Logan Saldate is eying a new position for the Notre Dame football team and he's leaning on one particular position during the transition. Saldate's new position isn't a drastic change. He's still playing receiver, but instead of working in the slot, he's trying to find more playing time by switching to the Field receiver.
Saldate is hoping his ability to stretch the field will come more in handy with what the Fighting Irish try to do on offense in 2026. He's also hoping Jordan Faison can teach him a thing or two about the different positions and what's most needed from Field as opposed to the slot.
"We're boys," Saldate said according to Mike Berardino. "We're super close. And when we're out, away from the field, it's not like we're just talking about normal stuff. We talk about football as well."
Logan Saldate believes his skill set fits Notre Dame football’s new receiver role
Their conversations extended this weekend to talking about the game while they hit the links. Saldate said he and Faison went golfing while they continued to discuss how Saldate can show how much bigger a weapon he can be in his new receiver position.
Saldate thrived at stretching the field in high school, but the Irish coaches thought he would work better in college in the slot. That was until this spring, when they decided to try something new.
“It was really the first practice where I started working at X,” Saldate said according to Irish Sports Daily. “It kind of took me by surprise a little bit because I've been working in the slot, but I wasn't mad about it.
“Faison is one of the guys that I talked to when Coach (Mike) Brown switched me to X because Faison played Z too. That was a guy that I felt like I could refer to. My straight-line speed, posts, and like comebacks, I feel like that's more my game. Deep digs, 16-yard speed digs and things like that, where I could really just open my stride up and get loose."
Saldate came into South Bend with some analysts believing he had the best shot at seeing significant action as a true-freshman back in 2023. However, he didn't get his first career reception until this past season. That reception was a 2-yard catch in garbage time against Purdue.
Knowing that, it's not hard to understand why the coaches hope moving Logan Saldate will allow him to use the talents that saw him tally 68 receptions for 1,242 yards and 15 touchdowns his senior year of high school.
Should he be able to capture that kind of production again, Notre Dame football will have another weapon no one saw coming.