Fisher, Morrison A Part Of Current And Future Notre Dame Foundation

By John Brice
Special Contributor

The play came not against Clemson, with a frenzied, sold-out Notre Dame Stadium near delirium and millions more watching the national broadcast, but in the heat of summer, when almost no one remembers how to separate the oft-interchangeable days of emotionally and physically grinding along a path to the start of a season.

Ben Morrison knows the nascent moment college football both accelerated and slowed down for him in conjunction.

Only the freshman cornerback’s Fighting Irish teammates, coaches and support staff witnessed the coming-of-age scenario.

“I made a play in camp, in August,” Morrison said. “It wasn’t that I belonged, I knew I could play at this level, and I just didn’t know when. So there wasn’t a moment where I knew, ‘Oh, I can do this.’ It was more so, I knew I was capable of doing but I still had a lot of work to do. That showed me I could do it.

“It was just a reverse, and I was able to see it. I saw it before it happened. Throughout camp, I had been more focused on my man (he defended at wide receiver), but I saw this play and I just went for it.”

With wisdom that betrays his youth, the 6-foot-quarter-inch, 179-pound Morrison declines to reveal the offensive counterpart on the receiving of his tracking-down arrival.

“I don’t even know, I forgot who it is,” said Morrison, who joined four siblings to become a student-athlete at the NCAA’s highest levels.

Showcasing equal maturity on the offensive side of the ball for Notre Dame is redshirt-freshman right tackle Blake Fisher.

The starter of both Notre Dame’s 2021 season-opening game at Florida State and then its Marcus Freeman tenure-launching Fiesta Bowl to cap the season, but none in between due to injury, Fisher deploys a holistic approach to his work as a foundational component – on the Irish offense line, as well as in Freeman’s program.

“I would say there wasn’t really a light-bulb moment, because I’ve always known I could do this,” said the 6-foot-6, 327-pound Fisher, a consensus five-star prospect in the 2021 class. “It’s just football at the end of the day, just a lot faster. Bigger, stronger, guys and a lot more stuff going on as far as blitzes, stunts and twists, things like that.

“Which you have to be more dialed in on, but this is just who I am and what I’ve always dreamt for and what I’ve wanted. Now it’s just growing and improving and just working to be the best I can be at what I do.”

For an offense that’s spent its season overcoming injury and adapting to its personnel, Fisher helps anchor the Notre Dame unit that is 22^nd nationally in time of possession, has 21 rushing touchdowns and a combined 69 first downs in wins against the top two teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Clemson and North Carolina – who are 0-2 against Notre Dame and 18-0 against the rest of college football.

Morrison, appearing in all 10 games this season and starting the past six, has amassed 26 tackles, defended five passes, intercepted two – both against Clemson – and returned one of those picks 96 yards to paydirt.

Foundational components; Freshman All-America candidates.

“Those dudes have just continued to improve,” Freeman said. “They started off at a high level and continue to push to a higher level. That’s what you love to see. A lot of freshmen, there is a lot on your plate at any university, but especially here at Notre Dame when you add academics.

“You add being away from home, a lot of freshmen hit that slump some way during the season. They kind of say, ‘Man, this is overwhelming,’ and they hit almost a freshman slump. Those two guys haven’t. They’ve continued to get better and better. They’re helping us right now and playing at a high level.”

Fisher embraces the challenge and points to the shifting dynamics within Notre Dame football across this past year.

“It’s great, it’s definitely a different atmosphere, different environment, different feeling,” Fisher said. “I would say the biggest thing is just embracing that every day and just coming in and keeping the main thing the work that we do and put in. We’re young guys and there’s a lot of expectations and responsibilities, but it’s nothing that we haven’t worked on or been working on to improve. For them to have the trust to give us that much responsibility.”

A former standout at Brophy Prep in Phoenix, Arizona, Morrison credits his rapid transition to the culture within the Notre Dame program – and for Freeman’s forecasted prophecy the week of the Clemson game.

“I mean, it’s a true blessing just being able to grow with these dudes,” Morrison said. “A lot of these of older guys have taken me under their week, and it’s just a true blessing because they don’t have to do that, they don’t have to tell me in the indoor in summer the things to do and not to do. So just being surrounded by people like that, it just pushes you to become the best version of your self.

“I just thought it was cool that Coach Freeman talked about the ‘Oh!’ moment and getting people out of the stands and he was like, ‘Make that play!’ He told all of us all throughout the week, ‘Make that play!’ I thought that was cool I was able to get some people out of their seats.”

Seeking a chance to contribute immediately is an element both Morrison and Fisher recall from their recruitments, with each ultimately selecting Notre Dame for more than 30 scholarship offers.

“I thought about it, like, a lot; it’s one of the reasons why I came here,” said Fisher, honored last month by Pro Football Focus for one of the nation’s top performances by an offensive lineman in the Oct. 22 week of games. “By coming here, I thought that I would have the opportunity to play early and get great coaching.”

Added Morrison, “One-hundred percent. With Coach Freeman and Coach (Mike) Mickens, I knew coming in I would have an opportunity just what they had done in his previous years with Cincinnati. Especially with Sauce (Gardner) and Coby Bryant. They played young, and then seeing (Jaden) Mickey’s early success, I knew that he was going to have a chance and I knew we were both good players and both were going to have chances. So, I felt like just having Mickey coming in with me and always competing, we know what we want and we know we can push it out of each other. So that’s really helped.”

Likewise, the performances of Fisher, Morrison, Tobias Merriweather, Junior Tuihalamaka and a bevy of other first- and second-year players dotting the Irish two-deeps on both sides of the ball give Freeman tangible evidence on the recruiting trail.

“The guys you’re recruiting, they all want to come in and start,” Freeman said. “That’s the reality of it. They all think they will, and they all want to. The ability to show them if you’re good enough, you’re going to play at Notre Dame, that is exciting to them because that’s all they want to see.

“It’s like, ‘Hey, do I have the ability to be this guy? Yeah.’ Because they all think they’re Michael Mayer or like last year, the Kyle Hamiltons of the world that come in and start as freshmen. The Ben Morrisons now.”