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Notre Dame

Breaking: Notre Dame CB Benjamin Morrison out for the season due to hip injury

Kyle Kellyby: Kyle Kelly10/14/24ByKyleKelly
Benjamin Morrison
Notre Dame cornerback Benjamin Morrison. (Mike Miller/Blue & Gold)

Notre Dame football has lost its preseason All-America cornerback and potential first-round NFL Draft choice due to injury. On Monday, Fighting Irish coach Marcus Freeman announced junior Benjamin Morrison is out for the season due to a hip injury that will require surgery.

“Benjamin Morrison injured his hip and has to have surgery,” Freeman told reporters during his weekly Monday news conference. “He’ll be out for the season.

“Obviously, it’s a blow to our team. You lose a captain, a great football player. You feel terrible for the kid because he gives football, he gives preparation everything he has. It’s tough. He’s a tough kid, a tough individual. He’s been through this before.

“He’ll have surgery and get back to work to becoming the best version of Benjamin.”

Morrison started all six games for Notre Dame this season and had 20 tackles and 4 pass breakups. He played 47 snaps in Saturday’s 49-7 victory over Stanford.

The 6-foot, 190-pound Morrison missed most of spring ball due to a right shoulder injury that required successful arthroscopic surgery. Still, he made it back in time for preseason camp and played 68 snaps against Texas A&M in Week 1.

In the six games he played this season, opposing quarterbacks targeted Morrison 27 times and only completed 12 passes for 125 yards; their passer rating was 58.4. He had not surrendered a touchdown all season long.

With Morrison’s injury, defensive backs coach Mike Mickens has just three scholarship cornerbacks, two of which are true freshmen: Leonard Moore and Karson Hobbs. The other is sophmore Christian Gray, who has started all but one game this season opposite Morrison. Gray missed the Louisville game due to a shoulder injury; Moore started in his place.

Before the season, the Irish lost senior cornerback Chance Tucker due to a torn ACL. Then, on Sept. 23, Freeman announced junior cornerback Jaden Mickey left the team to preserve a redshirt season and enter the NCAA Transfer Portal. On Oct. 1, he officially entered the portal.

Through the first half of the regular seaosn, Notre Dame’s defense was among the best statisiclly in several passing categories. It ranked fifth in defensive team pass efficency (93.74), sixth in passing yards allowed (148.7 per game), 19th in interceptions (7) and eighth in scoring defense (11.7 points per game).

Freeman did not announce Morrison’s recovery timeline or whether it would affect his impending decision to declare for the 2025 NFL Draft.

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