Blue & Gold’s Notre Dame assistant coach recruiter of the year: Chansi Stuckey

First-year Notre Dame wide receivers coach Chansi Stuckey has been named Blue & Gold’s assistant coach recruiter of the year for his efforts in the 2023 class.

Notre Dame was in desperate need of a big wide receiver class in terms of talent and quantity, and Stuckey, who is only in his second season as a full-time assistant coach, delivered.

The Irish signed four receivers this morning, checking the box of quantity. And three of those prospects rank inside of the top-30 of the On3 Consensus wide receiver positional rankings. In the internet recruiting era dating back to 2000, Notre Dame has never signed three top-30 receiver prospects in the same class.

We’ll see how these players pan out at Notre Dame, but on paper, the quality box has been checked as well.

Stuckey, 38, is a native of Warner Robins, Ga., and played at Clemson from 2003-06. The 2006 first-team All-ACC selection finished his career with 2,021 yards from scrimmage and nine touchdowns. He had at least 700 receiving yards in each of his final two seasons.

He began his career as a graduate assistant at Clemson in 2019. He was an offensive player development assistant on Dabo Swinney’s staff in 2020. Dave Aranda and the Baylor Bears came calling to hire Stuckey as their wide receivers coach in January 2021. Notre Dame plucked Stuckey away from Baylor 11 months ago.

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Notre Dame WR recruits rave about Stuckey

Round Rock (Texas) Stony Point’s Braylon James committed to Notre Dame over offers from Texas, Texas A&M, LSU and USC April 19. The 6-2, 185-pounder was considered a major Stanford lean until Stuckey left Baylor to join the Notre Dame staff.

“I had spoken to him at Baylor a few times, but I started to really genuinely speak to him when he got to Notre Dame,” James, who ranks as the nation’s No. 121 overall player and No. 20 wide receiver per the On3 Consensus, previously said. “We hit it off for an hour after he got to Notre Dame. After that first conversation, I was thinking about how he reminds me a lot of my mom. They have similar interests and share the same qualities. My dad got to talk to him, too, and he thought that Coach Stuckey was the truth. After that, I wanted to see where the relationship would go and how it develops. I felt really good about it.”

Folsom (Calif.) High’s Rico Flores Jr., the No. 218 overall prospect and No. 30 receiver according to the On3 Consensus, committed to Notre Dame over offers from Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State and many others July 3.

“I remember doing a Zoom with Coach Stuckey, and it was just great,” said Flores. “They were really showing love. I put trust in them, and we built a great relationship.

“(Coach Stuckey) is a really great dude. The aura about him is really great. I like it. He’s straight up with you.”

Austin (Texas) Westlake’s Jaden Greathouse, who ranks as the No. 158 prospect and No. 24 wideout per the On3 Consensus, picked the Irish over Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas July 15. This was yet another major recruiting win for Stuckey and Co.

“We talk every day,” Greathouse told Blue & Gold about Stuckey back in February. “He’s a great guy; I love him. I got to bump into him when he came here in January. It’s always a great conversation with him. He’s awesome. He’s definitely a people person. He’s super relatable and a great family guy.”

While Stuckey only spent a year at Baylor, he clearly made some inroads in the Lone Star State, as three of the receivers Notre Dame signed are from Texas. Frisco (Texas) Reedy’s Kaleb Smith was a later addition to the class, as Notre Dame flipped him from Texas Tech Dec. 1.

“I could tell he was a cool dude from when I talked to him when he was at Baylor, but it was nothing too serious,” Smith explained. “But when we started talking when he was at Notre Dame, I could tell it was serious, and he was genuine.”

Smith ranks as the No. 512 overall player and No. 75 wide receiver per the On3 Consensus.

Notre Dame cornerbacks coach Mike Mickens was the other assistant we considered for this article. The Irish signed Houston The Kinkaid School’s Micah Bell and St. Louis De Smet’s Christian Gray, a pair of top-170 overall players, this morning. On paper, it’s the best cornerback duo Notre Dame has signed in several years.