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What Notre Dame Has At Cornerback In 2020

Now that Notre Dame defensive back Shaun Crawford has officially announced he's returning for a sixth season, there's a much clearer picture of the 2020 secondary.

This comes with intrigue, as well as concern, because cornerback may be the weakest position group next season, with seven players on the roster that have four years of eligibility remaining and just two players, one being Crawford, with meaningful playing experience.

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Notre Dame defensive back Shaun Crawford after making a play in the season-opener against Louisville.
Notre Dame defensive back Shaun Crawford after making a play in the season-opener against Louisville. (Mike Miller)

Much of this is due to recruiting misses in the class of 2017, Noah Boykin transferring last spring and moving rising juniors DJ Brown and Houston Griffith to safety in the last calendar year.

The two players that have playing experience, Crawford and rising junior TaRiq Bracy, don't bring the size to the cornerback position that boundary players such as Julian Love and even Troy Pride did over the last few seasons.

Notre Dame will also need three cornerbacks on the field in nickel situations, so it's important that at least one of the young players step up and fill that role.

That doesn't mean it's time to panic, either. We may not know who the cornerbacks coach will be yet (or even if that specific coaching position will exist), but Clark Lea is still the leader of the defense, and he as done a bang-up job in each of the last two seasons, especially against the pass.

Notre Dame had the fifth-overall team passing efficiency defense in 2019.

Star In The Making?

TaRiq Bracy:

After playing 573 snaps in his first two seasons in a Notre Dame uniform, Bracy's most impressive stat is actually something he's never done: miss a tackle. In 2019, He also finished second among Fighting Irish corners in total tackles with 34, behind only Pride, who played 257 more snaps.

That's why in 2019, Bracy earned by far the highest Pro Football Focus tackling grade on the team with a near-elite 90.8 rating. The next closest was fifth-year linebacker Asmar Bilal with an 84.4.

With what should prove to be a full-time starting role in 2020, Bracy is likely to miss at least a tackle or two, but he's shown he has the toughness and technique necessary to be a productive tackler, even with his slender build at 5-10 and 170 pounds.

The elite tackling ability he's shows thus far could serve him well in the boundary (if that's where he plays), even if he doesn't have the ideal size or girth for the position. Bracy will, however, have to improve his coverage skills after allowing completions on 61 percent of the balls thrown his way in 2019, but that doesn't mean he can't do it.

That's actually the exact same percentage of completions Love allowed in his freshman season in 2016. The following year, Love improved that number to 43.4 percent.

This would be a huge jump for Bracy, but even getting closer to 50 percent would make him a very productive player in 2020. He certainly has shown an aptitude for making plays, now Bracy will have to do it on a more consistent basis.

The Veteran

Shaun Crawford:

As Blue and Gold Illustrated's Lou Somogyi pointed out yesterday, Crawford received Notre Dame's prestigious Nick Pietrosante Award that celebrates loyalty, dedication and courage, among other traits, at Echoes 2019.

Perhaps some of those other traits should be perseverance and even having a high pain tolerance because no one exhibited those more than Crawford this season.

The gritty veteran, of course, has a checked history when it comes to injuries. He missed all of 2015 and 2018 after tearing his ACL in fall camp before both seasons. He played on full game in 2016, but then missed the rest of the year after rupturing his Achilles.

The good news, Crawford was a valuable member of the Notre Dame secondary in 2017 and 2019.

According to Pro Football Focus, which includes holding plays and certain other penalties in its total snap counts, Crawford has played 897 career snaps at Notre Dame, which is more than anyone else in the secondary.

This past season, Crawford played nine games and 388 snaps, missing four contests with after he dislocated his elbow and tore multiple ligaments. He accumulated 28 tackles, two pass deflections and one interception this season.

Crawfords most productive season was in 2017 when he had played 11 games, 417 snaps and had 30 tackles, five pass deflections two interceptions, a sack and a forced fumble.

At 5-9 and 180 pounds, Crawford certainly is a bit small and he doesn't have quite the same speed and agility that he had before two ACL tears and a ruptured Achilles, but he does have cunning, toughness and experience on his side.

He should prove to be a valuable member of the secondary in 2020, but the question remains, can he stay healthy? And even if he does, it's probably too much to ask him to play every snap of every game.

A young member of the cornerback room is going to have to step up.

Minimal Experience

KJ Wallace:

After appearing in three games this season, Wallace has the third most experience among returning Notre Dame cornerbacks, even in that only includes a total of 18 defensive snaps.

On those snaps, which mostly occurred in garbage time, no passes were thrown his way.

While this doesn't provide much insight into what the 5-10, 191-pound rising sophomore can provide the Notre Dame secondary, Wallace did look good in the fall camp practices the media was allowed to watch in August.

Of all seven young corners, Wallace is the best bet to have a meaningful role, even if that's just coming in for nickel situations, but it's way too early to count any of the other players out.


Cam Hart:

After going through all of fall camp and the first month of the season playing wide receiver, the Notre Dame coaching staff decided to move Hart to cornerback due to his 6-2, 208-pound frame.

"He was a guy that played quite a bit of defense when we recruited him," said Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly after Hart made his first appearance at corner against Bowling Green. "We're looking for some size at that position, and he certainly brings that. We evaluated him the last couple of weeks at the position during one-on-ones and some individual periods, and we really liked what we saw there, and right now we're going to work him at the cornerback position."

Hart ended up playing three snaps that game, all of which were run plays. Still, he found himself in the two-deep the following week, even though he didn't make another game appearance the rest of 2019.

"The ability for somebody long to transition from backpedaling," Kelly said the following week. "Because that's the biggest thing, how you can flip your hips and then break out of your backpedal on the football. And then there has to be a natural kind of easy movement, if you will, in doing so. And there was a lot of ease to that movement, those transitions. Terry and Todd and Clark and I all felt like this was going to be an easy transition for him.

"He's still got a lot of work to do. You know, he's far from being in a position where we feel like he can go out there and handle it by himself."

If he's ready to contribute in 2020, he will certainly give the cornerback rotation the size it desperately needs to compete with the big, athletic receivers USC and Clemson have on their rosters.


Isaiah Rutherford:

Among the seven inexperienced cornerbacks Notre Dame will have on its roster in 2020, Rutherford was the highest-rated coming out of high school.

According to Rivals, he was the No. 110 overall player in the class of 2019 and the No. 12 cornerback. But much of that was based on the raw potential of the 6-0, 188-pound freshman, who was a primary contributor at running back coming out of high school.

Rutherford flew mostly under the radar in 2019, and did not play a defensive snap all season. But there were murmurs at the end of the year that he had started to progress.

It will be interesting to see where he is in spring practice and if he's ready to compete for a meaningful role in 2020.

Incoming Freshmen

Notre Dame will have four true freshman cornerbacks on the roster in 2020.

According to Rivals, Landen Bartleson and Caleb Offord are the highest-rated prep players among the four, each listed as a 5.7 three-star. Bartleson is considered the No. 39 overall cornerback in the class of 2020, while Offord is No. 43.

It's also worth noting that Barletson was a plan-A recruit from the beginning, meaning Notre Dame wanted him well before the staff missed out a few higher-rated prospects.

Ramon Henderson and Clarence Lewis are both 5.6 three-stars. Lewis is considered the No. 83 overall cornerback recruit, while Henderson is unranked at his position. That doesn't mean Henderson can't be the best of the bunch, as other services even rate him as a four-star prospect.

The good news is that all three are tall, long and athletic prospects with verified speed, so the Notre Dame has a pretty good idea of what they're getting in each player, even if they're a bit raw.

Of the four, Bartleson is listed at 5-11, which is still a good height for a corner. Lewis is 6-0, Offord is 6-1 and Henderson is 6-3.

Henderson and Offord are both set to enroll early, while Bartleson reportedly wants to, but that's looking doubtful at this point.

There's also a slight possibility Notre Dame could add another defensive back recruit to it's 2020 recruiting class in Cameron Martinez from Muskegon, Mich.

The unranked four-star recruit is the fifth-highest-rated athlete in the class, and he could play cornerback, safety or receiver. Martinez is currently committed to Ohio State, but he decided not to put pen to paper during the December signing period after his would-be position coach Jeff Hafley left the Buckeyes for the head coaching job at Boston College.

The Notre Dame staff has started to engage with him once again, but according to Blue and Gold's recruiting insider Mike Singer, there's still a long way to go.

If Martinez does end up as part of the class, he will be a welcome edition.

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