Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1528160
6 OCT. 26, 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY TYLER HORKA O f all the season-ending injuries that have hit Notre Dame hard this year — there have been too many for any level-headed Fighting Irish fan to feel comfortable about the team completely overcoming them — the one that came down Oct. 14 feels like the biggest of all. Junior corner Benjamin Morrison is out for the year with a hip injury that needs surgical repair. None of the others, while certainly impediments to Irish success, affect this team like losing Morrison. Charles Jagusah's season was over be- fore it ever got started because of a torn pectoral muscle. That surely shook up the Notre Dame offensive line, but his tear transpiring in early August left time for the Irish to formulate a contingency plan. That's what they did in elevating true freshman Anthonie Knapp to start- ing left tackle. He hasn't been an All- American by any means, but he's been serviceable and the Irish have internally lauded his performance. Jordan Botelho and Boubacar Traore both went down at vyper, and yet, Notre Dame generated 22 quarterback pres- sures against Stanford after it averaged 15.4 in the first five games of the season per Pro Football Focus. No Botelho, no Traore, no problem. Ashton Craig hasn't played a down at center since Week 3. He won't return this season from his knee injury, the same joint that has Botelho and Traore out for the year. Again, no matter. Se- nior Pat Coogan has filled in and been Notre Dame's best offensive linemen since his number was called. PFF had Coogan as the team's third-best offen- sive starter through Week 7 behind Jer- emiyah Love and Riley Leonard. Then there's Morrison. The potential first-round NFL Draft pick. The player who most affects every Notre Dame op- ponent's offensive game plan. Take it from the guy who had to try to concoct one re- cently, Stanford head coach Troy Taylor. "Their corner, No. 20, is as good as I've seen this year," Taylor said pregame. As good as there is in the country, perhaps. In 2023, Morrison was tied for ninth nationally in forced incomplete passes per target among FBS corners who logged 300-plus coverage snaps. Quarterbacks had an NFL passer rating of 60.8 against him that year, in the same ballpark as Ala- bama's Terrion Arnold (50.7). Arnold was the No. 24 overall pick in this year's NFL Draft and is already a starter for the De- troit Lions. The blueprint for Morrison. The consistency in coverage was there this year for Morrison, even if the flashy stats weren't. Morrison had 9 intercep- tions in his first two seasons and 0 six games into his junior year. But that NFL passer rating against? He had it down to 58.4 this fall, better than the number he posted in 2023. His pass completion against percentage of 44.4 was better than that of 49.0 last year, too. And so was his yards per reception against, 10.4, the best figure of his career. Morrison is a true No. 1 corner, pe- riod, even if he isn't Notre Dame's most able and effective tackler. He's Notre Dame's most able and effective cover man, and losing that hinders what the Irish are able to accomplish in the back end of their defense. The good news is the Irish have a Morrison look-alike in sophomore Christian Gray. His strengths are akin to those of Morrison, and their weak- nesses, of which there are few, are simi- lar, too. That's what made them such a great pair; most teams in the country would like to have one player of their caliber. Notre Dame had two. Now we'll figure out just how resem- blant of his elder statesmen freshman Leonard Moore is. He's the proverbial "next man up." He's been here be- fore — just a few weeks ago when Gray couldn't play against Louisville because of a shoulder strain and Moore had to fill in and play almost the whole game; 76 snaps, second most of any Notre Dame defender behind Xavier Watts' 77. The irony is, Morrison was in the same position as Moore two years ago — being called on as a freshman starter. All he did was intercept 6 passes, all in the final five games of the season, and assert himself as a Freshman All-American. The stage is set for Moore to do some- thing similar. "He has the talent and the length and the skill set," Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said. "He's a super-in- telligent young man. But it still takes time to play fast in a new defense. He was a guy in fall camp that you saw play fast already. "We knew he would help us this year and at some point, if injuries happened, he'd have to start for us. He'll be ready. We have a lot of confidence in Leonard Moore." ✦ UNDER THE DOME Notre Dame has lost several players to season- ending injuries this year, but Morrison going down for the rest of the season will have the greatest impact on the team. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER BYE-BYE, BEN Notre Dame's latest season-ending injury is a doozy with Benjamin Morrison going down for the year