Benjamin Morrison won't be suiting up for Notre Dame's Blue-Gold Game on April 20.
The star cornerback has been sidelined with a right shoulder injury that required arthroscopic surgery on Monday, the Notre Dame football program announced Tuesday. That officially ended his participation in spring practice, but the program expects him to return for the 2024 season in the fall.
Morrison has been one of Notre Dame's most important defenders in his first two seasons with the program. Morrison became a Freshman All-American in 2022 by intercepting six passes and breaking up four more after being promoted into the starting lineup. Morrison, who played in all 13 games and started nine of them, finished with 33 tackles and one tackle for loss.
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Morrison didn't match his freshman interception total as a sophomore last season, but he managed to impact more passes with three interceptions and 10 pass breakups. Morrison started 11 games and played in 12. He missed the Pittsburgh game with a quad injury and didn't start in the season opener against Navy's triple-option.
Despite missing one game, Morrison still finished third on the team in defensive snaps (621) behind unanimous All-America safety Xavier Watts (708) and linebacker JD Bertrand (647), per Pro Football Focus.
The 6-foot, 186-pound Morrison is a candidate to be a three-and-done player at Notre Dame with one more dominant season. PFF gave Morrison a coverage grade of 84.6 last season, which ranked No. 22 in FBS among cornerbacks with at least 300 coverage snaps. He finished 23rd in the same category as a freshman with an 82.2 coverage grade.
In the two combined seasons tracked by PFF, Morrison has allowed 47 catches on 102 targets (46.1%) for 575 yards and four touchdowns.
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In the absence of Morrison, junior Jaden Mickey and sophomore Christian Gray are expected to be the first-team cornerbacks. The two have been competing with each other for the open starting spot opposite of Morrison, which was manned last season by NFL-bound Cam Hart.
Mickey has three career startsin two seasons with 24 games played. He totaled 20 tackles, one interception and two pass breakups. Gray played in 12 games as a freshman with 11 tackles, one interception and two pass breakups. Both came to Notre Dame with four-star ratings and ranked in the Rivals250 for their respective classes.
Notre Dame's other scholarship cornerback options remaining this spring include graduate senior Clarence Lewis, senior Chance Tucker and sophomore Micah Bell. Lewis and Bell have also been competing at nickelback with Arizona State graduate transfer Jordan Clark. Incoming freshmen Leonard Moore, a four-star recruit, and Karson Hobbs, a three-star recruit, aren't set to arrive until June.
Morrison's surgery was the second to a projected Notre Dame starter in the last week. On Friday, quarterback Riley Leonard had his second surgery of the year on his right ankle. Leonard is expected to be out for "a few weeks."
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