Malachi Fields, the top wideout on the UVA Football team in 2024, is headed to Notre Dame, because of course that’s how things work.
Fields, a redshirt junior, led Virginia with 55 catches, 94 targets, 808 yards and five receiving TDs in 2024.
This, after a 2023 in which he had 58 catches on 100 targets for 811 yards and five TDs.
He’ll have one year of eligibility at Notre Dame, where spending a year should help his NFL aspirations.
According to a source, Fields, a Charlottesville native who starred at Monticello High School, didn’t want to leave Virginia, but was advised to put his name into the transfer portal to improve his NFL Draft stock for the 2026 draft cycle.
It’s notable that Fields entered the portal on Dec. 17, a day after UVA Football coach Tony Elliott got a commitment from a big-time portal QB, Chandler Morris, who passed for 3,771 yards and 31 TDs in 2024 at North Texas.
Virginia also landed a top O line portal target, former UAB center Brady Wilson, one of the top interior O linemen in the portal in the current 2025 class.
But, Notre Dame is Notre Dame – not only a traditional power, but a current success, advancing to the 2024 College Football Playoff quarterfinals, where the Irish will face #2 Georgia on New Year’s Night.
Fields, at 6’3”, 220 pounds, is a big receiver who I could see making the transition to pass-catching tight end at the next level, and maybe he’ll have to – the knock on him is that he’s average in the speed department.
His productivity waned in the second half of the 2024 season – Fields had just 18 catches on 35 targets for 267 yards in the final six games of the season, as defenses keyed on him with press coverage, locking up his average speed and making it difficult for him to get open.
On3 lists Fields as a four-star portal recruit, with a 91.00 rating.
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Chris Graham
