Irish Wideouts Make Technical Improvements Under Stuckey, Replacing Davis’ Leadership

Shortly after Notre Dame named Marcus Freeman as its new head football coach, the coaching staff was overhauled. Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees, cornerbacks coach Mike Mickens and safeties coach Chris O'Leary remained, but the rest of the coaches left for new situations and were quickly replaced. 

Wide receiver coach Chansi Stuckey was officially hired on Jan. 24. In a short time, it appears he’s made a profound impact on the players in his position group. 

“He’s been a tremendous help,” said Notre Dame wide receiver Braden Lenzy. “The whole culture of the room seems very bought into what he's brought, and it's paid off. Although were low in numbers, I can't remember a camp where we felt this dominant at receiver. 

“For myself, I've never played as well, and I credit a lot of that to coaching.”

Given the torn ACL Avery Davis suffered last Friday, it’s more important than ever that players like Lenzy step up. 

That’s easier said than done. Fans have been waiting on Lenzy’s breakout season since he was a sophomore.

He says he’s faster than ever, but the former high school track star never lacked confidence in his speed. But for perhaps the first time in his Notre Dame career, he feels assured he can dominate with other aspects of his game as well.

“From a technical standpoint, I feel much more developed,” Lenzy said. “There's a lot of plays that seemed a lot more difficult in the past that just make a lot more sense now.”

Lenzy says he has an improved feel for understanding coverages pre-snap, especially by identifying where the safeties are lined up and anticipating their movement. 

“It gives me clues as to what the corner might be doing at the line of scrimmage.”

Once he identifies the coverage, he has a repertoire of initial moves to break free from the defense and get open. 

“It’s not just being able to do it, but knowing which release to use versus which coverage or [how to get] leverage,” Lenzy said. “It's not that I was going in blind last year, but building on what I already knew and improving my intelligence as far as being a receiver goes.”

It’s gotten to the point that not only can the 182-pound wide receiver handle press coverage, but he prefers facing it. 

“More than anything, I feel most confident in my release packages. I want to see press,” Lenzy said. “That plays to my advantage.”

On Monday, several other Notre Dame wide receivers expressed similar offseason improvements to the media. 

“They're hungry and want to learn, which is not a given in today's world, but they buy into coaching,” Stuckey said. “They're super competitive, and again, they have a lot of belief in themselves.”

But the majority of the wide receiver room was on the roster in 2021. So what has Stuckey done differently in order to get the most out of his players?

“One of the main things as a coach is you want your guys to trust you,” Stuckey said. “If they don't trust you, they're not going to buy into what you're teaching. Then when they start to see the fruit of what they're doing, then they start believing a little more.

“I think that's one of the biggest things is I've been able to help the guys with that, 'hey, you have a certain skill set, and if you buy into that, you can do a very good job.'"

Of course, the wide receivers also deserve much of the credit. Stuckey may have worked hard to establish trust, but he can’t be around them all of the time.

“Guys bought in over the summer,” Stuckey said. “It takes commitment. We're not with them during the summer, so they had to take ownership of what we did in the spring, the drills that we give them, and do it on their own so that when we come to camp, they can be better. They did that, so I was super, super proud of them.”

Filling the Void: Avery Davis’ Leadership

Now that Notre Dame players have processed the loss of Davis for a few days, it’s clear that the most difficult void to fill won’t be his on-field production but instead his leadership.

“I've stepped up a bit, but I don't know if I've ever completely filled that leadership role as well as Avery,” Lenzy said. “He's not just a captain. In a lot of people's eyes, at least on the offensive side of the ball, that's ‘The Captain.’ The whole situation is pretty devastating.”

Despite the fact that they’re just a year apart in school, Lenzy says the team values Davis’ presence due to the tribulations he’s faced at Notre Dame.

“Avery and I have a much different level of respect within the locker room,” Lenzy said. “That's not [discouting] myself. That's just respect [shown] towards him. He's been through a lot more hurdles than myself. He's still going to be that dude, but as far as from experience goes and just being one of the older dudes, I've definitely tried to step up vocally and reach out to some of the younger players.”

Those same younger players will also need to step up as leaders. Lorenzo Style may just be a sophomore, but he caught 24 passes last year and knows he needs to step up.

“I've definitely been a more vocal leader,” Styles said. “We really don't have too many guys in the room, so everyone has got to step up. I feel like the whole room has grown to be more vocal leaders.”

Davis should still be around the team this fall and will have a presence as a leader, but he won’t be on the field. He also has another ACL recovery and rehab to manage.

“Now we have to be behind him, pushing him in whatever decision he makes in his life going forward,” Stuckey said, “because he is still part of this brotherhood.”

Staying Healthy

It’s football. Injuries are inevitable. 

Minus Davis, Notre Dame has seven healthy scholarship wide receivers on its roster, and Joe Wilkins, Jayden Thomas and Deion Colzie have already missed time in fall camp due to injuries.

It’s imperative that the wide receiver room does as much as possible to stay healthy without limiting their preparation and training intensity. Game one versus Ohio State is less than three weeks away. 

“First, it starts with taking care of our bodies outside the facility,” Styles said. “We've always got to stay on top of that. Also, a big part of it comes with trusting our coaches. We've got to trust that within the practice, they going to protect us while we also do the required work we need to do to be able to perform.”

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