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Even in defeat Jaden Greathouse was a national championship hero for Notre Dame

On3 imageby:BGI Staff•01/21/25
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Notre Dame wide receiver Jaden Greathouse had 2 touchdowns against Ohio State. (Photo by Mike Miller/BGI)

By Tyler Horka

ATLANTA — Not all heroes wear capes. And not all heroes are successful in the ultimate end goal of their endeavors. Notre Dame sophomore wide receiver Jaden Greathouse didn’t wear a cape Monday night. And he wasn’t able to lead the Fighting Irish to a national championship game victory over Ohio State.

But he’s still a hero.

Notre Dame needed someone, anyone, to do something against the Buckeyes to at least give the Irish a glimmer of hope in a game that was teetering on the edge of becoming as bad as the last national title game the program played in a dozen years ago. Greathouse was the guy to make sure ghosts of national championships past did not hang over the Irish’s heads inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

He got into the end zone via a masterful individual effort to slice into Ohio State’s overwhelming 24-point lead by a third; Notre Dame successfully converted the ensuing two-point conversion.

Then he got into the end zone again by way of a contested catch on and over-the-shoulder deep ball. Again, Notre Dame pulled off a two-point try. Bang, bang, it was a one-score game against all odds — major thanks to No. 1 in blue and gold.

“We’re just a team that battles,” Greathouse said. “This whole year we’ve been a brotherhood, and that’s the whole reason we’re out there on the field today just playing for each other.

“We weren’t going to stop playing until that clock hit zero. There’s nothing better than just being out there with your boys, and I’m just glad that I was able to have this opportunity with them.”

Greathouse embodied what his teammates could not replicate in the form of game-altering statistics but, rather, what they never ceased to strive for even if they weren’t putting up the numbers he was.

Just look at sophomore running back Jeremiyah Love, who was only given 4 carries in the entire 60 minutes but still stayed locked in enough to execute on the receiving end of a shovel pass on Notre Dame’s first two-point conversion.

Just look at sophomore receiver Jordan Faison and graduate student wideout Beaux Collins, a duo that only combined 5 catches for 38 yards, but also a duo that connected on a trick-play passing score on Notre Dame’s second two-point conversion.

So many times in the 15 games that got Notre Dame to the doorstep of the team’s first national championship since the 1988 season, Greathouse was the guy whose box score wasn’t overly impressive. But if you actually watched the game, he was very much involved in it.

He wore the metaphorical cape in the title game, but it was about so much more than his 6 catches for 128 yards and 2 touchdowns.

“Production doesn’t always reflect performance,” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said. “It doesn’t. Production is something that is a result of doing your job and the quarterback making the decision to throw you the ball and the offensive play that calls for it.

“But JG has been playing great all season long, it’s just now he’s had some production to go along with the way he’s been playing.”

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