Everything Notre Dame wide receivers coach Mike Brown said during spring practice

Notre Dame wide receivers coach Mike Brown spoke to reporters in South Bend on April 2, just 10 days before the Fighting Irish culminate the 2025 spring practice slate with the Blue-Gold Game. This is everything he said.

On the progression of Notre Dame’s 2024 season and taking that into 2025

Guys getting used to, whether it’s quarterbacks running backs, O line, it’s everybody, it’s across the board — I thought it started off really, really shaky and I thought towards the end of the season we got better and better and better. I thought we’re playing our best ball at the end, which is what you hope for.

And so now you’re just hoping, man, all of a sudden now we’re in year two of the system, guys understand it. They know what they’re doing and now it’s just more about continuing to understand the whys and the freedoms that they have and them getting more and more confident just hearing it over and over and over again. So you just continue to build off the foundation that’s been set. We got a lot of good things on film to learn from and build on, and you just take it one day at a time.

On two-sport Notre Dame student-athlete Jordan Faison practicing more with the football team this spring

Man, it’s been great just having him here. Love having him around for a number of reasons. Obviously he’s a really good player, but he does a really good job just throughout the room with the morale in the room. Kind of sets the tone in the room a little bit with how he goes about his business. So it’s always good having him around.

We’re just challenging him, man. Challenging him just to take that next step in his game. Recognizing defenses and then understanding, like I said, understanding his freedoms and things like that. And he’s been locked in. He’s doing a great job.

On the amount of drops Notre Dame had in 2024

Yeah, man, you try to create as many of those situations as you can. Obviously there’s way too many, there’s no excuses for it. We got to make plays when the ball’s thrown our way. So, you try to create as many of those scenarios as you can, contested catch situations as many times as we can, whether it’s individual, pre-practice, post practice, whatever it is, and just try to put ’em in those situations as much as possible.

I think a lot of it just goes to confidence, man, guys get confident in their game, get confident in their play, make a couple catches, they start to get hot. We saw that with [Jaden Greathouse] at the end of the year. His confidence was through the roof and it didn’t matter what you threw to him, he was catching it. And so it just comes through repetition, man, repetition and then obviously a point of emphasis for us in the room and we recruited these guys here. They can catch the football so it’s not like they can’t catch it. It’s just a lot of times it’s concentration or like I said, confidence.

On Jaden Greathouse

Yeah, he’s looked really good man, really good. He’s continuing to get better. He’s continuing to understand things more. He’s growing a lot as a leader, which is great. And so I’m very, very pleased with where he is at and where he is at and where he’s headed.

On Greathouse becoming ‘a guy’

Yeah, I mean I think it’s a testament to him man, and how he goes about his business every day. Whether he was a guy who was getting one catch a game or he was a guy that was getting seven catches, like his work ethic and how he went about his work never changed. And so he just continued to work and continued to work.

And then when the opportunities came, sometimes they come more often than the others, and then he made a couple of those plays and then all of a sudden the quarterback’s going to be looking for you more. So it’s good to see, it’s really good for us and our team. It’s good for him individually and now it’s just something for him to continue to build off of.

On Greathouse’s proficiency with the slot fade

I think there’s a lot of things that go into that route, but for him being such a big guy with great ball skills and so as long as the quarterback gives him a chance, majority of the time he’s going to come down with the ball. But just him understanding leverage, he’s got great quickness, change of direction, understands how to move defenders and get open. And then he is great in contested catch situations. So that’s what allowed him to be different with that.

On Notre Dame’s concept of “100 percenters”

The 100 percenters to me, there’s a lot that goes into it, but the number one thing is just understanding what my job is on a particular play and from there, being able to apply my technique to it. So if I know the ball’s going outside, I better get to outside leverage to block right? It also goes into catching, right? It’s the easy wide open five-yard hitch, we got to catch it, it’s to be a 100 percentr. So those things, we got to be a 100 percent out. Contested catches, you’re not going to be a 100 percent..

On 50-50 balls being exactly what their namesake implies

Exactly right. We want to catch more than we don’t, but the 100 percenters are man, just knowing your job, doing your job, doing all the little things right with your technique, which allows you to have a better chance to, when it is those 50-50 balls to make more of those plays.

On many of Notre Dame’s wide receivers having been in South Bend for multiple years now

Yeah, I think it makes a world of difference. The first year in a system, the first year in an offense, the first year hearing a coach, there’s a lot of adjustments and it takes time. As a coach, I got to earn those guys’ trust and so that was something that was built through the year and I thought just kind of going back and reviewing, I thought we got better and better as the year went on. I thought we’re playing out best ball towards the end of the year and so now you got a lot of those guys are now back with me.

They understand what the expectation is. I don’t have to explain drills and what we’re going to be doing. They know the drills and they know the expectations of the room and now we just continue to push the standard. You hope to take a leap there from a year one to year two, but it’s going to take equal if not more work to get there

On sophomores Cam Williams and Logan Saldate

Each of ’em is different, right? And my challenge to each one of those guys is like, man, just focus on your race. Everybody starts at different places and very, very pleased with where both of those, with Cam and Logan, very pleased with both of them.

Cam to me feels like a completely different guy this spring than he was last spring. Now, he still has a ways to go and this spring will be huge for him. I think he’s off to a good start. He’s got good talent, right? We’ve played him into the boundary a little bit and he’s going against Leonard Moore every single play. And so last year I would’ve never put him in front of Leonard Moore, you know what I mean? So it’s just good. This experience is going to be really good for him to continue his growth, but he’s done a good job. I think he’s building some confidence in what he’s doing. I’m very pleased with that.

And then same thing with Logan. Logan was on scout team for a little bit at the beginning and then moved with us. So he’s been here in the offense a little more and he’s just soaking in everything from the older guys. And then he’s popping up man, he’s making plays. Caught a touchdown the other day in practice. Had a nice one at the beginning today in practice. So he’s continuing to stack days, and better and better.

On Greathouse becoming “a monster”

His confidence, he’s walking around different, his confidence is really, really high just because of where he left off. It’s one thing I’m sure in his mind he’s like, I know the player that I can be and we all know the player that we think he can be, but then when you actually do it, it’s another level of confidence. And so he’s playing really fast right now. He’s playing really confident and he’s continuing to grow and the best thing about it is he’s continuing to be hungry and learn and he’s becoming a better leader in everything that he’s doing. So I’m excited about his trajectory and I think obviously he has a really, really bright, bright future.

On Greathouse elevating to the status of “top-notch” receiver

It’s a testament to who he is. And I challenged him pretty hard last year when I first got here. We talk about it all the time, man, you might have to run the ball in the game 60 times to win it. You might have to throw it 60 times. But the ability for him to remain unselfish throughout, the whole room, we’re talking about him right now, but to be unselfish throughout the entire year, whether he had one catch or he had seven catches and he was the same guy every single day when he came to work. And so he was prepared for those opportunities when they came. And then as he started to make play after play after play, he got more and more confident and it got to the point where anything that went his way, he was coming down with. So it’s a testament to who he is.

On why Notre Dame added Will Pauling from Wisconsin

Yeah, I have a lot of experience with Will. Coached him, recruited him, coached him at two different stops. And I think he can bring a lot to our room from a leadership perspective. For one, he understands the standard, he understands what things are supposed to look like. He’s played in this exact offense. He’s technically probably played in the longer than anybody else that’s here, which is kind of weird with him being a new guy. But he understands those things and I think he’s a really good player. He is a really good player. He led the Big 10 in third down catches two years ago, so he’s got a bright future as well. And he’s somebody who’s going to push our room and continue to get us better.