SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Benjamin Morrison’s pie-in-the-face, welcome-to-Notre Dame moment came at 6 a.m., in mid-June at the freshman cornerback’s very first-ever workout with the Irish football team.
Tasked by ND director of football performance Matt Balis to run a series of what he calls “50-yard sprints”, Morrison — fresh out of Brophy Prep in Phoenix — set out to impress his teammates as they all took on the challenge.
“So, I’m running full speed,” Morrison recounted. “And right around 20 (yards), I pick up. And I’ve decided I’ve got to keep going, keep going. As soon as I keep going, I see everyone just stop and turn back around.”
The format, unbeknownst to Morrison, was to sprint 25 yards, turn, touch and sprint 25 yards back to the starting line.
“So, I’m still running, and I’m like 15 yards ahead of everyone,” he said. “And they’re going the opposite direction. So, that was my welcome-to-Notre Dame moment.”
There have been some on the practice field too, Morrison admits with a big smile. Smiling because he has done more than survive them.
“One thing I’ve learned in this culture is that you never ride your highs or lows,” he said. “So, I could have one bad day, but I wake up the next morning (with the) same intensity, same way trying to get better. I’m just always trying to get better every single day.
“And I feel like me being able to do that has allowed me to progress. I just try not to make the same mistake ever. If I make a mistake, I’ve got to look and learn and then come back and not do the same thing again.”
Lather, rinse, repeat — and over the course of two months the 6-foot, 179-pound son of former NFL defensive back Darryl Morrison has become an important depth piece for a cornerback position group that desperately needed that kind of evolution.
Last season, starting cornerback Clarence Lewis led all Irish defensive players in snaps taken with 832. Fellow corner Cam Hart was third with 739. The number of combined snaps not taken by Lewis, Hart and last year’s nickel option, TaRiq Bracy — including blowouts and garbage time — was 10.
And seven of those 10 were from Caleb Offord, who transferred in the offseason to Buffalo.
“He just kept his head down and went in and competed,” Notre Dame cornerbacks coach Mike Mickens said of Morrison’s emergence. “That’s the model in our room. That’s always the model for our team, to be competitive. Have a competitive spirit.
“And that’s what he did. He came in and attacked summer workouts and then attacked the playbook and then got on the field and he keeps attacking each day. That’s what it’s about.”
He has company in sophomore Chance Tucker and fellow freshman Jaden Mickey, who with Morrison have formed a second wave that Mickens believes he can trust and rotate in in game situations this year.
Sophomore Ryan Barnes, who’s taking some reps at safety this month, and Philip Riley along with freshman Jayden Bellamy fill out the nine-player position group.
Collectively, it was the position group that had the most questions to answer on the ND team this offseason but one that has shown in practice notable progress.
The quantity and quality of the cornerback room figures to be severely tested Sept. 3 during fifth-ranked Notre Dame’s season opener at No. 2 Ohio State (7:30 p.m. EDT; ABC-TV).
Notably remaining from an Ohio State offense in 2021 that led the nation in scoring (45.7 points) and total offense per game (561.5 yards) are quarterback C.J. Stroud and wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
Heisman Trophy finalist Stroud led all Power 5 QBs and was second overall in the FBS in passing efficiency (182.2 ratings points). Smith-Njigba figures to be the toughest cover in college football this season after finishing second nationally last season, and first in the Power 5, in receiving yards per game.
He totaled 1,606 yards on 95 catches with nine touchdowns on a team he had to share the ball with two receivers who went 10th and 11th overall in last spring’s NFL Draft in Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave, respectively.
“There’s 11 of us,” Mickens said of the strategy to handle Smith-Njigba next weekend, referring to the entire Irish starting defense. “We’ve got to all prepare for him, right? He’s a great player.”
A great player with more than 100,000 scarlet-and-gray-clad fans in his corner.
“I try to not to focus on what the atmosphere might be like,” Morrison said. “I try to focus on what my task at hand (is). So, if I do get thrown in, I’ll be prepared.
“I’ll know what I have to do, because I’m going against their tendencies. So, I feel like I’m going to prepare every single game as if I’m the starting cornerback. It doesn’t matter if I am or not.”
Faith, family and brash freshman corner Mickey have helped bring Morrison to this point.
Father Darryl, who played collegiately at Arizona and four seasons professionally with the then-Washington Redskins (1993-96), moved wife JoAnn and their five children from Seattle to Phoenix in 2015 to found and become lead pastor of Valley Gate Church.
“It’s awesome,” Benjamin said. “My mom has really instilled Christ in my life again. That’s changed my whole life — the way I view things. I don’t come out here to play football. I come out here and play in honor of God.
“(Football) is not that big, because I know who my God is. So, that’s really the way I look at this.”
The youngest of the Morrison children, Benjamin said he also benefits from the all four older siblings (Sammy, Faith, Grace and Naomi) playing or having played college sports themselves.
Sammy, incidentally, played cornerback at Arizona before finishing at San Diego State, where he was a teammate of Irish cornerback TaRiq Bracy’s twin, TyRee Bracy.
“You see them compete and doing what they love,” Benjamin said of his brother and sisters. “So, I always wanted to find what I love, and I found that in football.
“I saw them succeed. And I’m like, ‘I want to do the same thing.’”
In Mickey, he found an opposite in trash talking (Morrison is the quiet one), but a kindred soul in aspirations and work ethic.
Mickey was an early enrollee, arriving in January — five months before Morrison enrolled — and made a splash during spring football. He never relented and then helped Morrison get up to speed when the two of them would come to ND’s practice facility, the Irish Athletics Center, over the summer by themselves to put the extra work in.
“He taught me the competitive spirit,” Morrison said. “He brought it out in me.”
And gradually it became infectious.
“It’s unit strength, healthy competition,” Mickens said. “Guys love each other. That’s why they go out and compete. They want each other to be better from it.
“When you get a room that’s coaching each other on the field as well, special things can happen.”
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