The Gold Standard: Early reviews of new Notre Dame WR coach Mike Brown on the recruiting trail

Notre Dame hired Mike Brown away from Wisconsin eight days ago to be its new wide receivers coach, and he hit the ground running on the recruiting trail, spending time on both coasts and checked in with high school targets, commits and transfer portal players. Overall, the reviews of the new Irish staffer have been strong early on.

*** A major priority for Brown once his hire became official was to quickly connect with the 2024 receiver commits he inherited, and everything is going very well there. While Blue & Gold hasn’t been able to connect with Charlotte (N.C.) Christian’s Micah Gilbert, we’re told that he’s locked in with his pledge. Glen Ellyn (Ill.) Glenbard South’s Cam Williams and Salinas (Calif.) Palma’s Logan Saldate were certainly sad to see Chansi Stuckey go, but they reaffirmed their respective Irish commitments after the news broke a couple weeks ago, and they’ve clicked early on with Brown.

“Just been having some contact with him again has been nice after knowing him in the past and liking him as a coach,” Williams said. “It’ll be nice to get that relationship refreshed and rolling again.”

Interestingly enough, when Williams got an offer from Cincinnati back on April 27, 2022, the news came from former Bearcats offensive coordinator and current Notre Dame quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli. And Mike Brown was the receivers coach at the time and led the way for Cincinnati in the recruitment. The Bearcats were a finalist for Williams before he committed to the Irish during the summer of 2022 in large part due to his connection with the two staffers.

Brown spent some time out west early last week, and here’s what Saldate said about his time with Brown.

“We just talked for a while, got to know each other, got to know my family,” he said. “It was amazing. We obviously knew that Coach Freeman wouldn’t bring in a scrub coach, right? And it would always be for the better. But it was definitely reassuring to talk to him personally and just see what he teaches and see where his head is at.”

*** Las Vegas Bishop Gorman’s Derek Meadows, who ranks as the nation’s No. 128 overall prospect and No. 16 wide receiver in America per the On3 Industry Ranking, is a crucial target for Notre Dame in the 2025 class. Brown has been in communication with Meadows and stopped by Bishop Gorman last week as well.

“He is a really cool coach,” Meadows said. “He is also very interested in me, and I definitely want to build a strong relationship with him.”

*** It remains to be seen how hard Notre Dame will push for Davie (Fla.) Western’s Koby Howard, the No. 322 overall prospect and No. 46 wideout according to the 2025 On3 Industry Ranking, but he tells Blue & Gold that he’s been in increased contact with Irish head coach Marcus Freeman in recent weeks. At the time of his conversation with Blue & Gold, Howard had not spoken with Brown since the 34-year-old coach started his new position. But Brown offered Howard a scholarship to Wisconsin back in August, and Howard speaks highly of Brown.

“I think Coach Mike Brown is a great hire,” Howard said. “I believe he can develop me into a first-round draft pick, no doubt. He has a great skill for teaching technique a bringing out the best in his wide outs. I went back and studied some of the players he coached at Cincinnati — the team that made the playoffs — and their receivers were legit.

“I can’t wait to see what he does with the wide receiver room at Notre Dame which I think is a big upgrade from the room he had at Wisconsin. Notre Dame will have my full attention.”

*** Like with Howard, Brown was in pursuit of Scottsdale (Ariz.) Notre Dame Preparatory’s Cooper Perry, the No. 245 player and No. 32 wideout per the 2025 On3 Industry Ranking, when he was coaching at Wisconsin. In recent months I haven’t had a strong sense that Perry would land at Notre Dame, but we’ll see if that changes with the Irish hiring Brown. Perry tells me that he and Brown have a good relationship. Brown offered Perry back in July.

*** Guidugli and Brown had a home visit last Thursday with Florida International transfer wide receiver and Irish commit Kris Mitchell. One person on the Mitchell side of things that was in the home for the visit sent me the following message about Brown: “He’s really chill and laid back. He’s excited to be back working with Coach Freeman again.”

*** On Sunday, Brown extended a scholarship offer to Tempe (Ariz.) Corona Del Sol’s Raiden Vines-Bright, who ranks as the No. 396 player and No. 57 wideout nationally per the 2025 On3 Industry Ranking. Vines-Bright is another player who Brown offered while at Wisconsin, and he will be a name to watch moving forward.

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