Braylon James Goes In-Depth On Notre Dame Commitment
Even before he was officially announced as Notre Dame’s next receivers coach, Chansi Stuckey was recruiting the Irish’s next receiver commitment.
“He sent me half a paragraph, a page-long essay,” 2023 Texas wide receiver Braylon James says. “He was like, 'Man, I'm going to Notre Dame.'
“He was just telling me how he wants me to be a part of his class and that he wants to build a Wide Receiver U there. He could have sent that to a million other recruits for all I know, but just something about it seemed so genuine.”
That text set in motion a change of events that would lead to James publicly announcing his commitment to the Irish on Tuesday evening.
“If I'm being real, he played the hugest role,” James says of Stuckey.
Of course, head coach Marcus Freeman played a major role as well.
“Just sitting down and talking to Coach Free, it's different,” says James, who visited South Bend last month. “You talk to a lot of head coaches and many of their conversations aren't genuine and a lot of them tell you what you want to hear. And Marcus Freeman never did that. He told me the things I liked and he told me the things I disliked. When you hear that honesty, that's definitely something that sticks out and that's where he separated himself.
“In terms of staying in constant communication and staying in constant contact, he did that and he got the chance to know me, my parents, my sister. It was a huge honor. So just seeing that he was selfless and really invested his time into this whole entire recruiting process was awesome.”
It came down to Notre Dame and Stanford in the end for James, who had several other offers as well.
“I'm just excited, just super blessed,” he says. “I'm feeling good. I feel like I made the perfect decision for myself and for my life. I'm just already ready to get this new chapter started.
“It's just the life after football aspect. Just looking at Notre Dame and looking at this institution, I feel like I'm making the greatest decision for my life. I feel like this feels right. I feel like, in terms of football, I'm going to be great there. I feel like I can be special.”
Academics played a “huge role” in that feeling.
“Like I say, the life after football aspect was obviously a big thing, a big part of that comes in academics,” he says. “I could have went to like Alabama or LSU and got a decent degree, but at the end of the day with the Notre Dame degree behind you, there's a lot of places you can go with that. A lot of people are taking that opportunity for granted, especially in a day like now, where NLI is coming into play and everything.
“But people aren't thinking of the big picture in terms of this whole thing. Academics was definitely the main deciding factor and that's why Stanford and Notre Dame, it came down between those two because those two offered me that opportunity along with the fact to play early and get in there and make an impact for their program.”
After academics came the football.
“What gave Notre Dame the reach over Stanford was the fact that they're competing at a national championship-level consistently,” says James. “That's something that Stanford used to be able to do, but the past five years, they really haven't been able to give people that.”
The 6-foot-2, 181-pounder is confident Irish offensive coordinator Tommy Rees will put him in positions to succeed.
“I sat in a lot of film meetings before and I really never saw how it fit in in some offenses, but when I'm looking at Coach Rees' offense, I see exactly why I'm a top priority for them,” he says. “When you look at my film and you compare the film he was showing me a lot of it was deep threat route-running. You're talking about deep posts and moving me to the slot and running flies down the middle of the field. Those are my kind of plays.
“Obviously, he's going to expand my route-running game. I'm going be seen running hitches and double-moves and comebacks and stuff like that. I feel like they're really maximizing what I do best in terms and then, they're adding little a little sauce to my game I like to say.”
Even before Tuesday night’s announcement, James had made the change from recruit to recruiter.
“Obviously, who I want to be getting my touchdown passes from is Dante Moore,” he says. “Obviously, once we get him on board, I'll feel a lot better about these next couple years, but I'm still confident even if Dante isn't throwing me the ball that somebody's going to be in there to spin it to me, but obviously, he's somebody I really want. I've been in his ear about it and I feel like where we stand with him is super nice.”
James also feels optimistic about the Irish’s chances with fellow 2023 Texas receiver Jaden Greathouse.
“I want him playing alongside of me,” James says of Greathouse. “He's another kid from my area. I feel like just growing up, we've kind of been on the same path. We've been playing flag football against each other for the longest.
“Obviously, he went to Westlake and I went to Del Valle, so we played in the same district. We were always competition, but just two boys from Austin, Texas, going to South Bend, Indiana to play football together has never been heard of. We're just trying to rattle our city a little bit and ruffle some feathers.
IMG receiver Carnell Tate is another wideout James has his eyes on.
“Just imagining me, him and Tobias (Merriweather) on the same field is just outrageous,” James says of Tate. “I feel like once we get Dante, where we stand with Carnell is going to be even greater.
“And then, Rico Flores Jr. is somebody I feel really, really good about. Really just building this receiver room is where I'm at right now. So in terms of being the recruiter, yeah, that's what I'm going to do.”
James had hoped to return to South Bend for this weekend’s spring game, but wasn’t able to make the trip.
“Instead, I'm going just be taking my official the 10th through the 12th and then obviously for a couple of gameday visits and then I'll be all ready to get up there. I'm excited. I'm excited.”
