Mike Mickens Gives The Notre Dame Secondary One Voice

Mike Mickens running the entire Notre Dame secondary enhances the communication on the back end

Jan 1, 2022; Glendale, Arizona, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish cornerbacks coach Mike Mickens / Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

There are new responsibilities on the plate of Notre Dame assistant Mike Mickens. The former Notre Dame cornerbacks coach was given the keys to the entire Fighting Irish secondary this offseason and now bears the official title of “Pat and Jana Eilers Defensive Backs Coach/Defensive Pass Game Coordinator".

Translation: Mickens is now coaching both cornerbacks and safeties as he heads into his fifth season on the Notre Dame coaching staff. 

"It's great,” Mickens said this week of his added responsibilities. "You're in the run game, you're in the pass game, so you see the whole picture of it right there. Between the fits and, in the pass game, where we need to be at with it. So, that's the great part about it. You talk all of that, you teach all that and then, now, some of those corners that may not have known all of that, now they hear what the safeties have to do and the same thing with the safeties hearing what the corners have to do.”

The increased responsibilities came to Mickens after former Irish safeties coach Chris O'Leary left in February to coach safeties for the Los Angeles Chargers. Special Teams Coordinator Marty Biagi, who previously coached defensive backs in stints at South Dakota, Southern, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, and as a GA at Arkansas, has also taken on extra duties working with Irish safeties. 

There are others working with the Notre Dame secondary this spring as well and the group has helped make the transition even smoother for Mickens. 

"I've got plenty of help,” Mickens remarked. “Coach Biagi is helping out as well back there, and then you got our GA and our analysts, Casey McHugh and Bryce Dempsey, as well.

“You got Coach Biagi, you've got (Al) Golden, you've got Bryce Dempsey and you've got Casey McHugh and they help,” Mickens continued. "So, it's like a little team back there that you have to help. So, the challenges that you would have, on the field, trying to do two groups, you don't really have as much because everybody's on the same page and we've gotta get our own little unit. So, that's been good.

Mickens now has more than double the players in his group compared to when he was solely working with cornerbacks. But having the corners (including the nickels) and safeties all in one room has given the secondary a more holistic approach on the field this spring. 

"The advantage of it is you hear one voice,” Mickens explained. "Everybody's hearing the same thing, and the communication is always going to be there with it. So, everybody does that. Also, it grows the knowledge of everybody, right? So, now the safeties understand truly what that corner is doing and how he's playing his technique based off of what he's doing. 

"The same thing the corner is playing his technique off of what the safety is doing,” he continued. "It grows the knowledge as a football players as well, just being able to hear the whole philosophy, the whole backend, the system of it, not just only position-specific work.”

Including non-scholarship players, the Irish have eight cornerbacks and eight safeties on the roster this spring. Safeties Braunte Johnson and Taebron Bennie-Powell, and corners Leonard Moore and Karson Hobbs are the incoming freshmen who will join the team this summer along with Northwestern nickel/safety transfer Rod Heard II. 

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