WR coach Mike Brown's hiring is made official at Notre Dame football
SOUTH BEND — Mike Brown will hit the ground running after his hiring was made official Sunday afternoon as Notre Dame football’s new wide receivers coach.
Brown, 34, will coach his position group in preparation for the Dec. 29 Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl against 19th-ranked Oregon State.
While Brown carried the additional title of associate head coach at Wisconsin, where he followed former Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell after four seasons on staff with the Bearcats, Brown’s responsibilities will solely rest with the Irish wideouts.
“The best compliment that I could ever get as a wide receivers coach is, ‘Man, your guys play extremely, extremely hard,’ “ Brown told Wisconsin reporters last offseason. “When I hear that, all right, that’s something that will mean a lot to me. … The No. 1 thing is playing hard. It’s the core principle of our program.”
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Florida International grad transfer Kris Mitchell committed to Notre Dame after leading Conference USA in receiving yards (1,118) on 64 catches this season. Clemson transfer Beaux Collins (6-3, 210) committed to Notre Dame on Sunday after visiting over the weekend.
Four Irish receivers have entered the transfer portal since the regular season ended. Graduate Chris Tyree returned home to Virginia, while sophomore Tobias Merriweather and freshmen Rico Flores Jr., and Braylon James, remain unattached.
Brown replaces Chansi Stuckey, who was dismissed three days after the regular-season finale at Stanford. Like Stuckey, who spent two seasons on staff at Notre Dame, Brown is a former NFL wideout who played quarterback and receiver in college (Liberty).
The Charlottesville, Va., native spent three seasons (2012-14) with the Jacksonville Jaguars after going undrafted. Brown made 39 catches for 534 receiving yards and two touchdowns in the NFL.
Brown joins offensive coordinator Gerad Parker (2017), quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli (2017-22) and offensive grad assistant Kurt Rawlings (2022) as Irish offensive staffers who worked under Fickell at Cincinnati.
In addition, Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman (2017-20) and defensive coaches Mike Mickens (2011, 2018-19), Al Washington (2017) and Max Bullough (2019) worked for the Bearcats during the Fickell era as did recruiting director Chad Bowden.
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for NDInsider.com and is on social media @MikeBerardino.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame football names Mike Brown new wide receivers coach
