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Notre Dame fires Chansi Stuckey: Why did Marcus Freeman abruptly change course?

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Marcus Freeman wanted Notre Dame’s coaching staff to return intact.

Until he didn’t.

And exactly how Freeman got from wanting the staff back in full next season to dumping wide receivers coach Chansi Stuckey less than 24 hours later may never be fully explained. For now, offensive coordinator Gerad Parker will assume the receivers coach job, a position where he’s more experienced than tight end, where he coaches on the current staff. As for what’s next, that’s harder to predict as Freeman navigates an offseason that needs to run more smoothly than his first.

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Perhaps Freeman could reconsider again, looking to make further changes on an offensive staff that struggled in its biggest moments but still put up historically good production. Or maybe Freeman just wants to double down with Parker, his coaching colleague dating back to their time at Purdue when getting their first tastes of Power 5 football.

It’s hard to know what to read into Stuckey’s dismissal because Freeman’s approach to it left few clues.

“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 in a statement on Tuesday. “I decided it was in the program’s best interest to part ways.”

On the field, the production of Notre Dame’s receivers hardly backed Stuckey, who was finishing just his third season as a full-time assistant. Irish wide receivers posted one 100-yard game in Stuckey’s 25 games on staff, when freshman Rico Flores Jr. sneaked by that figure against Wake Forest. Flores led all receivers in catches (27) and snaps (404), as much evidence of a snake-bit room as the freshman’s own ability.

Rico Flores’ 27 catches lead Notre Dame wide receivers. (D. Ross Cameron / USA Today)

Sophomore Tobias Merriweather struggled most of the season, regardless of Notre Dame’s intent to force feed him opportunities. He finished with 378 snaps, 14 catches and 26 targets. His 53.8 percent catch percentage was lowest among the receivers.

Junior Jayden Thomas and freshman Jaden Greathouse missed much of the season’s second half with hamstring injuries. Junior Deion Colzie was a non-factor with a knee injury. Grad-student Matt Salerno missed virtually the entire year with a leg injury. Grad-transfer Kaleb Smith quit the team in training camp.

Former walk-on Jordan Faison turned into a reliable option in the season’s second half, including a touchdown at Stanford. Chris Tyree grew into a reliable big-play threat, but he entered the transfer portal this week.

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It’s easy to argue that Stuckey could have done more with the talent on hand. It’s also impossible to ignore the fact he wasn’t working with a full deck.

“It speaks volumes to what Chansi has done with the room,” Parker said two weeks ago. “There is no way to give guys an empowered feeling and experience and make plays other than to do it. And that’s the growing pains of it. That’s a tough position to be in, let’s be honest.

“But it’s one we’re in and we’ve got to fight through to get there. And then it’s got to be a position where that room, us as a staff, me as a coordinator make sure we never get in that position again. We certainly are taking strides to it.”

And that’s where Stuckey’s departure makes the least amount of sense. Stuckey nearly recruited a perfect game the past two cycles, landing Flores, Greathouse and Braylon James a year ago, then adding Cam Williams, Micah Gilbert and Logan Saldate this cycle. Williams is a unanimous top-50 prospect nationally. And Gilbert is viewed by the Irish staff as potentially the better prospect.

After the recruiting misfires of Del Alexander on Brian Kelly’s staff, it appeared Notre Dame had begun to rebuild the receiving corps, even if the job didn’t get done in time for Sam Hartman this season. And while Williams and Saldate appear solid with their commitments with the early signing period just weeks away, the jettisoning of their position coach hardly makes for ideal timing.

Notre Dame could go in multiple directions for Stuckey’s replacement, potentially back to Cincinnati (via Wisconsin) with Mike Brown, who worked on staff with Freeman and Gino Guidugli and helped develop multiple NFL Draft picks, including Alec Pierce. Or Freeman could defer to Parker, who’s close with West Virginia receivers coach Bilal Marshall and considers him a mentee in the profession. Or Notre Dame could try to revisit JaMarcus Shephard, the Indiana native who finished second to Stuckey during the last hiring process before landing at Washington and helping develop Rome Odunze (73 catches, 1,326 yards 13 TDs this season) and one of the best units in the country.

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At this point it’s difficult to project where Freeman could take this hire, after apparently chasing course midweek with Stuckey. Regardless, Notre Dame’s passing game must improve if the Irish want to win games of consequence in the expanding College Football Playoff — or even make the 12-team field. Notre Dame’s pass game failed to push forward with Hartman, whose final stat line looks closer to Drew Pyne than anyone would have expected in September.

Regardless of how he makes his next call or how he arrived at this one, it’s Freeman’s decision of where to take his staff at wide receiver. And maybe there’s more change to come than the head coach let on earlier this week.

“If it’s up to me, as I just told the coaching staff in 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 on Monday. “There’s obviously places that we have to improve on, all three phases. And the coaches understand that, and they definitely are up for the challenge.”

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(Top photo:  James Gilbert / Getty Images)

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