Notre Dame Football Aims to Elevate Yards After Catch for 2026
SOUTH BEND — Jaden Greathouse, a fourth-year junior on the Notre Dame football team, has experienced firsthand what it means to be a standout wide receiver. The last time he was fully healthy, he ran circles around the defensive backs of Penn State and Ohio State in the College Football Playoff. Now, as the Irish look ahead to the 2026 season, they’re hoping to see more of that explosive play from their revamped wide receiver room.
“Yeah, it’s crazy,” Greathouse said this spring. “You feel a whole lot of pressure and you can feel everybody running at you, but it also feels good at the same time. Knowing that you’re doing something right and that they’re trying to stop you from doing something right — it’s an interesting feeling, for sure.”
That kind of performance came with Riley Leonard at quarterback during the 2025 season. Now, with CJ Carr entering his second year as the starter, Notre Dame’s receivers are excited about the potential for more yards after catch (YAC) opportunities.
Mike Brown, who coaches the wideouts, seems to have a new energy about him.
“Yeah, I mean, CJ’s OK,” Brown deadpanned recently. “He’s an all-right QB.”
Pause. And then laughter.
“No, it helps,” he said. “There’s two things. There’s the ability to create some separation and then accurate passes that are on time, and then the combination of those things.”
Carr has been regularly arranging extra sessions with his receivers, now 15 strong in the scholarship area, to smooth out any disruptions in the supply chain of footballs flying through the air.
“Our big thing is we know we have, obviously, I believe, the best quarterback in the country,” Brown said. “We have to do our part of getting that separation and understand the timing and being consistent in what we do so that (Carr) can make us look good and we can make him look good.”
This kind of synergy is what creates Heisman Trophy campaigns.
“It goes hand in hand,” Brown said. “That’s what creates ‘run after catch’ opportunity, and it’s a big focus point for us this year. We’re trying to be better in that area.”
Micah Gilbert: Ready to Show His Explosive Game
Micah Gilbert, a third-year wideout, is ready to showcase his explosive game for Notre Dame.
Inside the Numbers: Notre Dame and YAC
Last season, Notre Dame’s wideouts recorded just 33% of their 2,024 receiving yards as “after the catch,” according to Pro Football Focus. The group averaged only 4.77 YAC on 141 receptions, far behind national leaders like Wyatt Young of North Texas (11.0-yard average on 768 total yards after catch), Skyler Bell of Connecticut (8.2-yard average on 835 YAC), and Miami freshman Malachi Toney (7.7-yard average on 841 YAC).
All three amassed between 61% and 69% of their four-digit receiving yardage totals for the season after the catch. Jordan Faison tied for 108th at the FBS level (minimum 20 targets) with 269 yards after catch in 2025; that last figure represented 40% of the 673 YAC total for Irish wideouts.
The former two-sport star (lacrosse) also led the Irish with 5.5 YAC yards per reception while tying for 13th nationally with 19 missed tackles forced. No other Irish wideout forced more than eight missed tackles last season; Wisconsin transfer Will Pauling narrowly edged out Virginia transfer Malachi Fields (six) in that department.
Fields, who had tied for 109th in total YAC in 2024 while forcing 12 missed tackles, saw those numbers notably in his lone year with the Irish. Fields finished tied for 205th with 192 yards after catch (5.3 YAC per reception), while Pauling was tied for 316th with 131 YAC (5.0 per reception).
While Michigan State transfer Nick Marsh picked Indiana over Notre Dame after ranking third in FBS with 28 missed tackles forced, the Irish did add a pair of Ohio State transfers who flashed YAC potential in limited runs last season.
Mylan Graham, a third-year sophomore from New Haven, Ind., averaged 7.5 yards after catch on his six receptions last season. Quincy Porter, a sophomore from New Jersey’s Bergen Catholic High School, posted an 8.8 YAC average on his four receptions and 35 total yards after catch.
Notre Dame WR Corps and YAC Mechanics
Job one for Irish receivers is to make the grab. If they can do so without breaking stride, ideally with a defender in their wake, that’s even better.
“The whole offense, the whole receiving room, we just expect to be a very, very explosive group,” third-year sophomore Micah Gilbert said. “That’s whether it’s catching it deep downfield in the end zone or if it’s catching a slant and being able to take it for 70 yards. And that’s the expectation throughout all of us.”
Starting with the third-year sophomore behind center.
“I know CJ expects that from us, too,” Gilbert said. “We plan to uphold that.”
Cam Williams, Gilbert’s classmate, agrees.
“We know with the quarterback we have that these plays can go on as long as they possibly can,” Williams said. “Yards after catch is always important for us. We want every yard, every inch, we can get, especially on third and fourth down. That’s always going to be an emphasis for us, especially when you have CJ.”
Greathouse, slowed at the start of spring by his latest hamstring tweak, showed in 2024 his knack for YAC. More than 46% of his total receiving yards came after the catch that year, and his YAC of 275 ranked 114th in FBS while averaging 6.5 yards after catch.
“I’ve been working on my change of direction and short-yard quickness just so I can be explosive and create more separation in short-yard situations,” he said. “And then just working on getting out of my breaks.”
The key to yards after catch, he said, is confidence.
“It comes down to having that confidence in playing fast,” he said. “Understanding defenses, understanding your route, understanding where you’re supposed to catch the ball and where the defense is going to be in relation to when you catch the ball, all those kinds of things go into helping you with your yards after catch.
“And then just being explosive, being twitchy, catching the ball, being able to, in that split second, get up field and make somebody miss. It’s just being able to react in a quick second like that.”
Asked what identity he’d like to see his receiver group develop this season, Brown smiled again.
“Play hard, play fast, play together,” he said. “If somebody comes and watches Notre Dame wide receivers play, those are the three things I want them to say: ‘Man, those dudes play really hard, those dudes play fast and, boy, do they play together.’”
Before and after the catch.
“Beyond that, I’m good,” Brown said. “That’s the culture that we want. We have talent. We’ve got all those things. It’s those (three) things that I think will set you apart.”
