EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second in a series looking at Notre Dame football's June roster editions. Returning players report back to ND on Sunday, with the freshmen reporting a week later on June 9. Summer school formally starts on June 10.
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On his last day of class at Cincinnati Bishop Moeller High School earlier this month, Karson Hobbs capped the day with an impromptu fishing expedition with a friend, in hopes of reeling in a modest-size catfish or two.
He ended up with an 8.1-pound bass on his line.
“Threw it back,” the future Notre Dame football cornerback said.
The future merges with the present on June 7, when the former three-star prospect moves into his dorm, with summer school classes for him and the other seven later-arriving freshmen starting three days later.
His summer agenda is even more ambitious than what happened to him with his rod and reel — much more ambitious. But the 6-foot-1, now 189-pounder has certainly put in the work on his own while 15 of his classmates were early enrollees and got to participate in spring football at ND.
Hobbs did the traditional football field work this spring, but also practiced with the Moeller track team after actually being on the team as a member of the 4x100-meter and 4x200 relay teams the season before in competitions.
He also did jiujitsu this spring. And more fishing. Of note, a multiple-day trip in late May on the Florida Gulf Coast, in which he worked in training in the sand in between jaunts on a family friend’s boat into the gulf with his fishing pole.
And there was boxing this spring, too.
“Footwork and hand quickness and hand speed are the main things that help me for football with boxing,” Hobbs said. “I would definitely say my jam in press coverage has definitely become more powerful. And that’s something I felt I was already good enough at.
“But someone once said to me, ‘Why jam like you’re 5-7 instead of like you’re 6-1?’ My strongest force is when my arm is fully extended, and that’s what I got recruited for. So, why not maximize that ability to make it as strong as possible?”
Hobbs said he trained four to five times a week with a Moeller freshman who was involved in the city’s Gold Gloves program.
“Sparred a couple of times,” he said. “Got hit too, but not enough to get a concussion or anything like that. I mean, I can protect myself. I’m not no sucker. At the end of the day, I’m a competitor.”
And that’s something defensive backs coach Mike Mickens is counting on from both Hobbs and fellow June-arriving freshman corner Leonard Moore.
They’re two of the six players, not including projected nickel starter Jordan Clark, left to play the boundary and field corner positions collectively after three players from ND’s still arguably strongest position group hit the transfer portal this offseason — Ryan Barnes (UMass), Clarence Lewis (Syracuse) and Micah Bell (Vanderbilt), the latter of whom is expected to make a run at the wide receiver position at his new school.
What remains at ND is perhaps the best cornerback in the game, in junior Ben Morrison, along with two young-but-seasoned ascending players in junior Jaden Mickey and sophomore Christian Gray as well as senior reserve Chance Tucker.
Hobbs is projected to be a boundary cornerback.
“But I’m adaptable,” he said. “Like, I train myself for all three positions (boundary, field and nickel) on purpose, just so that I can’t have an excuse as to why I couldn’t see time on the field. There should be no excuse. If I train the way I should train and be able to play all three of those positions, I should not have an issue. It’s my life. I do this every single day.”
And much better, Hobbs says, than the version who helped Moeller reach the Division I state semifinals in 2023 with 35 tackles, two interceptions and 13 pass breakups as a senior.
“I’m more mentally developed and ready now,” he said. “And I feel like, as a corner, you’ve got to stay confident. This might sound crazy, but as my faith in God grows stronger, my confidence in everything I do in my life does as well.”
The struggles along the way helped, too, he said. Like being branded a three-star prospect when he felt his talent should have translated into something more.
“It used to really bother me,” he said. “I mean, I would ask people about it all the time. And what I was able to figure out is that not going to some of the [competition] camps hurt me. Like there was one that conflicted last year when we had a big track meet, the Mason Invitational.
“I told the people running it why I couldn’t go. And then my rating dropped. I was chirping about it so much after that, but why? I wasn’t going to let down my team for a star. I’m cool. It’s not who I am. Who I am is a guy who beats the odds, so I started to put my focus on that and put the work in.”
Earlier this week, Hobbs called up his position coach, Mickens, to assure him how ready he is for the opportunity that’s landed in his lap when he originally pondered a smaller role as a freshman.
“I was telling coach Mickens how excited I am and what a blessing and opportunity this is to be able to play for my dream school,” Hobbs said. “Ever since I was a kid, to tell you that I didn’t actually dream about this, like I’d be lying to you. This is a serious dream for me.
“This was something I was telling everyone I was going to do back in the second, third and fourth grade. This is where I want to be. And now it’s here. This is all I’ve ever worked for. Now I realize, I’ve got so much to prove — to myself, my family and everyone who has doubted me.
“But I’m ready for this chance.”
And he’s not about to throw it back.
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