In back to back seasons, Notre Dame elected to go to the transfer portal to find their No. 1 boundary receiver. This past offseason, Virginia transfer Malachi Fields elected to play his final year of eligibility in South Bend. The 6-4, 223-pound boundary receiver was extremely productive at Virginia where he finished back to back seasons with over 50 receptions, 800 yards and five touchdowns. This season, he's well on his way to eclipse the yardage mark and has already matched his five touchdown receptions in 10 games.
This weekend is Senior Day inside of Notre Dame Stadium and Fields is preparing to play, what could be, his final game in South Bend. He also knows the opportunity in front of this team and knows the job is far from finished. The Irish have playoff aspirations and that's at the forefront of everybody's mind.
"It means a lot coming up here and making the most of the opportunity and falling in love with Notre Dame as a whole," Fields said about Senior Day. "It'll just be a special moment getting recognized on Senior Night. As far as playoffs, we're just trying to make the most of each opportunity; every game from here on out is championship level so we're trying to continue to grind, to go to work on Saturdays and make that run deep in the playoffs."
Notre Dame is riding an eight-game winning streak and they've beaten all of their opponents by double digits. They've climbed their way back to No. 9 overall in the College Football Playoff rankings and are on the brink of securing back to back playoff spots, something that Fields wasn't able to experience at Virginia.
"Absolutely," Fields said when asked if he felt good being in the playoff conversation in November. "The history of winning, the coaches here, the guys that we have here and the brotherhood it's just something that we all believe in and something that we all see in the future. But, like I said, we're just focusing week by week to get to that end goal."
Fields is coming off of his best two performances of the season recording four catches for 97 yards against Navy at home and seven catches for 99 yards and two touchdowns against Pitt on the road. The Virginia native understands how difficult this offense is to stop, and his performance plays a major factor.
"The way that we can attack a defense from anywhere," Fields answered when asked what's impressed him about the offense. "Whether it's on the perimeter, the slot guys, or run game. Whether it's flipping a play totally from CJ [Carr], just any way we can hit you. You can't stack the box. You can't drop eight. It's hard with the guys that we have, and it's been cool to see. You see it in practice every day, all the different guys making plays, but then that's showing up on Saturday as well. It's just confirming."
Field's performance last Saturday was capped off with an insane one-handed catch over the middle of the field when Carr got the Pitt defense to jump offsides. It was immediately considered one of the catches of the year by the broad cast booth. When Fields was asked about where that catch ranks personally for him, his answer was short and sweet.
"It was my best catch for sure."
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