Kris Mitchell always had his eyes on Florida State. The Notre Dame graduate wide receiver grew up in the area of Jacksonville, Florida, attending high school within three hours of Doak Campbell Stadium.
“Florida State was definitely my dream school, definitely my favorite school,” Mitchell recalled after Tuesday’s practice. “Growing up watching EJ Manuel, Jameis Winston — it’s always been a dream of mine to play there.”
After watching the Seminoles capture a national championship at age 13, Mitchell suited up for Mandarin High School and took his best run at a Florida State offer. In his senior season of 2018, he shined with 11 touchdowns, leading Mandarin to a state championship as the team’s Offensive MVP.
But the Seminoles remained out of his inbox. Mitchell’s game-changing speed drew plenty of interest, but his narrow frame kept many of the bigger programs off his trail. At 6-foot-1 and 150 points upon graduating from Mandarin, Mitchell ranked beneath some 200 prospects in the state of Florida.
Rather than heading west on Interstate 10 out of Jacksonville, Mitchell turned south on I-95 to begin his college career at Florida International. After arriving in Miami in 2019, he would have to wait his turn. Mitchell redshirted as a freshman, then started two games as a sophomore, then three as a junior. Finally, in 2022, signs of his breakout began to show as started eight times and accumulated 348 receiving yards.
Last year, it all came together for Mitchell in his final season at FIU. Having filled out into a 185-pound frame, he broke FIU’s single-season record for receiving yards with 1,118, bypassing Tyrese Chamber and four-time NFL Pro Bowler T.Y. Hilton.
That success put him on the move to South Bend, where he’s played patiently in his debut season at Notre Dame. It took a little while for the Irish offense to get going back in September, and we haven’t yet seen the vertical threat Mitchell flashed to score the game-winning touchdown in the Blue-Gold Game. But with two scoring grabs in his last three games, he’s coming around. What’s kept him focused?
“Continuously winning,” Mitchell said. “Winning brings a lot of joy to myself. I haven’t been a part of a winning team since high school, so it feels great.”
Despite his best individual efforts, Mitchell and FIU didn’t do a whole lot of winning during his five years there. Between 2019 and 2023, the Panthers compiled a total record of 15-39, going winless in five games in 2020. Even as Mitchell broke records a year ago, FIU went 4-8 and missed out on bowl season for the fourth consecutive season.
Suffice to say Notre Dame will play in a bowl game this year. At 7-1 and on a six-game win streak, the Irish enter their final four games right in the thick of postseason contention. Tuesday’s College Football Playoff rankings slotted Notre Dame in at No. 10, projected to play a first-round game at Tennessee if the season ended this week.
While Mitchell cares deeply about winning, he couldn’t care less about a hypothetical win in Knoxville — or anywhere else — in December. The focus remains on winning the interval, practicing well and preparing for Saturday’s primetime game at Notre Dame Stadium.
“I feel like we just live in the moment,” Mitchell said. “We don’t think about the road. We’re not even thinking about the playoff right now … So I just feel like making sure they’re not getting too ahead of the moment — we could all lose it just like that.”
Nevertheless, Mitchell admitted he’ll be aware of the team on the opposite sideline come Saturday night. Florida State might enter South Bend with a shockingly poor record of 1-8, but that doesn’t change how the wideout sees — and has always seen — the Seminoles.
They’re the dream team that wouldn’t give Mitchell a shot. Now, he aims to make them pay.
“Going against them, I take it personal,” Mitchell said. “They didn’t believe in me coming out of high school, so I’m going to go show them what I got.”
Mitchell will have a chance to oppose Florida State for the first time in his career at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.
