Tag: Benjamin Morrison

Two Notre Dame players named to ESPN’s top defensive backs for 2024

Two All-Americans roam the Irish secondary

Over the last few years, Notre Dame’s secondary has produced some of the best playmakers in the country.

Safety Kyle Hamilton has turned into a star, while his former teammate cornerback [autotag]Benjamin Morrison[/autotag] was starting to become one. Safety [autotag]Xavier Watts[/autotag] found his perfect position and went on the win the Bronko Nagurski Award his past season.

Both current Notre Dame players were named to ESPN’s top 10 defensive backs for 2024, as they were one of two schools to place two on it. Morrison was No. 5 on the list, getting a first-place vote while Watts was two spots below him and also got a first-place vote.

The Notre Dame secondary is literally a no-fly zone as they will have two elite players roaming the back end of the Irish defense.

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Notre Dame star cornerback Benjamin Morrison undergoes surgery

It could have been worse

It’s fairly common for players who get injured during the spring to immediately get surgery, as we have seen with Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard.

Now you can added star cornerback [autotag]Benjamin Morrison[/autotag] to that list. On Tuesday morning, the Irish official social media account let everyone know that on Monday the All-American went under the knife and had a procedure to his right shoulder.

The good news is that it looks like Morrison will be ready for the start of the season with no issues. It’s not a huge spring loss, as he has already proved himself at this level and not it gives some of the younger players more reps.

We wish Morrison a speedy recovery and look forward to him dominating this fall.

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Notre Dame Football: See Benjamin Morrison’s Insane Spring Practice Interception

He did what?!?

Those in attendance as Notre Dame opened spring football practice on Thursday couldn’t give enough praise to Fighting Irish rising junior cornerback Benjamin Morrison.

Morrison is among the top cornerbacks in all of college football and recently drew major praise from his former teammates at the NFL Combine.

Morrison is back for his junior season and started spring practice with a bang on Thursday.  The Notre Dame Football Twitter account released a video of Morrison making about as spectacular of interception as you’ll ever see as he was defending wide receiver Jayden Thomas in practice.  Check it out in full below:

The catch Thomas makes while being covered very well by Morrison in the second highlight is no light task, but with Morrison’s flat-out ridiculous play before its easy to overlook that.

Welcome to spring football 2024!

Notre Dame statistical leaders through 11 games

Hopefully, these players can end the regular season on a high note.

Notre Dame has one game left in the regular season against Stanford. Good luck finding a way to watch it on the Pac-12 Network, but that’s a topic for another day. Right now, let’s focus on who is most likely to help the Irish beat the Cardinal.

Statistically, here’s who is likely to factor in whether the Irish can get revenge for last year’s defeat in South Bend:

Notre Dame corner Benjamin Morrison a semi-finalist for national award

Could Morrison be the first member of the Irish to win the award?

Even though [autotag]Notre Dame football[/autotag] cornerback [autotag]Benjamin Morrison[/autotag] won’t come close to the same production he had during his freshman season, national pundits are still noticing how well he has played.

When you pick off six passes as a true freshman, team’s tend to throw to the opposite side. That could be a reason why safety Xavier Watts has been on fire, his teammate Morrison having a lot to do with it.

It’s not like Morrison hasn’t been great this year, he’s got 20 tackles and 2 interceptions, and that was enough for the Paycom [autotag]Jim Thorpe Award[/autotag] to name him as a semi-finalist.

No member of the Notre Dame football team has won this award since it’s inception in 1986.

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Notre Dame statistical leaders through nine games

Here’s who to watch for in the next game.

Notre Dame is riding high after winning its past couple of games. Now, it will visit a Clemson team that looks nothing like it did the past few years. The Irish have to feel pretty good about their chances. Wouldn’t you?

Here are the statistical leaders for the Irish heading into November:

Notre Dame statistical leaders through eight games

In case you forgot after the week off.

Notre Dame has had an extra week to enjoy the blow it dealt to USC’s season. Now, it’s back to business with Pittsburgh coming to South Bend. With the gauntlet portion of the schedule behind the Irish, this hopefully will be the easiest game they’ve had to look forward to in a month.

For those who need refreshing after the week off, here are the Irish’s major statistical leaders:

Social media reacts to three Notre Dame touchdowns off interceptions

This is a rather pleasant development.

Notre Dame knew it would have to stop Caleb Williams to have a chance against USC. Williams had thrown two interceptions in a game only once during his collegiate career.

That changed in only the first half as [autotag]Xavier Watts[/autotag] picked up two of Williams’ passes and [autotag]Benjamin Morrison[/autotag] one. All three picks led to touchdowns, the last two of which were scored by [autotag]Audric Estime[/autotag]:

Obviously, the Irish can’t afford to take the pressure off Williams. If there’s anyone who can lead his team back from a 24-6 halftime deficit, it’s him. But for now, the Irish have to be very pleased with the mistakes they’ve forced from the reigning Heisman Trophy winner.

Joining in the merriment are Irish fans on social media. This is the moment where happiness needs to be expressed, and they’ve done a good job of that. Here are some of the best tweets we were able to find:

Notre Dame statistical leaders through seven games

Having lost two of its past three, Notre Dame officially has little left to play for. Before it can enjoy its first of two bye weeks, it must first deal with yet another ranked undefeated in USC. This could get worse before it gets better. Alas, the …

Having lost two of its past three, Notre Dame officially has little left to play for. Before it can enjoy its first of two bye weeks, it must first deal with yet another ranked undefeated in USC. This could get worse before it gets better. Alas, the Irish must carry on because the schedule dictates such.

Here’s who leads the major statistical categories for the Irish:

Notre Dame statistical leaders through six games

Who’s most likely to help defeat the Cardinals?

Notre Dame is getting ready to face another surging program, this time in Louisville. It probably would prefer to have an easier time than it did against Duke, which it barely escaped against. The road atmosphere the Cardinals fans will provide unlikely will be anymore forgiving though. That’s why the Irish must prepare for any and all possibilities.

Here are the statistical leaders for the Irish at the midway point of the season: