targeted. His contested catch rate topped all those players, and it was by over 20% better. In discussions about that performance I've had responses sound like this, "Well, if you take out the two playoff games" ... so I did that. What's ironic is that Greathouse had a higher contested catch rate in the regular season and first two playoff games (87.5%) than he did in the final two games (80.0%). He's a contested catch weapon, and the offense needs more of that, which is why Greathouse is so important to the offense.
Now it's up to Greathouse to stay healthy, be locked in, play with consistent fire and focus, and finally become the player he's capable of being. If he does that, opposing offenses will have a very tough time defending him while also having answers for Jordan Faison and whoever else is on the field at wide receiver and tight end.
A GOOD SEASON FOR GREATHOUSE WOULD BE ....
One in which he can stay healthy, play with focus and become a consistently effective weapon in the Irish pass game. Greathouse can be a difference maker for Notre Dame, but he's never put it all together. We saw the flashes, whether it was his outstanding start to the 2023 season, his clutch performances in 2024, his dominance at the end of the 2024 season, we've seen him be an impact player. Consider that Greathouse has led the Irish offense in receiving touchdowns in each of his "healthy" seasons (2023, 2024). Now it's about him putting it all together, and that would be a good season for Greathouse.
———————
Become a premium Irish Breakdown member, which grants you access to all of our premium content and our premium message board! Click on the link below for more.
BECOME A MEMBER
Be sure to stay locked into Irish Breakdown all the time!
Join the Irish Breakdown community!
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown YouTube channel
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes
Follow me on Twitter: @CoachD178
Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook
Sign up for the FREE Irish Breakdown daily newsletter
Continue reading...
