Jordan Faison was the feel good story of Notre Dame’s 2023 football season. A scholarship player in lacrosse who walked on to the football team, he had people buzzing by the end of fall camp.
No matter who he was up against, he always seemed to get open. It didn’t take long for him to be put on scholarship for football. He wasn’t expected to contribute all that much as a freshman, but he burst onto the scene when Notre Dame’s receiver room was racked with injuries.
Faison caught 19 passes for 322 yards (16.9 yards per reception) even though he didn’t play until the sixth game of that season. He punctuated his freshman campaign with 115 yards in the Sun Bowl with him being named MVP.
If his debut read like a storybook, his year two was closer to Choose Your Own Adventure. He sprained his ankle in week one after a defender performed a hip drop tackle on him. That’s a play that is banned in the NFL, but goes unpenalized in college football.
It took him some time to get back to feeling fully healthy and he was getting close when he reaggravated the injury.
“I was getting back up there, I was feeling good and around week 4, I think it was Louisville, I got hurt again,” Faison recalled. “After that, it was an uphill battle. I’d say I got around 80 percent with that feeling. I had it wrapped up pretty much (from that point on).”
Having only four catches for 29 yards before week nine against Navy wasn’t the plan for Faison. Despite never getting back to full health during the course of the season, he had 26 catches for 330 yards in the final nine games. That included a seven for 89 performance in Notre Dame’s College Football Playoff matchup against Indiana.
Faison learned how to play through the pain, but he acknowledged his frustrations with never feeling quite right through all of the 2024 season.
“It sucks,” admitted Faison. “You work the whole season in the training room and off the field to try to get it back right, and it never feels fully right. But that pain that you’re playing with becomes the new normal. You’ve just got to get used to it and go out there and do what you can do.”
It wasn’t until after lacrosse season finished that he was able to take care of it like he wanted to. He was running around this summer for the first time since last summer without tape on his ankle and he’s feeling really good right now. It let him focus on growing as a football player rather than constantly being in the training room.
That can lead to him looking more like the explosive athlete he was as a freshman.
“Everything we do is speed and velocity, which will help your strength at the end of the day,” Faison said in regards to getting stronger this offseason. “At my position, you don’t necessarily have to be the strongest…but we want to be explosive and powerful, both on blocks and off the ball. That’s what we really work on.”
A lot has changed for Faison over the last couple of years. He went from walk-on to starter. He reached the national championship game in football and won a national championship in lacrosse. Through it all, he’s maintained the same hunger to contribute in any possible way to help the team.
“It’s definitely an appetite,” Faison said about wanting to stay versatile as a player. “You see around the country, guys don’t really want to be on special teams or they think it’s a knock. But here, it’s like, if you want to play, you’re going to do special teams and you want to do special teams at the end of the day. It’s going to help your team overall.”
That attitude from a starter is one of the reasons why they were able to achieve team glory last season. They have the same goals in 2025, but want to take it one step further. A healthy season for Faison could help a lot in helping them get there.
Right now is the healthiest he’s been since before his ankle injury against Texas A&M. He’s only had to worry about going forward rather than catching up with his rehab.
“It’s huge not having to focus on getting back, getting the body back healthy and being able to go with full clarity and just focus on the game itself is big for me this season going out there and doing what I’ve got to do.”
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