Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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dent he has been "coached hard" during his life. Josh approached Cooks every week for his grades so that he can report them back to his father. The first week this spring it was an 81, while the second it was a 67, or basically an "F." "I give him the truth, and I tell him why," teams last season in addition to running back, he made appreciable headway this spring at "flipping his brain," from always moving forward to backpedaling. The return of veteran safeties Jamoris As for McDaniel, who played on special Cooks said. "It really shows me that it's important to him to want to get better. It is a serious conversa- tion: 'Hey, Coach, what do I need to work on? What did you see this week? What can I get better at? Just give me one thing that I can fo- cus on for next week or this practice.' He's been awesome at that." Atkinson was re- quired to play only one coverage in high school. "He was a press-man corner in high school, that's all he's ever done — and sometimes I'm still trying to get him out of his press-man stance when he's a deep third corner," Cooks noted. "He's got all the ability in the world that you'd like as a cornerback. "He's just got to process it in his mind. He only played that one position in that one way, and we ask our corners to do so much. Sometimes it overwhelms him, but he's handling it all well." Sophomore Jalen Brown was strictly "BENNETT KNOWS WHAT WE'RE ASKING TO GET DONE, HE'S TRYING TO TAKE HIS GAME TO THAT NEXT LEVEL." HE'S BEING COMPETITIVE AT DOING THOSE JOBS, AND NOW CORNERBACKS COACH KERRY COOKS Slaughter and Zeke Motta is expected to aid the green corners in the secondary, and Slaughter even saw some work at field corner this spring as a contingency op- tion. However, with the third safety, Aus- t in Col l inswor th, sidelined at least into October fol lowing June shoulder sur- gery, Slaughter's pres- ence and leadership at safety is needed even more to help align the defense correctly. Plus he is too valuable at the "Star" position, which is more of an outside linebacker role against triple option or spread teams. "It would be hard for us to put Jamoris out at corner just because of what he does for us in the middle of our defense," Cooks said. Highly touted freshman slot receiver/run- a scout player last year and usually was matched against Floyd, thereby often earn- ing plaudits from Kelly. The 6-0, 198-pound Brown's stature could be similar to Blan- ton's some day. ning back Davonte Neal also excelled at corner in high school (12 passes broken up as a senior), but Kelly indicated earlier this spring he didn't plan to move any incoming freshman to corner. Later, though, he said that Neal or even running back KeiVarae Russell could get an audition at cornerback. Cooks has not campaigned to Kelly to get Neal, but … "If he says, 'You've got Neal', I'm defi- nitely not going to turn him down," Cooks said with a smile. ✦ AUGUST 2012 43