Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Seeking New Heights A more confident, more experienced secondary hopes to keep Notre Dame's defense on top in 2013 B BY Dan Murphy ennett Jackson picked an unfortunate time to discover his fear of heights. The Irish senior cornerback was looking down at the ground, 25 feet beyond his toes, which were dangling off the edge of a telephone pole that didn't have quite enough of a diameter to support both of his size 12 shoes. Jackson, secured by a harness, had just scaled the pole and pulled himself upright on its flat apex as part of a trust-building exercise. He and fellow starting cornerback KeiVarae Russell were visiting Bair Lake in southwest Michigan to learn a little more about each other. They were part of a small busload of Notre Dame athletes selected to attend the two-day Rosenthal Leadership Academy retreat in July, and they found at least one new thing they had in common. "I'm definitely scared of heights," said Russell, a sophomore. Jackson and Russell got acquainted last fall as road-trip roommates and first-time starters in Notre Dame's secondary. Both are converted offensive players and both were expected to struggle in their first season on the field. Instead, they held up their ends of an Irish team that ended the regular season as the country's best scoring defense. Having reached the top of college football's rankings a year ago, the cornerback duo thinks a more seasoned secondary will help the team climb even higher in 2013. Their acrophobia apparently does not extend into the metaphorical world. "I think we have the potential to be a better defense," Jackson said. "I feel like we're a more talented team than we were last year. … We've got more veterans and [fewer] younger guys." Along with Russell, who was voted a Freshman All-American, and Jackson, Notre Dame also relied on Matthias Farley as a starter at safety in his first year on the field. Then a sophomore, Farley was also a converted wide receiver learning the ropes on defense as the season unfolded. All