Notre Dame’s week of good recruiting news continued on Thursday afternoon with the addition of yet another four-star defender. This time it is 4-star CB Benjamin Morrison out of Arizona committing to Notre Dame just a few days after the Irish added top-100 overall linebacker Jaylen Sneed.
The recruitment of Morrison was fascinating to watch over the last month. Heading into the month of June, he was considered a heavy lean to Notre Dame. So much so, that most thought he was on commit-watch during his visit at the beginning of the month. Not only didn’t he commit then, but it was widely reported that he was on the verge of a commitment to Washington following his visit there a couple of weeks later.
Notre Dame, Marcus Freeman, and Mike Mickens weathered the storm, however, and over the last two weeks, the pendulum started to swing back in Notre Dame’s favor culminating in his commitment to the Irish this afternoon.
In addition to Washington, Morrison’s third finalist was a little program from the South called Alabama. He also held offers to Oregon, Florida State, Oklahoma, Auburn, LSU, Michigan, and Penn State. Washington was the program that Morrison said he grew up thinking of as a dream school and he had a sister who was a gymnast at Washington a few years back. Notre Dame overcame all of that to add him to what is currently the #2 recruiting class in the 247Sports team rankings.
Morrison, who measures in at 6-0, 172 lbs, checks in as a composite 4-star in the 247 rankings as the #316 overall rated prospect in the country and the #31 corner. He is also the son of former NFL safety Darryl Morrison who played his college ball at Arizona.
He’s a fluid athlete who is a natural corner with the kind of skills that could lead to early playing time potentially. Morrison isn’t by any means a developmental type corner, he’s a natural cover corner with elite ball skills.
With the addition of Morrison, Notre Dame now has four defensive back commitments for the class of 2022 – three of whom are considered pure corners. Devin Moore and Jaden Mickey are also considered more corners while Jayden Bellamy out of Bergen Catholic is a hybrid defensive back who can play either corner or safety.
Freeman and the defensive staff now turn their attention to safety Xavier Nwankpa who could be the ultimate cherry on top of the sundae if the Irish were able to pul off landing him over Ohio State. Nwankpa is ranked #54 overall in the country in 247’s composite rankings.
While I’m thrilled with Notredames defensive recruiting the thing that remains to be seen is can we land great offensive players particular receivers, quarterbacks. The last 3 years Notredames defense has been good enough to win a national championship. The offense has not. Kelly needs to recruit more speed, playmakers difference makers every year at the same time. He has recruited some great receivers Will Fuller, Chase Claypool, TJ Jones, but he is not recruiting them all at the same time. Also Kelly has not recruited a Heisman trophy level quarterback like a Trevor Lawrence, Joe Burrow, Tua, Mack Jones ,Justin Fields. Even Brian Kelly said we need to put a Michael Floyd and a Will Fuller on the field at the same time if we want to beat Alabama and Clemson.
Be patient, Pete.
It still might happen.
WR Coach Alexander is probably staking his future on it, and how well he does with current recruiting might well determine how long he remains WR Coach.
Here’s hoping Coach Alexander has better ability to connect w/athletes than the former OC he came to ND with.