{"id":66305,"date":"2024-10-14T16:30:16","date_gmt":"2024-10-14T20:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=66305"},"modified":"2025-09-20T14:14:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T18:14:24","slug":"cornerback-benjamin-morrison-lost-for-the-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/10\/14\/cornerback-benjamin-morrison-lost-for-the-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Cornerback Benjamin Morrison Lost For The Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman announced on Monday that second-team preseason All-American cornerback and team captain <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/benjamin-morrison-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Benjamin Morrison<\/a> has been lost for the season due to an injured hip. The costly injury, suffered in <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/10\/12\/notre-dame-trounces-stanford\/?fbclid=IwY2xjawF6Q-VleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHTaG5SS1h_pK3InhgYiOSqDTfP2JfIFylB5ZVE66ww_YD6Q5Ab-MTjg-EQ_aem_GfjIIhTjtdbP1XdSpzB9Rw\" target=\"_self\">Saturday\u2019s 49-7 win over Stanford<\/a>, will require surgery, causing the talented junior to miss the next six regular season games and the postseason.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously, it\u2019s a blow to our team,\u201d Freeman said, kicking off his Georgia Tech week press conference on Monday. \u201cYou lose a captain, great football player, and you feel terrible for the kid. He gives football, he gives preparation, everything he has. It\u2019s just tough. He\u2019s a tough kid, he\u2019s been through this before and he\u2019ll have surgery and get back to work to becoming the best version of Benjamin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Corner depth is already lacking for the Irish. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/jaden-mickey-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jaden Mickey<\/a>\u2019s recent decision to redshirt and transfer out of the program leaves Notre Dame thin at the position. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/leonard-moore-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Leonard Moore<\/a>, a summer standout, will be the next man up in Morrison\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRecruiting him, you understand he has the talent, he has the length, the skill set,\u201d Freeman said of Moore. \u201cHe is a super-intelligent young man, but it still takes time to play fast in a new defense. He was a guy in fall camp that you said, \u2018OK, he\u2019s playing fast already.\u2019 We knew he would help us this year. And at some point, if injuries happen, he would have to start for us. He\u2019ll be ready. I have a lot of confidence in him.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Morrison: A Projected First-Round NFL Draft Pick<\/h3>\n<p>A projected first-round NFL Draft pick next year, Morrison might have played his final game in a Notre Dame uniform. The injury could change all of that if he elects to return for his senior season.<\/p>\n<p>In March, Morrison underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder, forcing him to miss most of spring practice and the Blue-Gold Game. In 2022, Morrison had six interceptions over the last five games, including two against Clemson. And in 2023, he had three picks and 10 breakups. Morrison, a son of former NFL safety Darryl Morrison, led Notre Dame with 10 pass breakups and finished second on the team in interceptions with three in 2023. He was a semifinalist for the Thorpe Award last year. This season, Morrison recorded 20 tackles, 14 solo. He had four tackles against Stanford.<\/p>\n<h3>Injury Woes for Notre Dame<\/h3>\n<p>Notre Dame has been hit hard with season-ending injuries. A total of five starters have been lost for the season. In addition to Morrison, the Irish have lost <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/jordan-botelho-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jordan Botelho<\/a>, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/boubacar-traore-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Boubacar Traore<\/a>, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/charles-jagusah-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Charles Jagusah<\/a>, and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/ashton-craig-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ashton Craig<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_66317\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-66317\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-66317\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/10\/USATSI_24177293_168400536_lowres-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Benjamin Morrison\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/10\/USATSI_24177293_168400536_lowres-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/10\/USATSI_24177293_168400536_lowres-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/10\/USATSI_24177293_168400536_lowres-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/10\/USATSI_24177293_168400536_lowres-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/10\/USATSI_24177293_168400536_lowres-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/10\/USATSI_24177293_168400536_lowres-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/10\/USATSI_24177293_168400536_lowres-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-66317\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo courtesy: Michael Clubb \/ USA TODAY NETWORK<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman announced on Monday that second-team preseason All-American cornerback and team captain Benjamin Morrison has been lost for the season due to an injured hip. The costly injury, suffered in Saturday\u2019s 49-7 win over Stanford, will require surgery, causing the talented junior to miss the next six regular season games [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4854,"featured_media":66317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,11,17,35676],"tags":[33354,34250,6850,1202,259,200],"class_list":["post-66305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-independents","category-news","category-notre-dame-fighting-irish","tag-blue-gold-game","tag-darryl-morrison","tag-marcus-freeman","tag-nfl-draft","tag-notre-dame-fighting-irish","tag-stanford-cardinal"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4854"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80170,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66305\/revisions\/80170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}