Notre Dame Soccer Place Preview: Cornerbacks and Board Video games

Notre Dame’s cornerback place is an odd assortment this season. There are younger gamers with loads of hype and little confirmed manufacturing in addition to confirmed veterans with some worrisome performances on their ledgers.

With Ohio State, Clemson and a transfer-infused USC now on the schedule, cornerbacks coach Mike Mickens has his work lower out for him to have his place group able to go wire to wire. So, to interrupt it down additional, listed here are the 2022 Irish corners as in style household board video games.

No. 5 Cam Hart — “Monopoly”

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Hart seems like the one Notre Dame cornerback whose spot is unchallenged. In that sense, he has a monopoly on safe beginning jobs.

The transformed huge receiver took over as a starter final season and confirmed fairly a little bit of promise. Now coming into his senior 12 months, He’ll must take one other step ahead, particularly with the improve in top-tier huge receiving expertise the Irish will face in comparison with final season’s schedule. Which means increasing on his 9 cross breakups and two interceptions from 2020.

It’s unclear how a lot Hart’s manufacturing final season was hamstrung by a lingering shoulder harm. He missed chunk of this spring after an offseason process to repair that concern, and his newly cleaned-up shoulder will get a trial by hearth towards Ohio State’s huge receiving corps within the season opener.

No. 6 Clarence Lewis — “Danger”

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Let’s deal with the elephant in them room, lets? Clarence Lewis’ Fiesta Bowl efficiency was atrocious. Oklahoma State receiver Tay Martin recorded 10 receptions for 104 yards and three touchdowns in a sport the place Lewis was his major defender. So the notion from many followers is that Lewis’ continued presence within the beginning lineup is a danger.

Perhaps there’s some credence to that opinion. Perhaps there isn’t. All reviews are that Lewis has had an excellent offseason, and what he has mentioned about his catastrophe of a bowl sport signifies that he’s mentally robust sufficient to place it behind him. (Remember the fact that TaRiq Bracy’s personal psychological funk led to Lewis turning into a real freshman starter on a Notre Dame group that made the Faculty Soccer Playoff).

However actuality is that Lewis’ job is much from safe given the way in which true freshman Jaden Mickey has been puffed up this offseason. Many Irish followers will in all probability be calling for Mickey to switch Lewis earlier than the primary quarter clock hits zero towards Ohio State. That’s unlikely to occur on Sept. 3, however earlier than the 12 months ends… that might be a unique story.

No. 28 TaRiq Bracy — “Chutes and Ladders”

Picture by Joe Robbins/Getty Photographs

Bracy’s profession at Notre Dame has been rocky, an up-and-down trajectory paying homage to sliding down the chutes and toiling again up the ladders of the Irish cornerback depth chart.

His breakout got here in 2019 when he broke up two passes on the street towards Georgia and was typically dependable all year long. Then he obtained benched throughout Notre Dame’s first matchup with Clemson in 2020. After an offseason rebuilding his confidence, Bracy discovered a distinct segment in nickel packages in 2021 and he figures to proceed that function as a fifth-year senior this fall.

Safeties coach Chris O’Leary has dubbed Bracy the most effective nickel within the nation. That’s excessive (if not biased) reward for him to dwell as much as. However as probably the most skilled of the Irish cornerbacks, he’ll have to be a steadying presence within the defensive backfield at minimal.

No. 21 Jaden Mickey & No. 20 Benjamin Morrison — “Battleship”

Mickey and Morrison are each members of the 2022 class which have made waves this offseason. To place it bluntly, the pair of true freshmen appear to have already sunken the battleships of — i.e., already surpassed on the depth chart — not less than two of Notre Dame’s three sophomore cornerbacks.

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There’s been no scarcity of reward for Mickey popping out of this spring and summer season. The early enrollee from Corona, Calif. has impressed mightily throughout his brief time in South Bend, a lot in order that he’s presumably already a second-string cornerback. As alluded to above, how quickly he can flip that right into a beginning job will likely be one thing many Irish followers have their eyes on.

Through @BMoe_21 on Twitter

As for Morrison, it’s inconceivable to say whether or not he can be in stride with and even forward of Mickey proper now if he had enrolled early. Regardless, the summer season so far has been sufficient time for Morrison to show heads on the cornerback depth chart. The four-star recruit out of Phoenix might not play a big function this season, however at this tempo he ought to sooner slightly than later in his Irish profession.

No. 15 Ryan Barnes — Rock ’em, Sock ’em, Robots

Through @Bo11Ryan on Twitter

In the event you missed this 12 months’s Blue-Gold Recreation, you then missed Riley delivering a few exhausting hits to walk-on tight ends Andrew Yanoshak and Charlie Selna. One hit on Selna really resulted in a focusing on penalty (a debatable one for those who ask me), so maybe Barnes is making an attempt to determine a task as an enforcer at cornerback. If he’s keen to (legally) rock and sock a couple of opposing cross catchers, that might make a distinction for the Irish all through the season.

At 6-foot-2, Barnes is the rangiest nook on the roster except for Hart. The previous three-star recruit from Gaithersburg, Md. grew up a Notre Dame fan and might present a bodily presence unusual to the roster. But it surely’s value noting that he wasn’t even taking second-team defensive snaps in Notre Dame’s most up-to-date fall scrimmage (Mickey, Morrison and Probability Tucker represented the corners in nickel packages).

Like the opposite two cornerbacks in his class, this might be a crucial 12 months for Barnes to carve out a task with Mickey and Morrison making early strikes on the depth chart.

No. 25 Philip Riley & No. 18 Probability Tucker — Clue

Riley and Tucker had been each extremely touted recruits within the 2021 cycle. However now they’re preventing for his or her depth chart lives towards the 2 true freshmen in Mickey and Morrison. At this level, followers and coaches are nonetheless in search of a clue as to what the sophomores might (or might not) be for Notre Dame down the street.

Through @Riley18Philip on Twitter

Riley was a four-star recruit who decommitted from Notre Dame in favor of archrival USC, however the Irish teaching employees managed to drag him again into the fold. He appeared in simply 4 video games as a real freshman and didn’t report any defensive stats. Other than battling at nook, he might be a candidate to shift to security seeing as Xavier Watts is now splitting time at huge receiver.

Through @ChanceTucker7 on Twitter

With Tucker, the refrain has all the time been how contested his recruitment was between Notre Dame and Washington. That’s notable as a result of few packages have produced high quality NFL defensive backs like Washington has. However Tucker didn’t seem in any contests final season and remains to be preventing for a second-team function. This will likely be an enormous 12 months for each he and Riley to make a constructive impression in practices if they’re to keep away from being solid apart by the brand new members on the place.

No. 23 Jayden Bellamy — Sorry!

Through @jaydenknows_ on Twitter

It’s a must to really feel just a little bit sorry for Bellamy. Not solely is he the third wheel in a cornerback recruiting class the place the opposite two have already made names for themselves, however he’s not even probably the most talked about “Ja(y)den” of the freshman corners.

A New Jersey native, Bellamy adopted his teammate and Irish freshman quarterback Steve Angeli from Bergen Catholic to South Bend. A two-way participant in highschool, there was some hypothesis that Bellamy might be moved to assist take receiver reps in observe following Avery Davis’ torn ACL.

That transfer hasn’t occurred but since Xavier Watts’ place change happened. In any case, it appears that evidently Bellamy must bide his time earlier than making an affect for Notre Dame on both aspect of the ball.