Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1517388
16 APRIL 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY TYLER HORKA B enjamin Morrison didn't listen to his dad. Usually, he does. He's wiser for it. Darryl Morrison was drafted by Washington as a 5-foot-11, 196-pound defensive back out of Ari- zona in 1993. He spent four seasons in the NFL, all before Ben was born. Darryl has served as a team chaplain for Washington and the Arizona Car- dinals since the end of his playing days. He's spent his whole adult life around football. So when he offers up wisdom for Benjamin, a junior cornerback at Notre Dame, it's coming from a place of experience. Been there, done that type of stuff. He knows what he's talking about. Especially when it's something as sim- ple as catching the ball with two hands. "I tell him all the time, 'Stop trying to catch it with one hand. Practice catch- ing it with two,'" Darryl Morrison told Blue & Gold Illustrated. "I'm screaming, 'C'mon, man.' He just kind of looks at me and keeps doing it." On March 7, he did it again. Darryl wasn't at the Irish Athlet- ics Center on Notre Dame's campus in South Bend to be a voice of reason that day. It was the first session of Fighting Irish spring practice. Shorts, jerseys, helmets. No pads. Light work for Divi- sion I ballers at a place like Notre Dame. Benjamin is a bit of a stranger to light work, though. Everything he does errs on the side of extravagant. That's one word to describe the interception he made on the very first down of 11-on- 11 work in the very first official Notre Dame practice of 2024. There are many more. Morrison had his left hand on senior wide receiver Jayden Thomas' waist as a physical guide for where his man was headed. The contact wasn't excessive. Just right, rather. Nothing to warrant a flag on a fall Saturday. Some corners never learn the art of turning their heads around to see the football. Not Morrison. His eyes were glued to it like an infrared lens on an en- emy aircraft. He plays defense, but when the ball enters his vicinity he goes on the offensive. He attacks it like a fighter pilot. Sure enough, Morrison high-pointed the target intended for Thomas and reeling it in with one hand. There was not a better play made for the duration of the 90-minute practice. Darryl received an influx of text mes- sages later that day. Then a phone call from Benjamin. "He was telling me about the mistakes he made," Darryl said. "[Notre Dame junior corner] Jaden Mickey was like, 'Pops, did he tell you about the play?!' Screaming on the phone. And I'm like, 'No …' So he didn't tell me." The texts were about the play. Mul- tiple people alerted Darryl to it. His son, the one who made happen what nobody else could on the field that day — or any other day, probably — did not. There are multiple assets that come with being the son of a former NFLer. For one, good genes. Morrison doesn't go after incoming footballs with one hand because it looks cool or it's trendy. He does it because he can. He gets better results with one hand than other cor- ners get with two. Even Darryl admitted his son's game Morrison might be enter- ing his final season at Notre Dame as a junior. He's viewed as a high- level 2025 NFL Draft pick. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER CHASING GREATNESS Benjamin Morrison might be the best player on a star-studded Notre Dame defense, and he's had help getting there