Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com APRIL 2020 19 BY LOU SOMOGYI M ike Mickens achieved im- mense success under head coach Brian Kelly as a player. Starting this year, he will attempt to match it as a coach. The 32-year-old Mickens was named the successor to former Fighting Irish All-American Todd Lyght, who had been on the staff since 2015 before opt- ing to relocate this winter to California. A semifinalist for the 2008 Jim Thorpe Award as the nation's top defensive back, Mickens earned All- America notice as a junior and se- nior at the University of Cincinnati in 2007-08, finishing with 234 career tackles while setting new school career records in interceptions (14, three of them returned for touch- downs) and return yardage (296). "Mike was very cerebral, very smart," Kelly said. "He could always give you back what game plans were and what we wanted to do. He was really a sharp player, but I never knew that he would want to get into the business itself. "The first part of that is just making sure they understand what my expec- tations are of our coaches — and that is demanding but not demeaning." Most recently as the cornerbacks coach at his alma mater under head coach Luke Fickell, Mickens helped the Bearcats post back-to-back 11-win seasons in 2018-19, finishing No. 24 (2018) and No. 21 (2019) in the As- sociated Press poll. It was the first time the Bearcats had consecutive top-25 finishes since … when Kelly was the coach in 2007 (No. 17), 2008 (No. 17) and 2009 (No. 4). During the past two years, Mick- ens was a valued leader in two ways. The first was on the field, with the Bearcats finishing No. 13 nationally in pass efficiency defense in 2018 and No. 15 this season. Notre Dame was quite proficient itself with No. 6 and No. 5 rankings in that category, re- spectively. The second came on the recruiting trail — where the Irish need an upgrade — and particularly his work with underclassmen. The Dayton, Ohio, native signed a trio of cornerbacks this past cycle in Sammy Anderson and DeShawn Pace from Ohio, and De'Arre Mc- Donald from Tennessee to supple- ment a Bearcats haul that has been hailed as the best in school history. Notable is that Anderson also was pursued by the likes of Michigan and Penn State, while several SEC schools such as Arkansas, Kentucky, Ole Miss and South Carolina sought to land McDonald. A year earlier, Mickens inked Detroit native Ahmad Gardner — who this past season joined Notre Dame's Kyle Hamilton as a first-team Freshman All-American on various outlets. Fur- thermore, Gardner was a third-team Pro Football Focus All-American. PFF graded out Gardner as the nation's sixth-best corner, regardless of class, highlighted by a 90.0 coverage grade. Five years earlier (2014) under head coach Dino Babers at Bowling Green, Mickens instructed a pair of freshman corners, Nick Johnson and Clint Stephens, who nabbed five and four interceptions respectively while helping the Falcons to the Mid- American Conference East title, and a repeat in 2015 with a 10-3 record that helped Babers land the head coaching position at Syracuse. A vital factor in Mickens' history with young talent is that at Notre Dame in 2020, six of the eight corner- backs he is instructing will have four years of eligibility remaining, with sixth-year senior Shaun Crawford and junior TaRiq Bracy the only exceptions. Last year, the Irish redshirted their three freshman corners: Cam Hart — who made the switch from receiver during the season — K.J. Wallace and Isaiah Rutherford. This year the trio that signed is comprised of Clarence Lewis, Ramon Henderson and Caleb Offord — and the latter two enrolled early, meaning they were on the field when spring practice commenced March 5. No single position group at Notre Dame enters the upcoming campaign with more question marks than cor- nerback, which makes it "the hot cor- ner" in 2020. After playing professionally a cou- ple of seasons before injuries derailed his career, Mickens joined the Cin- cinnati staff in 2011 as a defensive assistant before moving to Indiana State (2012), Idaho (2013) and then Bowling Green, where he settled in under Babers and remained through the 2017 campaign. ✦ The hoT Corner New cornerbacks coach Mike Mickens inherits a youth-laden corps Mickens, a former All-American defensive back at Cincinnati in 2007-08 and the Bearcats' cornerbacks coach in 2018-19, rejoins his former college head coach Brian Kelly at Notre Dame. PHOTO BY MIKE MILLER