Notre Dame men’s lacrosse coach Kevin Corrigan believes one of Jordan Faison’s athletic superpowers — those rare gifts that translate to both the football and lacrosse fields — is his calm in big moments.
Whether he’s catching a punt and defenders are bearing down on him or he has the ball in the last minute of a tied lacrosse game, Faison has an emotional maturity to rise to the occasion, Corrigan said.
But even Faison felt a twinge of nerves when he received the play call late last month at Arkansas — no matter that the Notre Dame football team was leading by 29 points. The junior wide receiver knew if coaches saw the right look for their punt team, they would call “Spaceship” and ask him to hark back to his days of operating a Wing-T offense in high school.
Early in the third quarter in Fayetteville, Ark., they did.
Irish running back Jeremiyah Love took the direct snap on the fake punt and reversed the football to Faison, who ran to his right and threw a 40-yard pass to Malachi Fields, the first completion of his career.
“It’s a little bit nerve-racking, but it’s a little fun at the same time because you know you’ve got to throw the ball,” Faison said. “It’s not really something you do every day, but you get the chance to do it. The play worked to perfection.”
Search social media for Faison’s highlights, and that pass is one of a wide variety of big moments that pop up from this season.
The next week it was catching a pass from quarterback CJ Carr, dipping his head under a Boise State tackle attempt and spinning to grind forward for a few extra yards. Or knocking a Broncos defender back with a huge block on a Love run in the red zone.
“There’s nothing this kid doesn’t do well,” former NFL and Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn tweeted. “He’s got such a bright future.”
Faison’s dual exploits on the football and lacrosse fields have been well-known for two years now after he helped the lacrosse team win a national championship as a freshman and played for a football national championship as a sophomore. But he’s taking his football contributions to new levels this season.
As No. 13 Notre Dame prepares to host No. 20 USC on Saturday in South Bend, Ind., Faison leads the Irish with 29 catches for 376 yards and two touchdowns to go with his lone pass. He also has eight punt returns for 85 yards. And he has made more than one big block to help his teammates.
Coach Marcus Freeman said earlier this season that Faison can be summed up by two C’s.
“Competitive and consistent,” Freeman said. “You know he’s going to be exactly where he’s supposed to be. He’s going to block exactly who he’s supposed to block every opportunity he gets.”
That daily consistency is another of Faison’s superpowers — the trait that helps push him through a packed year-round sports schedule.
‘It’s go time’
Corrigan shelved getting nervous about what might happen to Faison on the football field early in the two-sport star’s time at Notre Dame.
The 38th-year Irish lacrosse coach can’t be worried about Faison every fall Saturday. So along with praying he’s all right, Corrigan also celebrates him.
“There’s not very many that have done what he’s done,” Corrigan said, “in terms of competing at a championship level in two sports, contributing hugely to both teams, making big plays in big games and playing in the national championship in both sports. It’s remarkable.
“And more than anything else, we just celebrate it. Help him enjoy the journey because it’s an extraordinary thing that he’s doing.”
Coming out of high school in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Faison had no idea if he would be successful on the football field in South Bend.
He didn’t receive a scholarship offer for football until Iowa offered one midway through his senior season. He opted to join Corrigan’s Notre Dame lacrosse team on scholarship instead, while playing as a walk-on for the Irish football team.
“You obviously come with the expectation of you want to do great things,” Faison said. “You’re going to put your all out there.”
His expectations quickly climbed in October of his freshman season. In his first career game at Louisville on Oct. 7, 2023 — a game that officially put him on a football scholarship — his second catch was for a 36-yard touchdown.
“I was like, ‘It’s go time,’” Faison said. “There’s no like, ‘Little freshman, aww, you scored.’ We ended up losing the game. So it was like, ‘Screw your touchdown, on to the next thing. You’ve got to play a role for this team if you want to be good.’”
By the end of his freshman season, he had 19 catches for 322 yards and four touchdowns and was named Most Outstanding Player in the Sun Bowl after he had five catches for 115 yards and a touchdown.
He went from that surprising season to lacrosse, where as a freshman midfielder he started all 17 games, totaled 22 goals and eight assists and helped the Irish win their second national title.
As Faison made an impact for both teams, Corrigan saw several extraordinary traits beyond just athletic ability that translate from football to lacrosse and back.
There is the aforementioned calm in big moments. His attention to detail comes into play when running routes in football or playing a specific role on offense or defense in lacrosse. His ability to play through contact and not be distracted by it is key in both sports.
And his capacity to know what work he needs to accomplish in practice — and his willingness to do it — helps him every day.
“It’s his nature,” Corrigan said, “but it’s almost very matter of fact: ‘This is the work that has to get done today. Let’s do the work.’”
‘Don’t change what’s good’
When Faison considered whether he has had to adjust anything in his schedule for his third year playing two Notre Dame sports, he smiled.
“Nah, everything’s been going good, so don’t change what’s good,” he said.
Faison said his schedule is built out for him and “everyone takes care of me” as he works to manage his teams’ expectations.
“It’s being able to have that set schedule and handle the things that come outside of that set schedule,” he said. “Keeping your head down and just not losing track of where you’re at and what you’re doing. With that mindset and the people helping you, you push through.”
It’s a group effort to help Faison do it at his best.
The lacrosse team doesn’t ask anything of Faison in the fall because football is “all-encompassing,” Corrigan said. In the spring during lacrosse season, Corrigan said he and his staff must keep in mind Faison’s potential football future, understanding they can’t do anything to compromise that.
Faison takes part in what he can in terms of offseason football work but saves much of the physical work for lacrosse. But Corrigan thinks that can benefit him on the football field.
“What he gets out of two hours of lacrosse practice every day is a ridiculous amount of agility and footwork,” Corrigan said. “He’s still keeping up with his strength training and everything else. So he’s actually getting more athletic preparation work than he would be if he was with them. And it’s kind of in spontaneous form, not the ‘run around this cone and run around that cone’ kind of work. Which is fine, but it’s not as good as reacting to actual movements in a game.
“So I think (the football coaches) appreciate that and know that while he may not be doing some of the things in terms of meetings and working with the quarterback, he’s getting a lot of other stuff that’s really good for any athlete at that time in the offseason.”
The Notre Dame staff also has to make sure it’s not asking too much of Faison.
Both the football and lacrosse teams use Catapult, a system that monitors athletes’ workloads. But it takes more than that to make sure they are keeping Faison’s health on track. The athletic trainers play a large part in staying in tune with Faison physically and mentally. And the coaches also have to monitor him.
The year-round feat requires a certain understanding from staff on both sides.
Freeman told reporters in the spring that he told Faison, “If you’re making the decision to play lacrosse, you have to be committed to your team.” He said his staff tries to adjust its schedule so Faison still can improve on the football field while honoring his lacrosse commitment.
Corrigan indicated there’s an inevitable trade-off when Faison spends eight months a year on a different sport. Faison has grown in his understanding of lacrosse and of the team’s expectations. But improving dramatically on the lacrosse field is more difficult.
“I give him credit for the fact that he is staying and still continuing to play at a high level in lacrosse because it’s not an easy thing to do,” Corrigan said. “But are there things that he could add to his lacrosse game if he was a 12-month-a-year lacrosse player? Yeah, there probably are.
“But that’s unrealistic and not something we’re going to waste a lot of time worrying about because it’s not his situation.”
Corrigan believes the most challenging part is how Faison has maintained intensity and attention to refinement during the lacrosse season after doing those things at such a high level for an entire football season.
“That mental part is really something that I just marvel at how well he does it,” Corrigan said. “He doesn’t make a big deal about it. But you can see it wears on him at times, and we try to be cognizant of that and make sure that we’re allowing him some time to do that.
“But within our season, we’ve got 52 other guys who are all-in on trying to win a national championship, and I don’t think there would be a lot of tolerance amongst them if he wasn’t the same way. And thankfully he is.”
Doing it last season was a little more difficult for Faison.
‘A lucky clover’
Faison compared the recovery from the high ankle sprain he suffered in Week 1 of the 2024 football season to “picking at a scab.” Any minor tweak of his ankle, and his recovery had to start over.
“It hurts a lot,” Faison said. “You plant wrong one time, it shoots up dang near to your knee, and it’s hard to deal with. And then when you get back on the field — I was able to come back four or five weeks after I was injured — and then I got hurt again.”
Faison still played in 13 of 16 games for the Irish, totaling 30 catches for 356 yards, including a seven-catch, 89-yard performance in the first round of the College Football Playoff versus Indiana. But the combination of dealing with the injury early and then playing football all the way until the Jan. 20 national championship game was a lot.
The lacrosse team gave him some time off, but Corrigan said he could tell it was hard for Faison to flip the switch at a time when other football players were getting a much-needed break. He finished with nine goals and five assists in 12 games.
After grinding through last school year, things have looked up for Faison this year. He has at least four catches in five of the six games this season, including seven for 89 yards at Arkansas.
“You have the expectations of wanting to come out and perform every game,” Faison said. “Obviously, with having an injury (last season), it’s a setback. You don’t get that connection with your quarterback throughout those games and those practices.
“But now, not having the injury and being out there every day of practice and at the games really connecting with CJ, it’s been a great help. I’m able to get open, he’s able to get me the ball and we’re able to roll on from there.”
Carr has turned heads in his first season starting for Notre Dame’s balanced offense, throwing for 1,622 yards and 13 touchdowns with three interceptions in six games. Faison’s consistency has helped.
Carr said earlier this season that he tells people Faison must have “a lucky clover in his back pocket.”
“Because he’s always in the right place, always doing what he should do,” Carr said. “And when you get the ball in his hands, it’s like the body control to make a guy miss and then he’s always falling forward.”
Carr isn’t the only one giving Faison rave reviews. Wide receivers coach Mike Brown told reporters last week that Faison can do anything coaches ask him to do. Brown called him “a pit bull.”
Beyond feeling better physically this season, Faison said his footwork getting in and out of his routes has improved to help him make a bigger impact.
“Being able to be more deceptive in my routes,” he said. “Pushing, selling every route like it’s a go and being able to snap off quick within our route tree. That’s been a big development for me.”
Faison and Notre Dame are nearing another big development in his story.
His younger brother Dylan is committed to play football and lacrosse at Notre Dame, and Inside Lacrosse reported that Dylan plans to graduate from high school early and join the Irish lacrosse team this winter.
Jordan has tried to be a mentor to his younger brother, who he said is extremely confident, louder and more outgoing than he is and a bit of a troublemaker. They talk often, and Faison tries to give him advice on and off the field.
“We’re hella close,” Faison said. “We obviously love one another, are going to push each other no matter what it is, hold each other accountable. That relationship we’ve had throughout our lives has been great.”
Faison will add on-campus big brother duties to his overflowing schedule, but he’s ready to make room.
“I can’t wait for him to get here,” he said.
Dylan hasn’t signed with the lacrosse team yet, so Corrigan couldn’t talk about him. But if he can accomplish what his brother has in either sport, it will be big for the Irish.
“For a guy to do it as well and at such a high level in two different sports that are both demanding sports, it’s extraordinary,” Corrigan said of Jordan Faison. “It’s great that people are recognizing that and seeing that what he’s doing is not something to be taken for granted.”