Notre Dame football adds WR help with transfer portal addition from Virginia

Posted by Admin December 23, 2024 Football

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SOUTH BEND — Five weeks after losing on Senior Day at Notre Dame Stadium, Virginia transfer Malachi Fields decided to join the Irish.

Fields, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound grad transfer, made the announcement Monday afternoon on his social media account.

A converted quarterback who stayed home in Charlottesville, Va., out of Monticello High School, Fields was remarkably consistent in his final two seasons for the Cavaliers. He averaged 57 receptions for 810 yards in 2023-24.

Continuing the theme, Fields pulled in five scoring tosses in each season.

Irish receivers coach Mike Brown also came through Monticello High before starring at Liberty University and playing for the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars. Brown was hired away from Wisconsin last December.

Penn State, which could face Notre Dame in a College Football Playoff semifinal should both teams advance, reportedly was a finalist for Fields’ portal services.

Former Virginia receivers coach Marques Hagans, who originally helped convince Fields to stay home, is in his second season on the Penn State staff.

Notre Dame kept Fields out of the end zone in a 35-14 loss for Virginia last month, but Fields still had four catches for 81 yards. He also fired an incomplete pass on the first play of the second quarter; Rod Heard II, a Northwestern grad transfer, broke it up.

Fields ranks in Virginia’s top 11 in career receiving yards (1,849) and receptions (129). He reached that territory despite requiring surgery to repair a broken metatarsal in his left foot the summer before his sophomore year (2022).

Notre Dame brought in three grad transfers to replenish its receiving corps last offseason. Beaux Collins, formerly of Clemson, leads the Irish with 36 receptions for 445 yards.

Kris Mitchell, a Florida International transfer, has 19 catches for 201 yards and two scores. Jayden Harrison, on his third program after prior stops at Vanderbilt and Marshall, has 17 catches for 211 yards and a touchdown.

Those three one-and-dones represent nearly half the total receptions (148) for the Brown-coached position group this season. Their 857 receiving yards have accounted for 49% of the receiving yards for Irish wideouts in 2024.

Fields is just the second Notre Dame addition to go public in this transfer portal cycle. Former Alabama nickelback DeVonta Smith also announced his plans to head to South Bend.

Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.