How a former pro QB is shadowing coaches, training stars for coaching path

If anyone knows that a coaching path doesn’t have to traverse due north on a compass, it’s Notre Dame wideouts coach Chansi Stuckey.

A former All-Atlantic Coast Conference wide receiver for the Tigers, Stuckey spent five seasons in the NFL and later added a year with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League.

Stuckey even dabbled in Hollywood – complete with his own IMDB page – before he transitioned into college coaching.

Now one of the sport’s undeniable rising stars, revamping Notre Dame’s previously depleted wideouts room, Stuckey knows the destination never skips the journey.

Which is why Stuckey is among a number of coaches monitoring the unfolding coaching arc of Lemuel ‘Lem’ Adams – who like Stuckey is a former college standout with a diverse professional experience.

After beginning his playing career under Mike Price at Washington State and concluding it at storied HBCU program Florida A&M, Adams spent more than a decade in professional football – from an after-college tryout with former mentor Steve Mariucci at the San Francisco 49ers to more than a decade in various levels of the Arena Football League and other professional outposts.

Now a trainer in his native Sacramento, Calif., area, Adams is embarking on a coaching career. He’s shadowing coaches – prep and college – across the country.

Among them is Stuckey.

“He’s a micro guy, not a macro guy,” says Stuckey, present last month at the AFCA Convention in Charlotte, N.C., and key in Notre Dame signing a trio of four-star wideouts, as well as four-star Virginia Tech transfer Kaleb Smith, as part of its 2023 class. “Guys look at the overarching, big picture all the time, but he’s a guy that focuses on the details that lead to the big picture.

“As long as I’ve known him, he has always wanted to learn. There are so many smart people in this word, but the best leaders -- the most successful -- don’t like being the smartest person in the room. He was here shadowing us to to learn, to ask questions and to ask why. He wanted to understand everything, and those are huge things that will transfer over.”

Based out of his Game-Fit Fitness facility back in Sacramento, Adams works with myriad high school football teams in the region; he trains individual athletes, including multiple professional UFC fighters, and continues to shadow coaches at each opportunity.

Adams is young, still, but later entering coaching.

After shadowing Mariucci, Stuckey and Cal Golden Bears head coach Justin Wilcox, among others, he is speaking with multiple college programs about potentially joining a staff – after previously focusing on helping individuals of all ages. 

“I have been asked in the past, had spoken to Cal specifically in the past about different positions, among other schools, but it was nothing I really jumped onto,” says Adams, whose past training includes more than 60 NCAA Division I signees and double-digit NFL standouts, including Terrance Mitchell, Arik Armstead and Mo Ali Cox, among others.

“Now, I know I want to coach. It’s something I want to do. I want to take my experience and background and playing experience and my continued development now to the coaching realm. I know I can do it. The football IQ is there, and I’ve been blessed to be trained and mentored by some very good people. I’m comfortable in and love film study, the verbiage of a playbook, developing drills and all of that. I feel I’m very good developing athletes, especially this generation of kids.”

Rocklin (California) High School coach Jason Adams assents, after seeing ‘Coach Lem’s’ impact on the area throughout the past decade.

“He’s got a great ability to communicate with anybody and any age group,” says Adams, with more than two decades, including the past five seasons as head coach, at the 2,000-student school in California’s second-largest classification. “He’s an honest guy, and he doesn’t mind to tell you what you’re doing right and wrong.

“He holds people accountable. We have a number of our kids that go and do individual training but also he also coaches a really good 7-on-7 team that competes in this area. We just appreciate his honesty, he knows what he’s doing but he also will tell a kid what he can improve at and help them improve.”

Right now, a typical day for Adams starts at 4 a.m.; his first classes and training sessions soon follow. Some athletes seek before-school instruction; others come after classes.

In between all of this, Adams picks the brains of coaches all over the country from a Rolodex – OK, an iPhone book of contacts – that features numerous Power 5 coaches, some NFL assistants and friendships he still hones from his multiple times coaching at Nike’s The Opening events, as well as serving as a trainer at the NFL Youth Hall of Fame game.

Lem Adams, sponge.

“I’ve been blessed to shadow Coach Mariucci, Coach Wilcox, Troy Taylor at Sacramento State (now Stanford’s head coach),” Adams says. “I shadowed Coach Stuckey, who I think is the best developer when it comes to wide receivers in the college game.

“Coach (Marcus) Freeman has allowed me to get very involved in shadowing at Notre Dame and getting involved on different things, what to look for. I’ve shadowed some incredible, quality people in this industry and I am going to continue to do it. I ask my guys to be coachable, and I’m going to continue to be coachable and keep learning this game.”

Stuckey expects to see Adams back on a college sideline, coaching, in the near future.

“He is a people first person, which always translates, and he has integrity,” Stuckey says. “Some stories he’s told me about what people try to do, that test his integrity, he wants to do it the right way. Those are people you want to be around and who will be successful.

“And he knows what he’s talking about. He knows the details of teaching the position (wideouts).

“It all goes back to people. How do you start to build a reputation? Like it or not, there are not many good, genuine people out there sometimes. Lem doesn’t want anything in return. He just wants to do it the right way.”