Benjamin Morrison Will Look To Build On His Brilliant Freshman Campaign

Notre Dame sophomore cornerback Benjamin Morrison enters the 2023 season with high expectations

It wasn't that long ago that cornerback was a major question for Notre Dame, but heading into the 2023 season it's considered one of the teams top strengths. A big part of that is based on the emergence of Benjamin Morrison, who earned Freshman All-American honors in 2022.

We continue our Notre Dame player profiles with a look at the talented rising sophomore.

BENJAMIN MORRISON PROFILE

Hometown/High School: Phoenix, Ariz./Brophy Prep

Height/Weight: 6-0, 185
Class/Eligibility: Soph./Soph.

2022 Stats: 33 tackles, 6 interceptions, 4 pass break ups

2022 RECAP

Morrison started his Notre Dame career off on a strong note in the season opener against Ohio State. It was then that we saw that the Phoenix native wasn't going to be your typical freshman. Morrison made three tackles and broke up a pass in that game, and he was steady throughout the first half of the season.

Morrison allowed just one touchdown all season, and that came in Notre Dame's 41-24 win over Syracuse. He also got called for a holding penalty in that game. It was really his first major struggle of the season, and it seemed to be something that turned his season around. 

From that moment on, Morrison was truly dominant as a cover player for the Irish. He finished the Syracuse game off on a strong note, and then Morrison picked off two passes in the very next game, which came during a 35-14 win over Clemson. Morrison's first interception set up the Notre Dame offense deep in Clemson territory, which set up an Irish score. His next interception resulted in a touchdown as well, but this time Morrison did the work himself, taking the pick back 96 yards.

Notre Dame decided not to play him much early against Navy, but as soon as Morrison entered the game he made his presence felt. In the next game, Morrison picked off three interceptions, which tied a Notre Dame career single game mark. USC only threw at him once in the regular season finale (it was incomplete), and he made South Carolina pay for throwing at him in the bowl game, as Morrison made his sixth and final interception of the season.

2023 EXPECTATIONS

Morrison has earned a number of preseason All-American teams heading into the 2023 season, include several first-team honors. That's the expectation for Morrison this season. Notre Dame is expected to have one of the better secondaries in all of college football, and the sophomore is expected to be the anchor of that success.

Morrison was quite good in 2022, but now that he has experience in the system and another year in the Irish strength program, he is expected to be even better in year two. That means being even more effective in coverage, using his added strength to be better against the run game and perimeter screens, and to be good enough to shut down his side of the field in the pass game.

That is asking quite a lot of a true sophomore, but that's the bar that Morrison has set for himself.

2023 PROJECTION

So how does Morrison improve upon a 6-interception campaign in which he held opponents to just a 43.1% completion rate? That's a good question, but there's little doubt he does in fact have room to improve. At the end of the day, Notre Dame really just needs Morrison to stay healthy and not regress, even if that means only moderate improvement. Morrison was already very good last season, and him just maintaining what he did as a freshman is good.

Ideally, Notre Dame would like to have at least some level of improvement from Morrison in season two. So what does improvement look like?

One area is clear, Morrison does need to get stronger. This isn't just true in the run game and against screens, which is obvious. As good as his athleticism, intelligence and technique allowed him to be in coverage, at times his lack of strength allowed opponents to get free late or to out-play him for the ball. This was one of the reasons Morrison did allow a few big plays last season (three completions allowed of at least 30 yards).

If he can simply improve there, while not regressing anywhere else, Morrison is going to be very hard to beat in the pass game.

Morrison played with poise as a true freshman, but he also played like a young guy who didn't have much expectation. He played loose and free, and his confidence shined through immediately. There are much higher expectations for him this season, and he needs to continue playing with great confidence, technique and poise, but he also needs to stay hungry as a player.

There are times when an athlete has great success and he loses that hunger, or he rests on his laurels instead of being just as hungry to be even better. We'll find out who Benjamin Morrison is in 2023 when we see him go in one of these directions. If he loses that edge he'll have a sophomore slump. If he has a desire to be even better, to prove even more, he will without question be one of the best cornerbacks in college football this season, and will. combine with Cam Hart to be arguably the best 1-2 cornerback punch in the game.

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