College Football

Jaden Greathouse looks to make big splash in title game: 'He's built for the moment'

Updated Jan. 17, 2025 3:01 p.m. ET

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Laken Litman

College Football & Soccer Analyst

Nicole Giles couldn't watch.

With 4:38 remaining in the Orange Bowl and Penn State leading Notre Dame 24-17 after consecutive touchdown drives, Fighting Irish quarterback Riley Leonard stepped back and found a wide-open Jaden Greathouse for a game-tying 54-yard score. On the play, Greathouse lined up in the slot, juked one defender to the ground, found himself alone, caught the pass, and made a second defender fall down before jogging into the end zone untouched.

Entering the game, Greathouse, a sophomore, had only caught 29 passes for 359 yards and a touchdown this season. In the College Football Playoff semifinal, he made seven catches for 105 yards and a touchdown, becoming the first Notre Dame wide receiver to have more than 100 receiving yards in a single game this season. Two of those catches came on the equalizing drive, including an 11-yarder to get out of a second-and-14 situation, and then one for 6 yards on the ensuing third-and-3. 

"That game was definitely a confidence booster for sure," Greathouse said this week.

In the locker room afterward, teammates were calling Greathouse "one of one," — a nod to a recent ‘Gunna' album, Greathouse explained. But Giles, Greathouse's mom who was sitting in her seat inside the Orange Bowl, didn't see any of those big-time plays her son made. She had to keep her head down and eyes covered.

"I was not watching because I was so nervous," Gildes told FOX Sports this week, laughing as she spoke. "I know, isn't that psycho? Every time that I wouldn't watch, they would do something really good on offense, and I'm superstitious, so I just continued that trend throughout the entire second half.

"As if anything I do affects the game whatsoever," she continued. "I know that it doesn't, but I'm just a psychopath I guess."

Cornerback Christian Gray, who was a member of Notre Dame's 2023 recruiting class along with Greathouse, intercepted Penn State quarterback Drew Allar later on in the fourth quarter. When the Fighting Irish got the ball back, Greathouse made a critical 10-yard catch on another third-and-3 to give kicker Mitch Jeter a few extra yards before he nailed a 41-yard game-winning field goal. Now, the Irish face a heavily-favored Ohio State team in the CFP National Championship game on Jan. 20 in Atlanta.

Leonard, who is in his first season at Notre Dame after transferring from Duke, has displayed exceptional strength and toughness as a runner, which has been a staple of the Fighting Irish offense this year. While Notre Dame has a top 15 rushing attack (averaging 210.8 yards per game), it actually has one of the worst passing attacks in the country, ranked 102nd nationally (194.3 YPG). The team's receiver-by-committee approach is one reason why no player before Greathouse had breached the 100-yard receiving mark.

In order to beat Ohio State, the passing game will need to be more effective. The Buckeyes' defense plans to make it challenging for Leonard to take off — be it on a designed run or scramble — and force him to be one-dimensional. Regardless, he'll need to look for reliable options like Greathouse, who he has developed chemistry with over the past year.

The 6-foot-1, 215-pound wide receiver is capable of coming up with clutch plays on a stage like this. After all, he has done it before.

Greathouse won three straight Texas high school state championships from 2019-2021 with Westlake in Austin. In his junior year, Westlake beat Denton Guyer, 40-21, and Greathouse hauled in seven receptions for a state title-record 236 yards and three touchdowns en route to being named Offensive MVP.

Giles didn't watch that whole game, either. She and Greathouse's younger sister, Riley, walked around AT&T Stadium to distract themselves. Before Westlake pulled away, the game was close, with Denton Guyer leading 14-13 at halftime. Then, Greathouse caught "ultimate big bombs," as Westlake head coach Tony Salazar described, from then-future Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik for 69- and 71-yard touchdowns in the second half.

"We could hear cheers," Giles said. "Once it was safe to start watching again, I did."

Heading into Monday night's national championship game, Greathouse is looking to build on his standout performance in the Orange Bowl. And if Leonard can get him the ball, well, he has never had a problem with making plays. His mom's favorite was his first catch for Notre Dame, which turned into a 35-yard touchdown in last year's season opener vs. Navy in Ireland. 

"I mean you're talking about a guy that was a state championship game MVP on the biggest stage in Texas high school football, so he's not afraid of that moment," Salazar told FOX Sports. "I think he was built for the moment. And I sure hope he can have another great game this week to help his team come out on top. 

"I think he possesses the skill set and toughness to be able to do that, but it's gonna be tough. There are going to be tight windows, contested catches, and [Ohio State is] going to be really good, just like Notre Dame is going to be really good. He's a confident young man and I think you see that in the way he plays."

Thinking back on what it was like coaching Greathouse in high school, Salazar quickly brought up the fact that he was the first freshman to make varsity in Salazar's 11 years with the program.

The summer before Greathouse's freshman year, he was the starting receiver on Westlake's 7-on-7 team that won the summer league championship. He proceeded to start the next four years, was voted captain by his teammates as a senior, pulled off a three-peat, and was part of the program's 54-game winning streak.

Salazar said Greathouse is the type of athlete who "practices how he plays, and that's not a given in sports." And what stood out to him the most when Greathouse was in eighth grade was that he already had the necessary ball skills to contribute in a meaningful way.

"He can make those circus catches," Salazar said. "He can catch over the top of people, he can catch through people, he's got a great frame, his legs are really built, he has big shoulders. He's just a physical specimen and he never dropped footballs. I can't picture a big-time-Jaden-Greathouse-dropped-that-ball type of moment in any practice or any game that we ever played. He has tremendous hands.

"Any time they'd throw it to him, you'd be like, ‘This kid is different,'" Salazar added. "Every time he's touching it, he's scoring. He was probably physically more developed than most eighth graders. He had to be, playing as a freshman in 6A Texas high school football. Most freshmen are not strong enough or big enough, and he was."

Greathouse got some of those physical gifts from his parents, who were both college athletes. Giles, who coaches girls sports at Westlake, once filled in as her son's middle school basketball coach, but it was the first and last time. "I think we argued, and it didn't go well," she said with a chuckle. Greathouse also has an uncle, Oscar Giles, who is currently the defensive line coach at Houston and spent a chunk of his career on staff at Texas. 

"He was raised by a coach and understands hard work, understands there [are] no shortcuts," Salazar said. "He practices full speed all the time and was never, ‘Hey, I'm gonna wait until Friday to play my best.' No, it was every single day, and I think that's why he's where he's at now."

Greathouse didn't want to give too much away, but did acknowledge that he'd been working on the moves he used on those two Penn State defensive backs during that massive fourth-quarter drive.

"I'll definitely take the credit for him falling on that one," Greathouse said, smiling. "It's something that I'm working on every day through the offseason, in-season, in practice, just working on different releases and that kind of thing. And throughout the game, I was working on different releases and seeing what worked against them, and I was able to take advantage."

As the CFP title game nears, mom has nerves again. Giles isn't sure yet if she'll have to avert her eyes or keep her head down on Monday. But she will be at Mercedes-Benz Stadium regardless.

As for Greathouse, that self-confidence came through again this week when he received a text from Westlake offensive coordinator Kirk Rogers, who used to coach the team's wide receivers.

"Go get it, go finish it," the text message read. Greathouse’s reply? "You already know."

Laken Litman covers college football, college basketball and soccer for FOX Sports. She previously wrote for Sports Illustrated, USA Today and The Indianapolis Star. She is the author of "Strong Like a Woman," published in spring 2022 to mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX. Follow her at @LakenLitman.

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Laken Litman