Notre Dame to hire Baylor wide receivers coach Chansi Stuckey
Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame have their guy.
The Fighting Irish have reeled in Baylor wide receivers coach Chansi Stuckey to take on the same position in South Bend, according to a report from The Athletic’s Pete Sampson. Stuckey replaces former Irish wide receivers coach Del Alexander, who parted ways with the program after five seasons.
BlueandGold.com first reported on Wednesday morning that Stuckey was on campus in South Bend for an interview and can also confirm Purdue wide receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard was also interviewed for the vacancy. It appears that Freeman went with Stuckey, and reports surfaced Wednesday evening that Shephard will take a position on Washington’s staff.
On3 senior national college football reporter Matt Zenitz confirmed that Notre Dame would be hiring Stuckey.
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.
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The New York Jets selected Stuckey with No. 235 overall pick in the seventh round of the 2007 NFL Draft. He stayed in the league for five seasons with the Jets (2007-09), Cleveland Browns (2009-10) and Arizona Cardinals (2011). Stuckey played in nine games for the Cardinals when current Notre Dame tight ends coach John McNulty was the wide receivers coach there.
Stuckey is very new to the college coaching scene. 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.
Three different players caught 30 or more passes for Stuckey at Baylor during the Bears’ Big 12 championship season. The group was led by former Miami Booker T. Washington four-star prospect Tyquan Thornton, who had 62 catches for 948 yards and 10 touchdowns.
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Notre Dame has only had two wide receivers eclipse the 900-yard mark in the last six seasons. Equanimeous St. Brown had 961 yards in 2016 and Chase Claypool had 1,037 in 2019. Both players have found homes in the NFL with the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers, respectively.
Stuckey is inheriting a relatively young, unproven wide receiving corps. Even the veterans of the room, seniors Braden Lenzy, Avery Davis and Joe Wilkins Jr., have only combined for 1,653 receiving yards in 13 combined seasons.
The other four scholarship wide receivers on the roster are all underclassmen; true freshman Tobias Merriweather and sophomores Deion Colzie, Lorenzo Styles and Jayden Thomas. Styles shined with eight catches for 136 yards and a touchdown in Notre Dame’s Fiesta Bowl loss to Oklahoma State.
Notre Dame needs a successful recruiting class of 2023 to bolster the roster. Stuckey gives the coaching staff a tie to the South. He grew up in Georgia, played college ball in South Carolina and coached for a year in Texas. Those states and the surrounding regions are always hotbeds for wide receiver talent.
Stuckey has a few items at the top of his to-do list upon arriving in South Bend. Scavenge the transfer portal for possible immediate help, get going on the class of 2023 and find a way to work with what he’s got as the team prepares for spring practices.
