Breaking down the cornerbacks with Mike Mickens
Mike Mickens, Notre Dame’s prized young defensive backs coach, met reporters Tuesday morning inside the Irish Athletics Center following the 12th of Notre Dame’s 15 spring practices.
The Irish practice once more this week, break for Easter and then return for the last two of their spring dates, including the camp-ending Blue & Gold Game April 23.
Here’s what Mickens had to say in his question-and-answer session with reporters:
Q: What does Cam Hart’s return do for the cornerbacks group?
MM: It’s good, it’s good because he can be involved in individual, he’s moving around, he needs to have football movement, so he’s not too long away from it so he can get his body adjusted to it and everything. He’s a leader, encouraging guys. And he’s been that way when he wasn’t practicing. So he’s a great person to have in and also you can be able to see him show by example, too.
Q: TaRiq Bracy seems to keep showing up in the practices we’ve seen. Where has he taken his game?
MM: TaRiq is growing on the field, off the field; he’s having a great spring. He works at it, he comes in to extra meetings, he’s studying film, he’s maturing and you can tell he’s playing faster now because of all the work that he does off the field and on the field. He’s always in the right spot and he’s finding ways to make plays on the balls, and that’s what we want.
Q: Is he best a nickel?
MM: He can play all three and he will play all three, for the most part. If we happen to go out there, I trust him in that slot, usually when guys are dynamic guys, we want a dynamic guy that can help us take away that guy. That’s what he can do.
Q: What’s Clarence Lewis’s spring been like for him?
MM: He’s motivated. He’s a prideful kid, and he works hard and he does the extra and he’s the guy that’s going to put the work into it. His offseason has been great, he came back and attacked the winter workouts, he’s having a great spring now. He leads by example; he’s not the guy that’s going to be the most vocal, but you see that he is being a little bit more vocal now with guys as well. He’s just, his whole game is growing because of that.
A lot of people forget he was only a true sophomore last season. He’s learning by experience and you can tell he’s taking more of a step this year.
I just feed confidence to guys. We play a position that is exposed. You see it, if a guy inside misses a step, if we miss a step, everybody sees it and wants to say that part of it. You’ve got to have confidence out there and confidence in your ability. Whether it’s a bad game or a bad rep, it doesn’t matter. We’ve got to keep going and pushing forward. That game is behind and we learn from it so it doesn’t happen again.
Q: How is the depth coming along at the corner spots?
MM: We’re trying to develop more depth across the board, that’s just our philosophy; 1As and 1Bs. Roll guys (in and out) a little bit more. That’s the philosophy I’m taking. I tell them that make plays and it’s my job to find a way to get you on the field. That’s the goal this season.
Q: Who has impressed you among the 1Bs or those vying to be 1Bs?
MM: Each guy has had moments. I think Jaden Mickey has looked really good, Chance and Phil and Barnes have flashed at moments. Now it’s just about being consistent in what we do every day.
Q: What do you like about Ryan Barnes?
MM: You like his length, you like how he’s long enough to be able to play ball and disrupt timing, routes in the boundary, his press technique, things of that nature. Just continuing to get him more consistent and it’s going to help.
Q: What have you noticed about Mickey both from a demeanor and skill standpoint?
MM: He’s a competitive guy. That’s what we’ve got to be at corner. That’s his zone he plays in, I love that about him that he has a fire about him that he wants to come to work every day. But he’s very mature, he meets a lot off the field, he’s a film junkie, he studies a whole bunch. So the reason why he makes plays on the field is because he understands what happens. He’s a mature kid.
Q: Is he working field and boundary?
MM: Right now he’s a field corner, just to get his feet wet and then eventually he could go inside as well.
Q: Is Hart going to be full-go at all this spring?
MM: Just individual, just get him back in the swing of things. He’s played a lot of ball.
Q: Is Hart back to being a boundary guy this year? What’s the benefit of swinging guys out there?
MM: We’ll see. We’ll swing him.
Just the rotation where we want to get guys on the field and getting guys where they fit the best, as far as comfortable. Guys like Cam, C-Lew, Riq can probably play at every position versus younger guys we may not want them bouncing around so much because they don’t have that experience.
Q: What can you say about Marcus as an assistant coach versus as a head coach?
MM: He’s always been a great leader, as an assistant and as a head coach. You just continue to see he’s grown and the whole team now can get to see what type of leader he is. He’s always challenge everything, unit strength and competitive spirit. That’s who he’s always been. Now the team gets to see that about him. He relates to guys, you understand that he cares about you and when you feel a coach cares about you, you want to do everything for them.
Q: What’s Al Golden’s impact?
MM: Great knowledge, very, very smart. You learn a lot of football with him, just a great person to be around. Always motivated but always positive as well. Learning and seeing everything he’s doing.
Q: What do you like about Chance Tucker?
MM: He’s coming on, he’s making plays on the ball. You can tell that he’s taking and growing, actually I told him that right before practice, how much he’s grown from last year when he came to even winter to first practice of spring to now, he just keeps taking strides of getting better and you see he’s being productive and making plays.
Q: Mickey isn’t afraid to vocalize his confidence in himself. Were you that kind of player?
MM: I was, I was. I love it. As long as he keeps it in a zone where he peaks at his optimal zone, I’m good. Some guys talk, some guys are quiet. Some guys get motivated by different things. That’s not an issue to me. That’s just who he is and I don’t ever want to take that away from him. As long as he’s mature, which he is, about it and doesn’t hurt Notre Dame, we’re OK.
He's very quick, he understands routes and how people run routes and he understands where he can get hurt and can’t get hurt. And he always wants to make a play on the ball, and that’s what you have to be at the corner position.
Q: How has Golden specifically affected your group?
MM: I think we’re doing that as a team, a whole team now, we have more situations that we’ve been in and a lot more playing ball than maybe in the past where I think that helps. When you play football and go against competition, as a competitive drill every period or something, it allows them to grow and it allows them if they make mistakes to be able to see that full speed where you may not see it in the game.
Q: Any value to showing tape of Sauce Gardner?
MM: When I first got here, they saw some tape of him and things of that nature, but they’re different players. A lot of them are different players. I’m really more focused on what they have to do and what they need to do. I think that’s a little bit more beneficial to them. We do look at NFL guys and things of that nature, so they can get a sense of this is why you did this or this is why you did that.
I think that’s a good visualization but also making sure we fine-tune them to what they need to do.
Q: What are some of Philip Riley’s strengths?
MM: He’s a physical guy, likes to hit and he’s going to give you that. Little things like that with him running around and being physical at the point of contact, that’s what we need out of him.
Q: Five young guys, do you talk to them about special teams as an avenue to playing time?
MM: Any way we can get them on the field. They’ve got to be banging down Coach Mickens’ door, and contribute some way, some how. Also go out and compete in practice. To me, the older guys know it’s about who competes and who’s making plays.
Q: Bellamy has been called a Swiss army knife at times. Where do you like him?
MM: We had him in the slot at the nickel spot to start off, but we’ll put him out wide as well. He’s going to be good.
Q: What have you learned from the daily staff meetings that Marcus mentioned?
MM: You get everybody together and everybody’s on the same page. That cohesiveness is key to any staff. That’s the great thing about it, where it’s not offense, defense, support staff. Everybody gets to come together and everybody knows everybody and everybody’s on one page when we leave there. That’s the biggest thing.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish Gold Cufflinks
