SOUTH BEND − Weekends this spring are weird for Notre Dame football wide receiver Jordan Faison.
Having split time running routes with running circles around defenders as a member of the lacrosse team the past two springs, Faison was constantly on the move. From a position group meeting at the Gug and then to Arlotta Stadium for practice. From a lax game on the road back to South Bend for whatever football stuff that he could shoehorn into the schedule.
Throw in classwork as a finance major, and it was the proverbial not enough hours in the day, especially in February, March, and April.
Until now. Following the 2025 football season, when he started all 12 games and led the Irish in receptions (49) and yards (640) with four touchdowns, Faison faced some hard truths. His college football career was headed to places he didn’t expect it to go. He was good at the game. He was focused on the game, even as a part-time player. If he put all his effort and energy into the game, he might have a shot to play it on Sundays. Seriously.
That was important stuff. Heavy stuff. Faison realized that if he wanted to play football beyond 2026 – and he absolutely does – there would be a choice. More football would mean less lacrosse. As in, no lacrosse. It took too much time. It took too much of a physical toll.
“The body,” Faison said one recent morning after a football practice, “can only run for so long.”
Faison decided that it would run only for football. That makes his weekends weird.
One recent Saturday found Faison on his couch in front of the television. For 60 minutes of a lacrosse game, Faison watched with equal appreciation and envy. He loved seeing his former teammates play, but he wished that he could still do that. He played 34 games with 31 goals and 13 assists for 44 points in the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
“I miss being out there with my brothers,” he said. “Getting out there, I played the sport damn near my entire life (growing up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida), so it’s like having to sit down and watch it kind of hurts.”
Hurts during the games he takes in from the couch. Hurts when he sees a former teammate score. Hurts when the Irish nailed down another big win. Hurts.
Until the next morning. And the next. And the next. That’s when the hurt no longer hurts. That’s when Faison is thankful to be a one-sport guy. Mornings after running and pinballing off defenders in lacrosse matches left Faison aching and wondering why he did what he did. He’d then have to do football.
He rarely ran low on energy but was rarely healthy. An ankle, a leg, a rib, or a wrist there. Something. Anything. Always. Two-sport guys must suck it up and keep going. Faison did, until he didn’t.
“In the moment, it sucks watching,” he said. “You’re like, ‘I want to go out there and put my body on the line.’ Then the next day, you wake up, and you’re not traveling. I’m like, OK.”
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The body feels different this spring and looks like it. Faison doesn’t resemble the same guy who has played 32 football games in his three seasons. That guy had speed and was shifty all over the middle of the field, but he was also on the scrawny side. How did he survive looking like he did?
Doing all that running mandated by lacrosse made it difficult for Faison to keep good football weight. Whatever pounds he’d pack on during winter conditioning – when he could lift and not have lax practice – melted away in the lacrosse midfield.
The 5-foot-11 Faison was listed at 5-10, 182 during his freshman season in 2023. He’s up to 185. He looks bigger. He no longer looks so scrawny. He looks solid. Looks like a front-line, veteran, experienced college football wideout should look.
“I feel great so far,” he said. “The whole body feels great. I’m able to come out of practice and feel way better than I used to.”
Faison was at every team lift in winter. He’s been to every team meeting in the spring. Every practice. Every extra rep a deep wideout room takes post-practice. Every position and team meeting, too. Every recovery period in the training room. More film. More football. He’s there. He’s everywhere. He’s no longer a ghost around the Gug.
“It’s awesome,” said wide receivers coach Mike Brown. “Previous years, it was like, hey, is he going to be at practice or is he not? Is he going to be at meetings or is he not? He’s a rock star.”
Watch the wideouts – and there’s a lot of them – and it starts with No. 6. First guy up in individual is Faison. Seven on seven? Faison. Eleven on 11? Faison. It’s Faison and Ohio State transfer Mylen Graham and veteran Jaden Greathouse. Want an early guy to watch for 2026? Watch one of those three, but watch Faison.
“The player is the player,” Brown said. “More importantly than that, just his leadership and the way guys look up to him. How he studies film, how he works, how he practices, all of those things.”
The guy has come a long way from that 2023 Saturday night at Louisville. That night, when he was a football walk-on, nobody who wore No. 80. Who’s that guy? He made his first two catches, including a 36-yard touchdown, on one drive. It was Faison’s coming-out party, the moment when he proved to himself that he could play at this level. That he was more than just a lax guy.
He could be a football guy.
“It was like, all right, now this is for real,’” Faison said. “That definitely was a big turning point. It was like, it’s time to be serious now.”
Faison is serious. Team leader in catches and yards again in 2026 serious. Game-breaking serious. Career in the sport after his senior season serious. Football has always been his first love. He split that with lacrosse for years. Not now. Maybe not again.
The lax stick sits next to his desk at his off-campus residence. He hasn’t picked it up since the last game last spring. The lax gear has stayed stuffed in the closet. He might never wear it again.
He’s a football player now. Just football. Nothing weird about it.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Why less is more this spring for one Notre Dame football player
Reporting by Tom Noie, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
