Benjamin Morrison (born March 11, 2004) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such offensive running plays as sweeps and reverses. They create tur ...

for the

Notre Dame Fighting Irish The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the athletic teams that represent the University of Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish participate in 23 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I intercollegiate sports and in the NCAA's Division ...

High school career

Morrison attended

Brophy College Preparatory Brophy College Preparatory is a Jesuit high school in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. The school has an all-male enrollment of approximately 1,400 students. It is operated independently of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix. The school has ...

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

. As a senior, he had 53 tackles and two

interceptions In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team b ...

. He played in the 2022 Polynesian Bowl. Morrison committed to the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

to play college football.

College career

2022 season

Morrison earned immediate playing time in his true freshman year at Notre Dame in 2022. Morrison made his collegiate debut on September 3, 2022, against the

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tree ...

, collecting three total tackles and a pass deflection. Against

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

on September 17, Morrison made his first career start by tallying three tackles. He had his first two career interceptions in an upset victory over Clemson on November 5. Two weeks later, on November 19, he had three interceptions against

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

, tying the NCAA single-game record. In the 2022 Gator Bowl, Morrison added his team-high sixth interception of the season against the

South Carolina Gamecocks The South Carolina Gamecocks represent the University of South Carolina in the NCAA Division I. The University of South Carolina uses "Gamecocks" as its official nickname and mascot. While the men's teams were traditionally known as the Fighti ...

. Morrison finished the season with 33 tackles (22 of them solo), four pass breakups, six interceptions, and a pick-six. He was named Freshman All-American by On3,

College Football News ''College Football News'' (''CFN'') is a magazine and website published by College Football News, Inc., headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. News coverage includes scores, statistics, rankings, and reports on college football games. Analysis include ...

Pro Football Focus Pro Football Focus (also written as ProFootballFocus, and often referred to by its initials, PFF) is a sports analytics company that focuses on thorough analysis of the National Football League (NFL) and NCAA Division-I football in the United Sta ...

. He was also named True Freshman All-American by

The Athletic ''The Athletic'' is a subscription-based sports website that provides national and local coverage in 47 North American cities as well as the United Kingdom. ''The Athletic'' also covers national stories from top professional and college sports ...

247Sports 247Sports is an American network of websites that focus mainly on athletic recruitment in college football and basketball. It is owned and operated by Paramount. The website hosts a large network of team-specific subsites, with each subsite b ...

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

, and by the

Football Writers Association of America The Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) is an organization of college football media members in the United States founded in 1941. It is composed of approximately 1,200 professional sports writers from both print and Internet media out ...

(FWAA).

2023 season

Morrison was named a preseason All-American by

NBCSports NBCSN was an American sports television channel owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It originally launched on July 1, 1995, as the Outdoor Life Network (OLN), which was dedicated to programming prima ...

, FWAA, and ESPN. On June 9, 2023, Morrison was named the fourth best cornerback in college football. On August 1, Morrison was placed on the Watch List for the

Bronko Nagurski Trophy The Bronko Nagurski Trophy has been awarded annually since 1993 to the collegiate American football defensive player adjudged by the membership of the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) to be the best in the National Collegiate Athle ...

. On August 10, he was placed on the

Jim Thorpe Award The Jim Thorpe Award, named in memory of multi-sport athlete Jim Thorpe, has been awarded to the top defensive back in college football since 1986. It is voted on by the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame. In 2017, the award became sponsored by Paycom ...

Watch List. On August 14, he was selected to be on the

Chuck Bednarik Award The Chuck Bednarik Award is presented annually to the defensive player in college football as judged by the Maxwell Football Club to be the best in the United States. The award is named for Chuck Bednarik, a former college and professional Ame ...

Watch List. On September 19 against

NC State North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The university ...

, Morrison caught his first interception of the season. He also added three solo tackles in a 45–24 victory. In a game against No. 10

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

, Morrison intercepted

Caleb Williams Caleb Williams (born November 18, 2001) is an American football quarterback for the USC Trojans. Williams played for the Oklahoma Sooners in 2021 before transferring to USC as a sophomore in 2022, where he won several player of the year awards, i ...

, setting up Audric Estime for a one-yard touchdown run. The Fighting Irish would end up

upsetting Forging is a manufacturing process involving the shaping of metal using localized compressive forces. The blows are delivered with a hammer (often a power hammer) or a die. Forging is often classified according to the temperature at which it ...

Williams and the Trojans, 48–20. Morrison would then be ruled out of Notre Dame's game against

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

due to a quad injury. On November 1, Morrison was named a semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe Award.

College statistics

Awards

; 2022 *

Freshman All-American Underclass All-American is an honorific for high school and college athletes for excellence in competition. The athletes recognized with this title are considered the best players of a specific season in their sport that are members of a given cla ...

– On3, CFN, PFF,

FWAA The Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) is an organization of college football media members in the United States founded in 1941. It is composed of approximately 1,200 professional sports writers from both print and Internet media out ...

* True Freshman All-American –

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

Cornerback of the Year – * All-Independent First-Team – ,

Phil Steele Phil Steele (c. 1960) is an American sportswriter and analyst who focuses exclusively on college and professional football. He is considered a "highly respected prognosticator" within the sports media. His company, Phil Steele Publications, prod ...

; 2023 * Preseason All-American –

TSN TSN may refer to: Science and technology * Translin, DNA binding protein involved in microRNA function * Taxonomic serial number, a stable and unique taxonomic serial number issued by the Integrated Taxonomic Information System * The Science Netwo ...

, AP,

CBSSN CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American pay television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports Television also known a ...

* Preseason Independent Cornerback of the Year – * Preseason All-Independent First-Team – , Phil Steele *

Watch List –

Paycom Paycom Software, Inc., known simply as Paycom, is an American online payroll and human resource technology provider based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma with offices throughout the United States. It is attributed with being one of the first fully on ...

, NCFAA *

Watch List – FWAA *

Watch List – MFC * Jim Thorpe Award Semifinalist – Paycom, NCFAA

Personal life

His father,

Darryl Morrison Darryl Lamon Morrison (born May 19, 1971) is an American former professional american football, football player who was a safety (gridiron football position), safety in the National Football League (NFL) for four seasons with the Washington Redski ...

, played in the NFL. He has four siblings that also competed in college sports.

References

External links

Notre Dame Fighting Irish bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morrison, Benjamin Living people Players of American football from Phoenix, Arizona American football cornerbacks Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players 2004 births