When Notre Dame football head coach Marcus Freeman met with local reporters in late May, he outlined the expectations for cornerback Benjamin Morrison’s return to full strength from a March shoulder surgery.
“Sometime close to Texas A&M,” Freeman said in May in reference to Notre Dame’s season opener on the road against the Aggies on Aug. 31.
With one month left until that game in College Station, Texas, Freeman said Wednesday he expects Morrison to be ready for the season opener. Freeman spoke to reporters following the first preseason practice.
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Morrison required arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder after just four spring practice sessions in March. Morrison was always expected to be a partial participant in summer workouts and when preseason camp opened Wednesday. Morrison took plenty of reps in Wednesday's practice but was held out at times.
Morrison’s importance to Notre Dame’s defense should be pretty clear after two seasons with the Irish. He earned Freshman All-America honors in 2022 after intercepting six passes, breaking up four more and making 33 tackles with one for a loss in 13 games and nine starts.
Morrison led the Irish in pass breakups last season with 10 even though his interception number dipped to three. He started 11 games, played in 12 and missed the Pittsburgh game with a quad injury. Morrison still finished third on the team in defensive snaps (621) behind safety Xavier Watts (708) and linebacker JD Bertrand (647).
The 6-foot, 190-pound Morrison has been projected as a first-round pick in next year’s NFL Draft by many draft analysts. But Morrison needs to get healthy and stay healthy to reach those expectations and give himself the option to leave Notre Dame after just three seasons.
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Notre Dame is thin on experience at cornerback beyond Morrison and fellow junior Jaden Mickey, who started three games and played in 24 his first two seasons. Mickey has 500 career defensive snaps at Notre Dame.
Sophomore Christian Gray played in 12 games last season as a freshman, but he primarily played in lopsided victories for the Irish. He recorded 198 defensive snaps, 11 tackles, one interception and two pass breakups.
Senior Chance Tucker is the only other scholarship cornerback with college experience at Notre Dame. He’s totaled just 51 defensive snaps, all of which came in the past two seasons. Tucker played in four games as a junior with three solo tackles.
Graduate transfers Jordan Clark (Arizona State) and Rod Heard II (Northwestern) have played nickelback at their previous colleges, but they’re not expected to compete for outside cornerback roles. Clark is a projected starter at nickelback. Heard is a projected starter at safety.
A pair of scholarship freshman cornerbacks joined the program in June: four-star recruit Leonard Moore and three-star recruit Karson Hobbs.
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