Notre Dame Notebook: Mike Mickens Talks Benjamin Morrison, Christian Gray, Irish Cornerbacks

No defensive position group made a bigger step up in play last season than Mike Mickens’ cornerbacks. That’ll happen when a freshman shows up with relatively little fanfare, intercepts more passes (six) than any Notre Dame player has in a decade and turns into a Freshman All-American.

That freshman is Benjamin Morrison and unlike many freshmen who excel immediately in the modern era, Morrison was not an early enrollee last year. He is about to finish his first spring practice season and he showed no letdown after his eye-opening rookie campaign.

"All the details,” Mickens said when asked what Morrison’s teaching points have been this spring. "It’s still a detail deal. Corner is so technical that you always want to grow detail-wise, release-wise, route recognition-wise, things of that nature. That’s what we’ve been focusing on. He understands that’s the expectation. He’s a very competitive kid, a very mature kid. He’s doing all the work on the field, but he’s coming in off the field just like last year to continue to grow. That’s the great thing about him.”

Cam Hart, who started opposite of Morrison at corner last season, is back for his fifth season of eligibility but he missed all of spring practice due to injury. That has given other corners plenty of reps over the last month and Mickens shared details on a good deal of them.

Chance Tucker

Tucker was a 3-star recruit by all the services coming out of Encino, Calif. He has played in just one game through his first two seasons, but he has moved from scout team regular to two-deep material this spring.

“Understanding that he’s a play away, that’s the biggest thing,” Mickens said of where Tucker is now. “You want to create great depth in the room and play multiple guys in the room. How you earn that is obviously out there, but him understanding that he’s a play away makes you focus a little bit.

“We’ve had him in the boundary a lot this spring,” Mickens continued. “You can see the growth from last year to this year. He’s only going to get better. He has done a lot of good things. I know he hasn’t played a lot of ball, but I treat him as more of a veteran and understanding what we want in the system versus a new guy like Christian Gray.”

Christian Gray

Gray was a consensus 4-star recruit out of St. Louis, MO and enrolled early this spring. He seemed to get off to a good start, but his spring was ultimately cut short due to a knee injury that required a scope, per head coach Marcus Freeman.

“He’s doing good,” Mickens said of Gray. “He’s going to attack it mentally. That’s the great thing about it with him is just because he’s hurt doesn’t mean he can’t grow mentally. That’s what he’s doing. He’s doing extra meetings, doing it that way. He has to attack rehab. It’s a setback, but come back stronger from it, and he will. He had a good spring, obviously did seven practices and grew from practice one through seven, which is encouraging. I’m excited for him in the fall.”

Ryan Barnes

Like Tucker, Barnes is going into his junior season. He has slightly more experience, though. Barnes played in four of Notre Dame’s final five games, including the Fiesta Bowl, in his freshman season but he saw the field in just the North Carolina game last fall. The team’s lack of depth at safety has given the 6-1 Maryland native more opportunities this spring.

“He plays both sides,” Mickens noted. “He’s a guy that has to know all the positions just because of the depth at safety, the depth at nickel right now. We use him a lot as a utility guy because he’s long. That’s what we like about him. Because of his length, he can cause disruptions at safety, at corner, at nickel. Boundary corner is what he’s doing corner-wise. He will be on the boundary because he’s so long to get around.”

Jaden Mickey

Mickey was last spring’s breakout player, but it didn’t translate to regular season success. He played in all but the Stanford and UNLV games in consecutive weeks in October and even started against Southern Cal in the regular season finale. That was due to Hart being out with injury. The sum total of his freshman season stat line is nine tackles with no passes defended.

“Just confidence,” Mickens said of what Mickey has gained this spring. “Maturity. He goes about his business every day, works hard. He’s a very competitive person, which I love about him. He wants to win every rep. That’s what you want in the mindset of a corner, that he can make every play.

“How I look at it and how I approach corners is that it’s a bumpy road,” Mickens continued. “You’re going to have adversity at some point in time, no matter who you are. You’re going to get beat. It’s how you respond to it. I have the most confidence in him. He’s a mature kid. He comes to work every day on the field, off the field, studies. It’s growing through that and understanding why that happened, and then keep growing from there. He didn’t lose his ability or anything. It’s a bumpy road.”

Clarence Lewis

Lewis is Notre Dame’s most experienced defensive back with 37 games under his belt. He started the first two games before coming off the bench for the final 11 games last fall, recording an interception against Navy. With last year’s nickelback, TaRiq Bracy gone, Lewis has worked almost exclusively at that spot this spring.

“He played a lot of it toward the end of last season,” Mickens offered of Lewis. “He’s very dependable. He’s having a great spring and doing a great job with it. That’s what you love about that. You have a veteran guy who understands the system and what we want him to do. We have him there. (Thomas Harper) has come over. That’s a great thing that we have two guys who can really grow at that position and help us in the fall.”

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