Pine Crest star helped Notre Dame lacrosse win a title. Can he do the same for football?
Before Notre Dame’s first game of the College Football Playoff, the team’s strength coach asked Jordan Faison to give a speech to the team.
The sophomore wide receiver, a Fort Lauderdale native and Pine Crest School alumnus, is the only player on the roster who has been where the Fighting Irish are hoping to go. A little more than seven months ago, Faison won a national championship with the Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team and the path was similar to one that the football team is on now.
Each team had a big loss early in the season — football to Northern Illinois in Week 2, lacrosse to Georgetown in overtime in its third game of the season.
Both teams then ran the table to make the playoffs — football winning its final 10 games by an average of 25.8 points, lacrosse by going 8-0 to close out the regular season and then winning the ACC Tournament.
The lacrosse team finished the job and repeated as national champions.
Faison can help the football team get one step closer to its first national title since 1988 on Thursday when the No. 7 Fighting Irish (13-1) play the No. 6 Penn State Nittany Lions (13-2) their College Football Playoff semifinal game in the Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium.
And the opportunity to get Notre Dame football back to a national championship is just 25 miles away from where Faison’s athletic career as a two-sport athlete truly took off at Pine Crest.
“It means the world,” Faison said. “You dream of these games as a kid. Being back here is definitely a dream come true. It’s a surreal moment.”
An ‘aura’ at Pine Crest
His journey to this point is pretty surreal, too. Being a two-sport athlete in high school is pretty commonplace.
But to do it at a school like Notre Dame, with sports like football and lacrosse that are held in such high regard? It’s a combination that’s tough to fathom.
Those who know and coached Faison, however, aren’t surprised that he is excelling at both sports on the collegiate level.
“It’s extremely impressive,” said Pine Crest lacrosse coach George Harris, who coached Faison from when he was about 10 years old until he left for Notre Dame. ”He has his priorities are in order. He’s great at time management to handle all the rigors of academics at Notre Dame and then now you’re throwing in two sports, which is unheard of these days at Division I for football and lacrosse. It’s fun to see him on TV every week. He’s thriving, but he’s a disciplined young man. He prepared himself for this and he’s achieving his goals.”
Added Pine Crest football coach Tim Hibbs: “It’s really not a surprise at all. Academically, I know he’s able to handle it because of what he went through at Pine Crest. That sets you up nicely for that. So I knew that would not be a problem. It’s great that it seems like the two coaches [are on board]. [Football] coach [Marcus] Freeman watches the lacrosse games. He came to the national championship game, so they get along, and once that issue was solved, I had no doubt that he would be able to contribute early and contribute often once he had the chance.”
Before he had the chance to succeed at Notre Dame, though, he made his mark at Pine Crest.
While lacrosse is Faison’s main sport, he was integral in leading Pine Crest’s football team. The Panthers made the playoffs in Faison’s final two seasons after not making it since 1998 prior to that. As a senior, he ran for 1,661 yards and 23 touchdowns and threw for six more as the quarterback of Pine Crest’s Wing-T offense while also playing on defense.
On the lacrosse side, he was a three-time high school All-American and ranked as the No. 48 overall recruit in the class of 2023 by Inside Lacrosse.
He became the first Pine Crest player to play at the FBS level for football since Michael Cibene (Ohio State) and Kalvin Cline (Virginia Tech) in 2013.
“He had a little bit of an aura around him,” Hibbs said. “He came in with a reputation as a great, burgeoning young lacrosse player, and his dad was actually on the football staff, so you knew right away that his athleticism would be able to transfer to both sports. He was a little undersized when he first came here, but that size grew a little bit as he came and his athleticism only grew to match that.”
How it translated at Notre Dame
When Faison got to Notre Dame and began his endeavor to be a two-sport athlete, he knew some parts of his routine were going to have to change.
“I was a big procrastinator coming into this,” Faison said, “but being up here, there’s no room for procrastination, so getting out of my bad habits was a big thing. But I’ve definitely learned a lot about myself doing both sports. I’m disciplined person. I can handle anything that comes my way. I think that’s what I’ve learned the most.”
It has paid off.
On the football field, Faison has 46 catches for 647 yards and five touchdowns for his Notre Dame career entering the Orange Bowl on Thursday. This season, he has caught 27 passes for 325 yards and one touchdown, with 11 of those catches and 135 of those yards coming in Notre Dame’s playoff wins over Indiana and Georgia.
“What stands out about him just that he’s a true competitor,” Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock said. “And it doesn’t matter whether it’s winning a national championship with our lacrosse team or helping us try to get in position to do the same with our football program. He likes to put his toe on the line and compete against anybody. He can in any sport that he can and does a great job of doing it.”
Faison was also an honorable mention All-American as a true freshman last season in lacrosse. He started all 17 games as a midfielder for the two-time national champion Fighting Irish, scoring 22 goals (with three hat tricks) and adding eight assists, 17 ground balls and six caused turnovers. This included scoring a goal in the opening minute of his first game and a goal in the championship game against Maryland.
“It’s a proud father moment for me to see that,” Harris said. “To see him right away, right off basically, his first shift on the field, he scores a goal. Just fun to watch. It brought back a lot of good memories of the time time he was here.”
Faison has the chance to make many more good memories, starting with the Orange Bowl and a chance for a second national title in a second sport.
“I never thought of it being a possibility,” Faison said of possibly winning two national championships in less than a year, “but things happen. Obviously, it happened. Now, it’s great. It’s awesome. But it’s just a testament to the hard work the teams put in getting to where we got.”
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