Chansi Stuckey will have one less hole to fill in his wide receivers corps.
On Friday, graduate student wide receiver Matt Salerno announced he would return to Notre Dame for a sixth season. The 6-foot-1, 195-pound pass catcher applied his COVID-19 season exemption to remain at Notre Dame. He redshirted as a freshman in 2018.
Notre Dame's wide receivers coach, Stuckey, is in the process of upgrading his position group by adding four incoming freshman wide receivers in Rico Flores Jr., Jaden Greathouse, Braylon James and Kaleb Smith. Flores, Greathouse and James will enroll in January, and Smith will join the program in June 2023. Meanwhile, Stuckey is hosting former Virginia Tech wide receiver Kaleb Smith on an official visit this weekend.
Yet, there is still a spot for Salerno, even with Deion Colzie, Tobias Merriweather, Lorenzo Styles and Jayden Thomas on the roster.
Salerno walked during Notre Dame's senior ceremony before the Boston College game Nov. 19, hinting at an expected departure for the fifth-year Irish contributor. Then, later that game, Salerno caught his first career touchdown on a play call intended for him from offensive coordinator Tommy Rees.
“Had that play up a few times," Rees said three days during his weekly press conference. "Look, we’re not going to put our team at a disadvantage. But the look showed for it. Matt has good quick-area agility to get in and out of some of those cuts. We scored a two-pointer on it earlier in the year. [Tyler Buchner] ran it in. It was intentional to put that guy in that spot. We got the look we wanted, and Matt did a nice job of executing it.
“He’s a guy we have a ton of trust in. He’s in there in critical moments. He’s in there in roles that are critically important. He’s tagged on stuff to make sure he’s in. There is stuff throughout the year where he’s done a lot of the dirty work for us and been in critical spots. He’s worked extremely hard to earn the opportunity to be out there playing. What other moment could you have on senior night to score your first touchdown and share that?"
Even after Rees made sure Salerno had his moment, he hoped it wouldn't be the Encino (Calif..) Crespi Carmelite High product's last one at Notre Dame Stadium.
“I’m going to start the campaign now to get him back for his sixth year," he said. "And see if we can keep him here for one more opportunity to play football."
Salerno played a career-high 129 offensive snaps this season for the Irish, catching five passes for 62 yards and one touchdown. Before this season, he had caught just one pass that went for -4 yards in 2022.
In his Notre Dame career, Salerno has appeared in 35 games seeing heavy duty on special teams with 188 snaps. He made his first appearance on offense in a 22-17 win against Vanderbilt on Sept. 15, 2018. Since then, he has registered 179 offensive snaps in his five seasons with the Irish. And now, he'll be back for more.
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