{"id":250945,"date":"2025-09-24T11:12:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T11:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/250945\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T11:12:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T11:12:14","slug":"for-notre-dame-football-lacrosse-star-jordan-faison-theres-no-offseason-and-no-ceiling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/250945\/","title":{"rendered":"For Notre Dame football\/lacrosse star Jordan Faison, there\u2019s no offseason \u2014 and no ceiling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong> This article is part of our Freaks List<\/a>\u00a0series, which chronicles the strongest, fastest and most physical players in college football.<\/p>\n

SOUTH BEND, Ind. \u2014 Kevin Corrigan knew what was coming because he\u2019d already seen it hundreds of times. As Notre Dame\u2019s Jordan Faison hit top speed down the left sideline against Virginia last November, taking a fake punt 73 yards to the end zone, the Notre Dame lacrosse coach enjoyed the view. He knew the Cavaliers wouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Virginia punt returner Ethan Davies closed on Faison as the last man who could keep Notre Dame\u2019s do-everything receiver, punt returner and midfielder from a touchdown. Sure enough, the same dodge Faison employs in lacrosse worked just fine, though it\u2019s just called \u201cbreaking someone\u2019s ankles\u201d in football: Faison faked outside before cutting back inside at full speed, reducing Davies to a crumpled heap.<\/p>\n

\u201cJordan\u2019s ability to move and his intuitiveness on how to fake and feint with minimal movement, I was thinking that poor sucker was not gonna lay a glove on him,\u201d Corrigan said. \u201cAnd he didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Notre Dame scored a touchdown on a 73-yard fake punt. <\/p>\n

While the play didn’t count, it did impress Jason Garrett, who called it “one of the greatest plays I’ve ever seen in football.” pic.twitter.com\/U4pI1iiPDq<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 16, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Little seems to stand between Faison and where he\u2019s headed these days, although an illegal formation penalty did wipe out that fake punt.<\/p>\n

Faison grew up on football and lacrosse in South Florida, playing for a small high school and spending summers with his stick on a club lacrosse team in Long Island. He committed to Notre Dame for lacrosse but walked on to the football team after turning down his one college football scholarship, from that wide receiver hotbed of Iowa. Notre Dame football needed just seven games to see the light, putting him on scholarship when he hit the field during a loss at Louisville. (Per NCAA rules, the larger revenue sport takes over a player\u2019s scholarship liability the moment the player competes in a game.) Faison\u2019s first touch was a first down. His second was a touchdown. By the end of his freshman year, he\u2019d won Sun Bowl MVP and a national championship in lacrosse as a starting midfielder. By the end of his sophomore year, he\u2019d played for a national championship in football.<\/p>\n

This year Faison leads Notre Dame\u2019s receivers in catches, receiving touchdowns and perimeter blocks that bring defensive backs to their knees. Over the course of his Irish lacrosse career, he\u2019s averaging a goal per game. At 5 foot 10, 185 pounds, Faison doesn\u2019t appear built for the workload. He stars in two sports yet seems somehow immune to the kinds of collisions that shorten careers. Instead, Faison seeks that contact out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re not the hammer, you\u2019re gonna be the nail,\u201d Faison said. \u201cSo you gotta be the first one delivering that blow. To be able to go out there and punch a defense in the mouth, it\u2019s everything you could ask for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Against Texas A&M, Faison helped pave the way for Jadarian Price\u2019s 7-yard touchdown run, stunning safety Marcus Ratcliffe and cornerback Will Lee with blocks in rapid succession. When Price met Lee at the goal line, the corner was ready to be bowled over. Against Purdue, Faison set a perimeter block on Jeremiyah Love\u2019s 46-yard touchdown run, cracking back on safety Tahj Ra-El. The fact Faison was giving away 20 pounds in most of these collisions didn\u2019t seem to matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou gotta play with confidence. You gotta go out and play hard,\u201d Faison said. \u201cIf we gotta run the ball 60 times a game, we\u2019re gonna go out there and block our asses off for the running backs, kind of make this thing go.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s going now. For Notre Dame and for Faison.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Faison scored nine goals last season for an Irish team that made the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament. (Matt Cashore \/ USA Today Network via Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Jordan Faison slept in a dropdown bed by the driver\u2019s seat. Parents Quincy and Kristen got the bedroom in the back. Younger brother Dylan, now a high school senior committed to both Notre Dame football and lacrosse, got the worst of it, sleeping on some cushions put down where the dining room table used to be. That\u2019s how the Faison family started their summer tradition of leaving South Florida for Long Island to see whether their sons could take lacrosse beyond Pine Crest High School.<\/p>\n

That meant Jordan skipped the summer 7-on-7 football scene, basically ending any chance of getting seriously recruited for that sport before he could get started. It also meant sleeping in an RV owned by his grandparents. But the 32-foot beige motorhome had barely been used, and it came cheap compared to renting in Long Island for the summer. Kristen Faison once researched rental properties and found some for $3,000 per month, which seemed too good to be true.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen she tried to book some of these things, they had had their winter prices up,\u201d Quincy said. \u201cThe summer prices were like $30,000 a month.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quincy and Kristen work remotely, which made relocating for the summer professionally feasible. So instead of renting a home, they rented a parking space at Nickerson Beach, an RV park on the south shore of Long Island. The complex had a pool and a bike park to keep the boys occupied when they weren\u2019t playing club lacrosse for Team 91, an organization that regularly pumps out Division I talent. Both boys made teams for their age groups.<\/p>\n

They just had to commit to this new summer lifestyle.<\/p>\n

\u201cJordan might tell you it was the worst summer, but I had a good time,\u201d Dylan Faison said. \u201cI thought it was whatever was best for us, that\u2019s what we were doing. And I mean, you always question your parents a lot, but they meant the best, and it paid off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Faisons\u2019 annual East Coast summer RV road trip helped turn Jordan and Dylan into D-I prospects. (Courtesy of Quincy Faison)<\/p>\n

The summer lacrosse circuit meant Faison was effectively playing two sports on three teams in two states. When high school football season ended, high school lacrosse began. When high school lacrosse ended, it was time to pack up the RV for Long Island. When it was time to head back to Florida in August, football began, and the cycle would restart.<\/p>\n

Faison wouldn\u2019t have it any other way \u2014 maybe because he doesn\u2019t know any other way, dating back to when he first picked up a lacrosse stick around age 6 at the recommendation of a youth football teammate\u2019s dad. It\u2019s not so much that Faison has been a two-sport athlete since high school as he\u2019s been a no-offseason athlete.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the least surprised person out there that he\u2019s doing this,\u201d Corrigan said. \u201cMaybe in his quiet moments he thinks differently about it. To him, it\u2019s just what he said he was gonna do all along, so he doesn\u2019t know what everyone is making a big deal about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notre Dame\u2019s performance teams monitor Faison\u2019s workload beyond GPS numbers; football strength coach Loren Landow runs point, and director of sports performance John Wagle knits the data together. Corrigan and head football coach Marcus Freeman confer, too, happy to share Faison with each other, never wondering where he is when he\u2019s missing. Basically, there\u2019s no spring football for Faison at Notre Dame. And there\u2019s no fall ball for lacrosse.<\/p>\n

The only true conflict might have come in January, when Faison missed the start of lacrosse practices during the spring semester while preparing for the CFP national championship against Ohio State.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has been more like a robot at that school, but that\u2019s all he knows, right?\u201d Quincy said. \u201cThe school has done a really good job, they pretty much tell him where he\u2019s going, football in the morning, lacrosse in the afternoon. He doesn\u2019t know anything different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back home, little brother is taking notes. Dylan will get a jump on Jordan\u2019s unique Notre Dame career by enrolling in January, although it\u2019s not entirely clear whether he\u2019ll jump straight into football winter workouts or join the lacrosse team. Either program will gladly take him. Dylan is a three-star football prospect, slightly undersized on paper, like his older brother. He\u2019s also the No. 1 lacrosse prospect in the nation, per Inside Lacrosse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you go out there and watch your brother perform very well, it puts some expectations on you,\u201d Dylan said. \u201cI haven\u2019t really seen that biggest challenge for him yet. He wants it really bad. When you have that, everything goes smooth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notre Dame\u2019s football team shares quarterback Tyler Buchner and receiver Matt Jeffrey with the lacrosse team, too, but neither has the star power of Faison.<\/p>\n

Midway through the third quarter against Purdue, Faison split out to CJ Carr\u2019s left. Receiver and quarterback had seen how the Boilermakers had played Faison all game, sitting on his out-breaking routes toward the sidelines. Carr wanted to take one deep. He gave a hand signal, and his receiver got the message. Faison put a double-move on Purdue\u2019s corner, who only mustered a half-hearted shove 48 yards later as he crossed the goal line.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s exactly the kind of play Notre Dame\u2019s offense needs. It\u2019s one no one provides better than Faison.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompetitive and consistent,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cYou know he\u2019s going to be exactly where he\u2019s supposed to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

1\ufe0f\u20e33\ufe0f\u20e3\u27a1\ufe0f 6\ufe0f\u20e3<\/p>\n

48-yard touchdown from Carr to Faison \u2618\ufe0f#GoIrish<\/a>\u2618\ufe0f pic.twitter.com\/V9jo6tcSKa<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) September 20, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If it seems like Faison is everything, everywhere, all at once, you\u2019re probably right. That\u2019s how he likes it.<\/p>\n

Three years into his Notre Dame career, Faison is no longer a novelty in either sport, he\u2019s a necessity in both. Whether it\u2019s those twitchy dodges that work so well on either field or the bite Faison brings with a lacrosse stick or as a blocker, it\u2019s all working.<\/p>\n

An athlete whose head could be spinning between sports seems to know exactly where to be.<\/p>\n

As Corrigan watches Faison, he sees the same thing defensive backs can\u2019t touch and lacrosse defensemen can\u2019t seem to track. The junior moves through both sports unlike anyone in either, all that dodging, juking and cutting setting Faison apart. Corrigan has won two national titles at Notre Dame. He\u2019s produced a Tewaaraton Award winner, his sport\u2019s version of the Heisman Trophy. And Corrigan still never had a player quite like this junior he shares with Freeman.<\/p>\n

When Notre Dame lacrosse won it all during Faison\u2019s freshman year, the family drove that RV to Philadelphia for the national title game. Freeman was there too, just with better travel accommodations. They were all there to watch Faison score a goal in the 15-5 win over Maryland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit of burst and explosiveness, a little bit of agility and strength to come out of different moves, and it\u2019s a little bit the footwork to kind of pull it all off,\u201d Corrigan said. \u201cAnd then just add that in with the creativeness and the intuitiveness. It\u2019s a gift. You can refine it. But you can\u2019t teach it. You can\u2019t give it to someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Notre Dame is happy to have it.<\/p>\n

(Top photo: Michael Clubb \/ South Bend Tribune \/ USA Today Network via Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

The Freaks List series is part of a partnership with GMC Sierra EV. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.<\/p>\n