Notre Dame’s 2022 recruiting class gained its fourth defensive back today when four-star corner Benjamin Morrison announced for the Irish. The 6’0″, 172-pound Arizonan caught our attention several months ago when describing his high school, Brophy College Prep, in this interview with 247’s Kevin Sinclair (free):
“It’s hard to explain how one feels about Brophy (College Prep) unless you go there. But when you step foot on Brophy(‘s campus), it just feels as if it’s home oriented. I don’t know. It just feels like home.” Morrison said.
“As soon as I got there, I went to summer camp in eighth grade – there’s always these powerhouse (programs like) Chandler and Hamilton and all that stuff out here but I really wanted to do something different – Brophy, it just felt different from the coaches and the teachers to the administration. And they just really take care of you. They truly care about you for your wellbeing.
“It’s not just a football factory. Brophy’s kind of a developing-a-man factory, almost, I want to say. They do a great job with that. So I just love the way Brophy has helped me grow as a person.”
At the time, we said in the writers’ room that you could replace “Brophy” with “Notre Dame” and the entire passage is something anyone one of us might have said. There was little question Morrison would be a cultural fit for the program and the university as a whole. The Irish staff, and the other staffs on the offer list that definitely doesn’t match Morrison’s ranking, have little question about his fit on the field also. Morrison and fellow commit Jaden Mickey give Notre Dane a very good pair of pure corners to go with a pair of swing corner/safeties in Jayden Bellamy and Devin Moore. Not too shabby.
Also worth noting here that this was a legitimate head-to-head win over Washington and Jimmy Lake, who has been a thorn in Notre Dame’s side for defensive backs. And that Alabama, who has produced a few decent defensive backs recently, definitely wanted Morrison.
Recruiting Service Rankings
247Sports Composite — 4 star (.8958 rating), #316 overall, #31 CB, #4 in AZ
247Sports — 4 star (90 rating), NR overall, #31 CB, #4 in AZ
Rivals — 4 star (5.8 rating), NR overall, #30 CB, #4 in AZ
ESPN — 4 star (80 rating), NR overall, #39 CB, #5 in AZ
Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (90 rating)
Cohort
In addition to Notre Dame, Alabama, and Washington, Morrison holds offers from Auburn, Florida State, LSU, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Penn State, among several others.
Highlights
Morrison’s recognition skills are outstanding. Not good, or even great, but outstanding. He beat blockers’ angles here repeatedly because he read the play before they could get to their spots. I think his long speed, in contrast, is good not great, but that only shows up when he has the ball. In coverage his awareness and short speed are so good that he plays very fast defensively – a bit reminiscent of Julian Love, who wasn’t terrible for the Irish.
Morrison’s general physicality deserves mention too. He takes on blocks fearlessly and effectively, and when he gets a chance to hit you, man, you’re gonna know about it and in case you don’t he’ll let you know about it. The play at the 1:46 mark drew an audible “ooh” from me when he lowered the boom on that poor kid.
Finally, as our own Larz has said in the past, it’s great to see blocked kicks on a highlight reel because it tells you something about the player’s mentality – he has to be willing to completely sell out to make that play.
Impact
The Irish have loaded up on so many good defensive back prospects in the last two cycles that it’s hard to foresee how it’ll all shake out at this point. Accordingly, I don’t know how soon Morrison will enter the rotation, but I definitely think he has upperclassman starter potential. Given his recognition skills I wouldn’t be surprised if he forces his way on the field sooner in some capacity too.
Welcome to the Irish family, Benjamin!
Just silly. And I’d say the case could be made Moore and Bellamy are a bit under-rated and are at least trending for upgrades as more time goes by, if not have reasonable outside shots at being upgrade to four stars themselves.
wow. When you separate out offense/defense like that, it makes it clear how bad the D recruiting has been. The last two cycles weren’t great for recruiting in general (not super bad either, but not great).
Just saw that and was going to share it. It’s pretty staggering and obviously a complement to the current defensive staff as well. Just so impressive the balance as well. Felt like for so many years Nd had to hope and pray no d lineman got hurt or a corner could come in and play because of giant holes in recruiting. Doesn’t feel like a thing anymore
We’ve been grabbing some guys who could really play some solid press corner if things break right. My biggest concern about Clark Lea/Elko’s defense (and even back to the solid units Diaco put together) is that they were designed to bend but not break. That’s a great strategy against 90% of college opponents. Most college football players just aren’t good enough to put together 10 play drives. But against the top 10-15 offenses in the country, you have QBs who can really string together the short passes, and having your CBs way off the line makes it too easy for them.
Grabbing CBs who can play press corner gives you an opportunity to mix things up against the big dogs, even if you only get really aggressive on a few drives per game.
Agreed. Plus teams like Bama and Clemson aren’t trying to have old school 10 play drives, they’re trying (often successfully) to get their WR’s down the field and to score on any given play, which requires an update of the defensive philosophy (for offensive units like that, at least).
Lot of stress on defenses with aggressive vertical offenses like that, need the CB talent to combat that. ND pretty much just trusted 2 CB and rolled Wu in the slot last year. Need to build up more actual corners.
I would add that 2020 Alabama’s version of vertical passing relied on quick hitters – I believe 27 of Mac Jones’s 30 passes against us were thrown within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage. They tried the one deep shot early that Hamilton nearly intercepted by the sideline and didn’t really look there afterwards.
That again is where press might work better, although of course in the case of Bama pressing Smith was almost certainly a losing proposition also. I shudder to think what that offense would’ve looked like if Jaylen Waddle was healthy all year.
The key element is speed and separation. Last year our receivers were terrible at separation on short routes, medium and long ones too for the most part. Quite frankly, it has been awhile since any of them have been consistently good. Boykin and Claypool were great at 50/50 balls, but how many open crossing or other routes do you really remember. Alabama and Clemson throw a lot of routes on timing. They want to go vertical, but if they can throw a 10 yard pass (or less) on a crossing route or inner go routes to a receiver already with speed and a step, the receiver will go a long way. Our crossing routes and inner verticals tend to be thrown to TEs.
Personally, my belief is that if Ian Book had Mac Jones’ receivers, he would be on the Patriots now not the Saints, and vice versa. I didn’t think Jones’ arm was all that strong or Book’s arm all that weak. Perhaps Jones was more capable as a passer than Book, but he never needed to show it. His receivers always separated. If our receivers had gotten early separation, or any, we would never have wondered about Book and happy feet. I always thought his tendency to run ‘early’ was because there was no open receiver on the quick hit.
We need that 10 yard pass that can go to the house to be a key part of our offense. It has not been in years.