Former Notre Dame wide receiver Rico Flores Jr. chooses UCLA as transfer portal destination
Former Notre Dame wide receiver Rico Flores Jr. is headed back to The Golden State. The Sacramento native announced his next destination after entering the NCAA transfer portal and leaving South Bend at the beginning of the month will be UCLA.
Flores hopped in the portal on Dec. 1, just three days after Notre Dame wide receivers coach Chansi Stuckey was let go from her position. Flores Jr. was one of four Fighting Irish wide receivers to enter the transfer portal in the week after the regular season finale against Stanford on Nov. 25.
Flores was one of Notre Dame’s most consistent and productive wideouts in 2023. In his first year of college football, he caught 27 passes for 392 yards and 1 touchdown. The receptions total ranked second on the team and the yardage ranked third. The one score was a go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter of an eventual 17-14 Irish loss to Ohio State on Sept. 23.
Notre Dame has restocked the wide receiver room with two commits from the transfer portal in Florida International’s Kris Mitchell and Clemson’s Beaux Collins. Mitchell caught 64 passes for 1,118 yards 6 touchdowns in 2023. Collins caught 38 passes for 510 yards and 3 touchdowns.
The Irish are hosting Wake Forest wideout Jahmal Banks, a former top target of 2023 Irish quarterback starter Sam Hartman in Winston Salem, for a recruiting visit this weekend. With Hartman as his signal-caller in 2022, Banks caught 42 passes for 632 yards and 9 touchdowns. This season, Banks reeled in 59 receptions for 653 yards and 4 scores.
Even without Banks, and with Flores having moved on along with Chris Tyree (Virginia), Braylon James (TCU) and Tobias Merriweather (undecided), Notre Dame is slated to have 10 scholarship wide receivers in 2024. Rising seniors Deion Colzie and Jayden Thomas are the longest tenured of the bunch, but rising sophomores Jordan Faison and Jaden Greathouse are expected to be healthy contributors.
Fellow current freshman KK Smith is set to make his season debut coming back from a shoulder injury in the Sun Bowl against Oregon State on Dec. 29. Within the next week, Notre Dame is expected to sign true freshmen Cam Williams, Micah Gilbert and Logan Saldate in the recruiting class of 2024.
Notre Dame’s restocked wide receiver corps will have the luxury of working with incoming quarterback transfer Riley Leonard of Duke, who committed to the Fighting Irish on Monday.
