A day after Notre Dame football head coach Marcus Freeman said he intended to keep his coaching staff together, his actions have spoken more definitively. The Irish have parted ways with receivers coach Chansi Stuckey, per multiple reports.
FootballScoop.com’s John Brice first reported the coaching change.
Notre Dame did not have enough receivers, literally in sheer number let alone in quality, to put together an adequate passing game in 2023, a problem then amplified by sophomore Tobias Merriweather’s continued struggles and freshman Braylon James’s remaining on the scout team.
Yet the freshmen trio of Rico Flores Jr., Jaden Greathouse and former walk-on Jordan Faison developed into the primary pass catchers in November, in part because injuries kept juniors Jayden Thomas (hamstring) and Deion Colzie (knee) from contributing as hoped in the preseason, as well as hampering sixth-year former walk-on Matt Salerno (made only one catch this season).
Senior running back-turned-receiver Chris Tyree had a largely successful season, leading Notre Dame with 484 receiving yards on 26 catches, adding three touchdowns. He entered the transfer portal on Monday, though that does not exclude him from considering a return to South Bend in 2024.
The typical college football program wants to have 10 healthy scholarship receivers at the start of a given season, creating enough of a cushion for a rotation even amid inevitable injuries. Instead, the Irish entered August with just eight, including three freshmen and Salerno.
Three receiver commits in the class of 2024 that are expected to sign their National Letters of Intent next month should help that cause for Notre Dame, combining with the now-quintet of freshmen (Faison now on scholarship, KK Smith healthy entering the spring) and Merriweather to get the Irish to nine schoalrship receivers, at least in theory. Retaining Tyree would be a 10th, as would whomever Notre Dame can find in the transfer portal.
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That will be the first step toward restoring the receivers room, a step no longer entrusted to Stuckey.
On Monday, Freeman said he intended to keep every coach on his staff.
“If it’s up to me, as I just told the coaching staff at our staff meeting, I have a strong belief in the coaches that we have in this football program and would love all of them to be back,” Freeman said. “There’s obviously places that we have to improve on in all three phases, and the coaches understand that and definitely are up for the challenge. But the thing I’ve learned in this short time as head coach is that consistency is so important.”
Freeman hired Stuckey away from Baylor shortly after being named Notre Dame head coach in December of 2021. The Irish offensive coaching staff then underwent significant change this past winter, with coordinator Tommy Rees heading to Alabama and offensive line coach Harry Hiestand subsequently retiring.
Notre Dame then promoted tight ends coach Gerad Parker to offensive coordinator.
“The biggest thing is, I told coach Paker and his staff we have to improve our performance, especially those big games versus good defenses, because those are the type of teams that we have to find a way to beat if we want to be a championship program,” Freeman said Monday.
UPDATE: Notre Dame released an official statement on the staffing change on Monday evening.
“Over the past few days, we had continued discussions on the overall performance of our wide receiver group and my expectations for the development of that position,” Freeman said. “I decided it was in the program’s best interest to part ways.”
Parker will coach the receivers as the Irish ready for their bowl game, an unknown destination yet but most likely either the Pop-Tarts Bowl on Dec. 28 against a Big 12 opponent or the ReliaQuest Bowl on Jan. 1 against an SEC opponent.
"Yeah but all the defensive and special teams touchdowns!!"
— Douglas Farmer (@D_Farmer) November 26, 2023
Since 1997, Notre Dame has scored more than 35 points per game four times now. Remove the return touchdowns from all four and ...
2023: 35 ppg (39.1)
2021: 32.5 ppg (35.2)
2019: 34.6 ppg (36.8)
2005: 33.8 ppg (36.7)
