Notre Dame’s Chansi Stuckey makes big first-year impact on recruiting trail
On3 published an article this week looking at 10 new assistant coaches who made an immediate impact on the 2023 recruiting trail, and Notre Dame wide receivers coach Chansi Stuckey made the list.
He’s well-regarded as an on-field coach, and his impact on the recruiting front was desperately needed. The Irish wanted to sign three or four receivers in the 2022 class but only signed one (Tobias Merriweather).
For the 2023 cycle, three of the four Irish receiver signees rank as top-240 players nationally according to the On3 Consensus. In going back in looking at Notre Dame classes for the past 15 years, the class that was most similar was in 2015, when the Irish signed Equanimeous St. Brown (No. 181 NATL), Miles Boykin (No. 203 NATL), CJ Sanders (No. 251 NATL) and Jalen Guyton (No. 33 NATL).
Notre Dame’s 2023 receiver haul consists of Round Rock (Texas) Stony Point’s Braylon James (No. 138 NATL, No. 23 WR), Austin (Texas) Westlake’s Jaden Greathouse (No. 157 NATL, No. 25 WR), Folsom (Calif.) High’s Rico Flores Jr. (No. 238 NATL, No. 35 WR) and Frisco (Texas) Reedy’s Kaleb Smith (No. 524, No. 79 WR). Stuckey and Co. also landed Virginia Tech receiver transfer Kaleb Smith (no relation).
The expectation is that Smith (the VT transfer) and at least one of the high school receivers will make an impact this fall. Greathouse is the favorite to emerge as a freshman, but James and Flores both have the ability to as well. Of the five new receivers, only Smith (the freshman from Texas) arrives this summer, and for what it’s worth, we believe he could be a surprise performer this season. The others have been on campus since January.
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It obviously remains to be seen what these players will do on the field for the Irish, but on paper, it’s one of the best receiver classes Notre Dame has signed on paper in the internet era, and Stuckey led ND to doing so in his first year in South Bend. And he’s already off to a strong start in 2024 with a pledge from Glen Ellyn (Ill.) Glenbard South’s Cam Williams, the nation’s No. 39 player and No. 7 wide receiver per the On3 Consensus.
The other new assistant coach hires listed by On3 in the article are Texas’ Tashard Choice, Georgia’s Chidera Uzo-Diribe and Fran Brown, Clemson’s Nick Eason, Florida’s Corey Raymond, LSU’s Cortez Hankton, Oklahoma’s Jeff Lebby, South Carolina’s Sterling Lucas and Oregon’s Demetrice Martin.
The article lists Greathouse as the biggest recruiting win for Stuckey in the 2023 cycle.
“Stuckey, who was a rising star at Baylor before coming to South Bend, took over a position where the Irish had signed just one wideout in the 2022 class,” wrote On3’s Keegan Pope. “Suffice to say, he had his work cut out for him from the beginning.
“Despite that, he landed not only Greathouse — who was heavily pursued until the end by Texas — but also grabbed four-star receiver Braylon James out of Texas as well. In total, Notre Dame landed five wideouts this cycle — four rated as four-stars — under Stuckey’s watch. And he made major waves in Texas, with three of the five coming from the Lone Star State.”
