On3 Roundtable: Six playmakers primed for breakout season for Notre Dame in 2023

Notre Dame has undergone some significant change this offseason, with starting quarterback Tyler Buchner off to Alabama and Wake Forest star Sam Hartman stepping in to fill the void. The Notre Dame playmakers could help ease the transition.

But the question of who Hartman will have at his disposal in those roles is not an insignificant one.

“I’ll start this off with a statistic that I looked up the other day and it was kind of mind-boggling,” On3’s Tyler Horka said. “Notre Dame only has players who have combined for 12 touchdown catches in their careers, so you look at the tight ends, the running backs, the wide receivers. Twelve receiving touchdowns total.”

In other words, it’s an extremely unproven group that Hartman will be working with.

If the Fighting Irish want to take the next step this season, it stands to reason that several Notre Dame playmakers are going to have to step up in a major way in the passing game. The good news is there are options, according to Horka.

He singled out three veterans to keep an eye on.

“I think Jayden Thomas is a really good candidate,” Horka said. “He is the leading receiver coming back and that’s not saying a whole lot, because you lose Michael Mayer, you lose Lorenzo Styles to Ohio State, you lose Braden Lenzy to graduation, he exhausted his eligibility. So Jayden Thomas is a name.

“I think Sam Hartman really likes throwing that deep ball, likes throwing to bigger receivers up top, so look for Deion Colzie. He’s a big-bodied guy, 6-4. Tobias Merriweather is 6-5. He caught one pass last year, it was a 41-yard touchdown. Everyone was saying, ‘Well where the heck is that all season and why didn’t it happen after that?’ He did get a concussion, so that kind of limited him the rest of the season. But I look at those three core guys as returning threats.”

Knowing receiving was going to be on the lighter side in terms of returning production heading into 2023, coach Marcus Freeman was intentional about hunting for potential Notre Dame playmakers in the 2023 recruiting class..

A handful of incoming players could contribute, with a few that stood out during spring practice.

“You have a bunch of freshmen coming in, three of them were early enrollees and they all stood out,” Horka said. “Rico Flores Jr., Jaden Greathouse and Braylon James, they were all head-turners in spring camp. You looked at those guys in spring practices and you were like, ‘Whoa, these guys are new.’ So I think Sam Hartman is going to have a really good rapport for them from the start and then those three returning guys.”

There’s no guarantee all six potential Notre Dame playmakers Horka listed pan out, or even that the majority will. How fully that happens will go a long way toward determining Notre Dame’s success.

Because make no mistake about it: Notre Dame needs those guys to step up.

“They’re all unproven but there’s a lot of upside there and the ceiling is really high,” Horka said. “I think Chansi Stuckey, the wide receivers coach, has done a good job recruiting. Now it’s time to see if he can develop those guys.”