Notre Dame Football: Freeman Sets Cornerback Order if Moore Can’t Go vs. Stanford

All-American cornerback Leonard Moore is questionable for Saturday’s game against Stanford with a concussion, and Marcus Freeman already knows who would line up at corner if Moore can’t play. Jayden Sanders and DJ McKinney would start, with Mark Zackery IV third. Freshmen Ayden Pouncey and Khary Adams would also be ready.

“Yeah, right now if Leonard wouldn’t be able to go, it would be Jaden Sanders and—I just drew a blank—DJ McKinney, sorry,” Freeman said. “Jayden Sanders and DJ McKinney at corner. You know, Mark Zackery would be the third, and (Ayden) Pouncey and those guys, Khary (Adams), all those guys would be ready to go.”

Sanders and McKinney are both in their first season at Notre Dame. Sanders transferred from Michigan, where he had 23 tackles last season, and has five tackles and three passes defended for the Irish. Three of those tackles came in the 37-26 win at North Carolina. McKinney came over from Colorado and has five tackles, a tackle for loss, and two passes defended to go with a 55-yard interception return for a touchdown in the opener against Wisconsin.

“But that’s always been the—right now in the first five games, our depth chart has been if all of a sudden DJ goes down or Leonard goes down, Jayden would be the first corner in the game,” Freeman said.

How Notre Dame Is Handling the Rotation

McKinney played about half as many snaps as Sanders at North Carolina. Notre Dame rotates the two by series, two to one.

“No, it had nothing to do with Sanders playing better. It was no injury. It was all about series. We try to rotate those guys right now two to one, and it happened to be that the series that Jaden was in were longer series. It was those touchdown drives, and it wasn’t his fault. It was one that he’s got to do—the one play that sticks out that he’s got to be better at. And when DJ was in there, we went three and out,” Freeman said.

One of those drives was North Carolina’s 15-play, 97-yard touchdown drive at the end of the first half. That drive along with their 11-play drive for their final touchdown inflated Sanders’ snap count a bit.

Cleaning Up the Pass Defense

North Carolina completed 17 of 28 passes for 208 yards and three touchdowns. The Irish held the Tar Heels to 77 rushing yards and took the ball away twice, but Freeman said in his opening statement that Notre Dame didn’t play well against the pass and needs better fundamentals in man coverage. He started with where the defensive backs are looking.

“Yeah, I think, you know, number one is eye control, right? That’s a fundamental in man coverage,” Freeman said. “It’s easy to sit here, and all of a sudden when you’re out there, it’s the human nature of, okay, I’m playing my man but also want to peek at the quarterback. Is he looking my way? And that’s just a habit we got to continuously improve on and make sure that we’re not doing.”

He also went through technique choices against bigger tight ends before getting to the zone coverage breakdowns.

“You know, some of the zone coverage stuff they hit us in sometimes was just Notre Dame beat Notre Dame,” he said. “We didn’t communicate the right check or somebody didn’t get exactly where they needed to be.”

Stanford quarterback Davis Warren is 102 of 173 for 1,207 yards with five touchdowns and one interception through five games. Freeman said the Cardinal have thrown the ball especially well in the middle of the field.

“Davis Warren is an experienced quarterback that, if you give him time, he’s going to find a way to put the ball where it needs to be,” Freeman said.

Zackery, Pouncey and Adams

Zackery, a sophomore, has four tackles this season after making 10 tackles with two passes defended last year. Pouncey has two tackles, and Freeman said he has been up with the defense a little more because of injuries and his ability to play safety and corner.

Adams was a five-star in the 2026 class according to the 247Sports Composite, ranked No. 24 nationally and No. 2 among corners. He has yet to record a college statistic.

“I really like what I see out of Khary. He’s doing some scout team, and what I’ve seen from week one to last week in terms of how he’s practicing has really given me a lot of excitement for his future,” Freeman said.

With Notre Dame a more than 30-point favorite, expect to see some of the young corners Freeman mentioned on Monday because it would be surprising to see Moore suit up this weekend even if he clears concussion protocol with a road trip to BYU on the horizon next week.