Notre Dame football will finish the season without one of its best players.
Junior cornerback Benjamin Morrison, a preseason second team AP All-American, suffered a hip injury in Saturday's 49-7 victory over Stanford, head coach Marcus Freeman announced Monday. Morrison's injury will require a surgery that will force him to miss the remainder of the season.
The loss of Morrison will push freshman cornerback Leonard Moore into the starting lineup. Moore started in place of sophomore Christian Gray in the Louisville game when Gray was sidelined with a minor shoulder injury.
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Notre Dame football listed two players as questionable for Saturday's game in Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium against Georgia Tech (3:30 p.m. EDT on ESPN): starting kicker Mitch Jeter (right hip) and right guard Billy Schrauth (right ankle).
Sophomore wide receiver Jordan Faison (right ankle) is expected to be available after not playing against Stanford.
Correction: Notre Dame has not clarified if defensive tackle Jason Onye, who missed the Stanford game for personal reasons, will be available for Saturday's game. A previous version of this story reported Onye as available because he was excluded from Notre Dame's availability update and listed on the depth chart.
The loss of Morrison is a serious blow for the Irish. He recorded four pass breakups and 20 tackles this season, which may have been his last at Notre Dame. Morrison was projected as a first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft by many analysts. Though Morrison had yet to intercept a pass this season, he tallied nine interceptions in his first two seasons with the Irish.
Notre Dame already lost two other cornerbacks for the season: junior Jaden Mickey and senior Chance Tucker. Mickey opted to end his season after four games to maintain a year of eligibility while entering the transfer portal. Tucker suffered a season-ending knee injury in preseason camp.
Gray, who has one interception, four pass breakups and nine tackles this season, will remain in the starting lineup. Moore, who has 13 tackles and one forced fumble, will be in line to make his second career start.
The only other remaining scholarship cornerback available for Notre Dame is freshman Karson Hobbs, a former three-star recruit from Cincinnati Moeller. Hobbs has played in three games this season with one pass breakup against Miami (Ohio).
When Morrison missed time in the Louisville game, Notre Dame moved nickelback Jordan Clark to play on the outside and moved safety Rod Heard II into the nickelback role. The Irish will likely need to do that at times in the second half of the season.
Notre Dame showed what its emergency kicker plans looked like Saturday. Jeter, who typically handles field goals, extra points and kickoffs for the Irish, was pulled from the game after a 39-yard kickoff that followed his lone extra-point attempt and make of the day. The Irish subbed in junior Zac Yoakam on extra points and graduate senior Eric Goins on kickoffs and even let sophomore Marcello Diomede kick an extra point following the final touchdown in the fourth quarter.
Jeter, a graduate transfer from South Carolina, made five of his seven field-goal attempts (71.4%) with a long of 48 yards in the first five games of his Notre Dame career. He was 20-for-20 on extra points through six games.
Yoakam has yet to attempt a field goal in three seasons with the Irish. He's nine-of-nine on extra-point attempts. Goins made his Notre Dame debut in the Purdue game earlier this season, in which he completed four kickoffs for an average of 64.5 yards with three touchbacks. Goins has experience in kickoffs from his time at The Citadel (2012-15) that preceded his seven years of service in the U.S. Army.
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Schrauth, a starter in the last three games of the 2023 season and first three games of this season, went down in the Purdue game on Sept. 14. He's yet to make a return onto the team's official depth chart. Schrauth participated in some of Notre Dame's warmups prior to Saturday's game.
Onye, a rotational option on ND's defensive line, recorded seven tackles, 1.5 sacks, two quarterback hurries, one pass breakup and one blocked field goal in the first five games of the season.
Faison, who started in the season opener, has been dealing with a right ankle injury since the opener at Texas A&M. He left that game early and missed the two games after it. He aggravated the ankle against Louisville and didn't finish the game. Freeman said Faison was available to play for the Irish on Saturday, but he didn't see any action against Stanford. Faison has caught four passes for 29 yards so far this season.
Freshman safety Tae Johnson (left foot) is the only player declared out for Saturday's game who's expected to return to action at some point this season.
Notre Dame's long list of injured players declared out for the season includes walk-on CB Marty Auer (knee), walk-on DL Quentin Autry (shoulder), S Taebron Bennie-Powell (shoulder), VYP Jordan Botelho (knee), C Ashton Craig (knee), walk-on CB Charles Du (shoulder), OL Charles Jagusah (shoulder), LB Kahanu Kia (knee), CB Benjamin Morrison (hip), RB Gi'Bran Payne (knee), OL Styles Prescod (shoulder), VYP Boubacar Traore (knee) and CB Chance Tucker (knee).
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