Notre Dame Defensive Back Injured in Fall Camp

During Saturday's scrimmage, Notre Dame appears to have lost a veteran cornerback

Notre Dame cornerback Chance Tucker (18) during the Notre Dame Blue-Gold Spring Football game on Saturday, April 22, 2023, at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend. Nd Football Blue Gold Game / Greg Swiercz / USA TODAY NETWORK

Notre Dame is inching closer and closer to Texas A&M prep, and Saturday was one of the final full team scrimmages.

The team has managed to stay relatively healthy throughout summer and camp, only losing Charles Jagusah, Kahana Kia and Gi'Bran Payne to injury. There have been other smaller knocks to Gabriel Rubio, Howard Cross and others, but all things considered, this has been a very healthy camp for the Irish.

Notre Dame Cornerback Injured

"Chance Tucker got injured," Marcus Freeman announced Saturday, "I don't know the extent of it."

That's all the Notre Dame head coach said about Tucker's injury and status going forward but the potential loss of Tucker isn't ideal, but not the end of the world, either.

As camp continues to play out it has seemed more and more unlikely that Tucker would play many snaps for Notre Dame this season, barring serious injury to the 3-4 corners above him in the pecking order.

Between the star corner Benjamin Morrison, up-and-comer Christian Gray, key veteran Jaden Mickey and true freshman Leonard Moore, Tucker would have been relying heavily on showing out this fall camp in order to earn himself playing time this fall.

Tucker brings a veteran presence to the cornerback room as a whole, though he has not played much for Notre Dame throughout his career. He will be relied on for special teams and as a fourth or fifth cornerback options in spots, so depending on the severity of his lower leg injury as Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman called it, this loss could prove to be significant.

If the California product is lost for an extended period of time, look to the aforementioned Leonard Moore or other true freshman Karson Hobbs to see more looks and playing time once the season kicks off. Both Moore and Hobbs are highly thought of and could play key roles for the Irish moving forward, even as true freshmen.

It will also be interesting to see if any other names emerge as we near Texas A&M week and the depth chart becomes more and more clear.

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