How Notre Dame transfer WR Kris Mitchell can become a 'safety net' for new QB Riley Leonard

Notre Dame has picked up several players to be potential quality pass catchers for their offense. However, of all of them, WR Kris Mitchell is the one that On3’s Cody Bellaire believes will make the biggest impact this fall in South Bend.

Bellaire spoke about Mitchell as one of most impactful transfers in the country on Friday during ‘Andy Staples On3’. To him, he is going to be a savior for QB Riley Leonard as he adjusts to the Fighting Irish and their new system. If he doesn’t know where to go, Mitchell can be a go-to default option for a completion.

“To me, right, when you talk about – you mentioned his name, right? Riley Leonard – new quarterback, it’s a system that he’s not necessarily familiar with. You’re walking into a situation where you say, ‘Hey, I’m the new guy here. I’ve got to find a guy that can be my safety net’. That is Kris Mitchell,” said Bellaire. “To me, that’s the difference when you talk about Kris Mitchell compared to a guy like Beaux Collins. This is the guy you say, when in doubt, feed me the football.”

“Kris Mitchell? He had 1,100 yards, 64 catches last year at FIU. I believe he can be the guy that steps up in that Notre Dame room, which, by the way, did not have a wideout gain more than 500 yards last year. They need someone that they can feed the football to and go to – whether that’s 3rd and short, 1st & 10, we need to take a shot,” Bellaire continued. “Kris Mitchell can win at every level of field. I believe that he is one that’s going to become the safety net for Riley Leonard in this new setting for him.”

This is especially important because, as Bellaire noted, the wide receiving corps for Notre Dame hasn’t been very reliable in recent years.

“The receiver room has essentially been a ghost the last couple seasons,” said Bellaire. “Hopefully there’s some life in it this year.”

Mitchell joins the Fighting Irish after five seasons at Florida International. He 38 appearances for the Panthers in the last four seasons following a redshirt, including 25 starts. In that career while in Miami, Mitchell caught 100 passes for 1,663 yards and 11 touchdowns. Most of that came last season in a breakout year with 64 receptions for 1,118 yards and six scores as the leading receiver at FIU.

With that resumé, Mitchell was the No. 7 WR and No. 48 overall transfer per On3’s 2024 Transfer Portal Top Players. That made him the second-highest rated addition for the program behind only his new quarterback in Leonard.

Again, Notre Dame is just looking for any kind of consistent production from their receivers with only a few names posting prolific statistics recently. That’s where this year’s collection, possibly led by Mitchell, could be different according to Staples and Bellaire.

“You need somebody who threatens on the outside. You need somebody who’s a reliable target elsewhere. It can’t just be the tight end,” said Staples. “So, if Mitchell is that guy? Then maybe we’ll see Jordan Faison, who was pretty interesting last year, a two-sport guy who plays lacrosse for Notre Dame as well. Or Jaden Greathouse, who had some injuries last year. Like, a couple good receivers and, all of a sudden, this offense is humming.”

“To me, that’s where Kris Mitchell and maybe a guy like Jaden Greathouse? Where you say, hey, Jaden Greathouse could be like our H-type of receiver. Kris Mitchell is maybe more of your F. Where you say, hey, we can move these guys around,” Bellaire added. “We can feed them the ball in all sorts of different directions.”

Notre Dame’s new offense is going to need a top-end target for Leonard to trust in, especially early on. For Bellaire, that’s going to be Mitchell with what he’ll be adding for the Fighting Irish.

“To me, Kris Mitchell is the one, though, that’s the dynamic, twitchy guy that’s going to get his fair share of homers but can also be a safety net underneath as well,” said Bellaire.