Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman updates the injury statuses of three WRs ahead of Pitt game
During his weekly Monday news conference, Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman provided injury updates on three wide receivers. Junior Jayden Thomas and freshman Jaden Greathouse are trending toward being full-strength after hamstring injuries hindered them the last few weeks.
“I think they are going to be as close to 100% this week than they have been all year,” Freeman told reporters Monday.
Freeman said he sees junior wide receiver Deion Colzie “coming back within the next couple of weeks” after undergoing an arthroscopic knee scope procedure on Sept. 28. Colzie has not played since the Central Michigan game on Sept. 16.
“With Deion, he will probably start some individual (drills) this week,” Freeman said. “He’s probably a little behind where he thought we would be.”
Thomas sustained his hamstring injury in the third quarter of Notre Dame’s 17-14 loss to then-No. 6 Ohio State on Sept. 23. Thomas missed the following week against Duke. He then returned to the lineup on Oct. 7 against Louisville, played 35 snaps, and caught 2 passes for 33 yards.
However, during Notre Dame’s last game against Southern California on Oct. 14, the 6-1 ½, 221-pound Thomas only played 6 snaps and did not register any statistics. Thomas has 15 receptions, 228 receiving yards and 1 touchdown on the season.
“JT (Jayden Thomas) was probably a step below where he was two weeks ago,” Freeman said. “Louisville, he was probably at a higher level in terms of how we felt than he was versus USC, which dictated a little bit of what we did with him.”
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Hours before the Sept. 30 Duke game, Blue & Gold confirmed a report that Greathouse was unlikely to play due to a hamstring injury. After Notre Dame’s 21-14 win over Duke, Freeman estimated Greathouse sustained the injury during practice on Sept. 27.
Like Thomas, Greathouse returned to action against Louisville and played 17 snaps. He did not register statistics in that game or versus USC when he played 32 snaps. The 6-1, 204-pounder has 12 catches, 166 yards and 3 touchdowns on the year.
“Greathouse has continuously gotten better and better with his hamstring,” Freeman said. “I think both of those guys (Thomas and Greathouse) will be as close to full-go as you’ll see all year. And that’s on a week-to-week basis, right?
“We have to do things to try to prevent obviously soft tissue injuries from happening. We’ll continuously try to do that. But you never know in the game of football.”
No. 14 Notre Dame’s (6-2) Week 9 matchup with Pittsburgh (2-5) at 3:30 p.m. EDT. NBC will televise the game.
