Bowl notebook: Marcus Freeman touches on Notre Dame's WR drama
More compelling in Marcus Freeman’s first press conference in seven days than the Notre Dame head coach’s initial thoughts Sunday on the Irish bowl destination and opponent for the 16th-ranked Irish was a look back.
Specifically, to the second-year NDh head coach’s about-face this past week, in which he expressed the desire to have all his assistant coaches roll into 2024 with him on Monday, then firing wide receivers coach Chansi Stuckey on Tuesday.
Offensive coordinator Gerad Parker, who also coaches tight ends, now has the wide receivers under his tutelage for Notre Dame’s Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl matchup Dec. 29 against 19th-ranked Oregon State (8-4) in El Paso, Texas (2 p.m. EST; CBS).
And Freeman, during 15-minute Monday Zoom call promoting the Sun Bowl matchup, did touch on the issue of Stuckey’s departure, sandwiched by four Irish wide receivers — senior Chris Tyree, sophomore Tobias Merriweather, and freshmen Braylon James and Rico Flores Jr. — all expressing their intentions to transfer out.
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All four were in the transfer portal by Monday morning. Tyree, a grad transfer, already had made a weekend recruiting visit to Virginia by then.
“From the last time we spoke, it was 24 hours of deep thought and difficult conversations with a lot of players and a lot of coaches regarding our overall performance at wideout,” said Freeman, who already has a successor lined up with Wisconsin’s Mike Brown expected to be named to replace Stuckey.
“And I had to make a difficult decision, and I'm truly just thankful for Chansi and everything he's done and given to this program, but we had to move forward and that's what we were going to do.”
The Irish (9-3) will move forward in their bowl prep with two wide receivers who missed most or all of the season with injuries — freshman KK Smith and junior Deion Colzie. Smith, a June enrollee, had offseason shoulder surgery and missed the entire 2023 regular season. Colzie played through pain early in the season and then underwent arthroscopic knee surgery after game 4 in late September and hasn’t played in a game since.
Since he only played in four regular-season games and since the NCAA re-upped its waiver not to count a bowl game against the four-game maximum for redshirting, Colzie will have the option to take this season as a redshirt year.
“This is obviously KK's first real practice,’ Freeman said, “but we've only had two practices so far, so I'm excited to see him as we continue to progress.”
Colzie and Smith will be joined as available bowl wide receiver options by freshmen Jaden Greathouse and Jordan Faison, junior Jayden Thomas and grad senior Matt Salerno.
Opting to wait
Freeman says he knows which players he’ll have available to face Oregon State in the bowl game and which ones plan to opt out. He just wasn’t willing to share the list on Monday.
“We're moving forward with the guys that we have,” he said, “but I want to make sure we let those guys, who are not going to play, make their announcements in the next few days. I want to give them the opportunity to do that.”
When asked specifically about starting quarterback Sam Hartman’s status, Freeman repeated his previous answer.
Oregon State, meanwhile, is down to QB No. 3, after senior starter DJ Uiagalelei announced his intentions to transfer last week and freshman backup Aidan Chiles jumped into the transfer portal Monday. He’s expected to follow head coach Jonathan Smith to Michigan State.
OSU interim head coach Kefense Hynson confirmed Ben Gulbranson is now at the top of the Beavers’ QB depth chart for the Sun Bowl. He threw just one pass — and completed it — in game action in 2023. However, the 6-3, 215-pound redshirt sophomore has plenty of experience.
He played in 10 games and started eight due to injuries in 2022, and the Newberry Park, Calif., product went 7-1 as a starter last season and was named MVP of the 2022 Las Vegas Bowl. He completed 121 of 194 pass attempts for 1,455 yards and nine TDs with five interceptions in 2022. He also rushed for 52 net yards and five scores.
According to our Rivals Oregon State site, beaversedge.com, Oregon State will also be without, notably, running back Damien Martinez (away from team), right tackle Taliese Fuaga (NFL Draft prep) and receiver Anthony Gould (NFL Draft prep) — all confirmed Monday by Hynson in his Monday Sun Bowl Zoom call.
Also of note, cornerbacks coach Anthony Perkins has been elevated to interim defensive coordinator for the Sun Bowl and will call defensive plays in the game. Perkins will be a part of new Oregon State head coach Trent Bray’s staff.
Bray is not taking an active role in the Sun Bowl, so he can focus on recruiting and assembling his staff.
Strength coach update
The search for a permanent replacement for former Notre Dame football director of football performance Matt Balis is moving ahead with urgency, even with everything else Freeman has on his plate this month.
Balis resigned in late July for personal reasons, just days before training camp was set to start. Fred Hale, who took over on an interim basis, is a candidate for the permanent job as Freeman conducts a nationwide search.
“That's definitely in the top of our priorities, my priority,” Freeman said. “Still working through this process and going through some interviews and hope to make a decision here sooner rather than later.”
On schedule
Notre Dame has held two bowl practices so far and will practice again this weekend before breaking for final exams next week.
“After the following week, recruiting will be over, and so then we'll really dive deep into the practice plans before — I can't remember the exact date — we're going to let them go home,” Freeman said. “We're going to give them a couple of days to go home before we get to El Paso on the 24th.
“So, that's kind of how it's going to be the next two weekends — we'll practice. During the week we'll be on the road recruiting and then we'll have a good five, six days before we let our players go home.”
Squibs
• Sun Bowl officials revealed on Monday’s Zoom that the Bowl sold out all 51,500 seats in one day.
• Former Notre Dame quarterback Tyler Buchner, who spent his junior season as a reserve on Alabama’s football roster, has entered the transfer portal as a lacrosse recruit. Buchner was a high school lacrosse standout in San Diego and made several recruiting visits to major programs for that sport before football took off.
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