CB Jaden Mickey Brings Contagious Energy to Notre Dame's Defense
Notre Dame sophomore cornerback Jaden Mickey doesn’t walk into practice like most of his teammates. The California native jogs into practice.
If you happen to catch a Notre Dame practice, Mickey will also be one of the first players you’ll hear as he’ll yell motivation to himself when he arrives in the Irish Athletic Center, but he’s also not afraid to let the offense know he made play.
It’s contagious energy.
“It’s been fun,” said Mickey. “Anything I can do to help the energy of the team and just be up. We play better when we’re like that.”
Notre Dame has often started practice with competition periods, which likely means some form of one-on-one work. Mickey and his teammates have embraced the early competition in practice as he believes it sets a tone for the day.
“It just gets us going,” stated Mickey. “Gets the energy up and gets the competitive juices flowing.”
As a freshman, Mickey appeared in 11 games and made nine tackles. It was a productive year as Mickey has his ups and downs, which prepared him to step into a much more significant role in 2023.
Mickey has had a focus on improving his overall game and has seen growth during preseason camp.
“Just perfecting my technique with everything I do,” Mickey said of his biggest strides. “The details of things. Closing speed, technique off the ball, on the ball. All types of things.”
Cornerbacks coach Mike Mickens never lost confidence in Mickey a year ago and it’s paying off as he’s pushed his sophomore corner to new levels this year.
“Challenge him to be consistent,” Mickens stated. “Be consistent with his eyes, consistent throughout camp. He’s had a great camp because of it. I always say be consistently good, not occasionally great. That’s what I challenge all of them with, but I really challenged him.”
Mickey has also embraced the challenges from his position coach as Mickens’ resume speaks for itself, but that belief in his guys hasn’t been lost on anyone in the room.
“It’s been a blessing having Coach Mickens as a coach,” explained Mickey. “He believes in all of us. He’s been great developing us and letting us do what we know how to do and also adding things to our game, adding things to our toolbox to ensure we do it the right way.”
Notre Dame’s cornerbacks have also benefitted as a whole from the rise in talent from the receiver room. It’s turned one-on-one reps into highly competitive battles and it's was easy for Mickey to embrace the jump in talent on the other side of the ball.
“Freshmen coming in and the guys who have grown in their game already being here, Tobias (Merriweather), JT (Jayden Thomas), Deion (Colzie), it’s been fun competing with the freshmen coming in that have stepped up into those twos and ones positions,” explained Mickey.
“It’s been fun. They all bring different things to the table as far as route running, speed, strength, who has the best hands and stuff like that. It’s been fun learning and playing against them every day.”
Receiver Rico Flores Jr. is one of those freshman receivers who Mickey competes with almost every practice and it’s turned into a friendly rivalry from the outside.
“It’s been fun,” said Mickey. “He comes from California too. It’s been fun competing with him. It brings energy to the practices. It’s been really good.”
Improvement on the field isn’t the only area where Mickey has grown as the weight room has been his field.
In fact, Bruce Feldman admitted he almost included Mickey on his annual Freak’s List as the 5-foot-11, 180-pounder maxed out at 380 on bench, 21 reps of 225 (bench), completed 41 pull-ups and has topped out at 21.74 MPH on Notre Dame’s GPS.
“My bench press I would say is pretty good,” Mickey stated. “225, I did 20-plus. That’s always something I did when I was young.”
And most importantly, while Mickey is making positive strides on the field, his mother, Nilka, is also continuing to fight her battle with stage 4 colon cancer.
“She’s good,” said Mickey. “She’s fighting. She’s fighting. I talk to her every day. Text, call, facetime. Whatever.
“I plan on bringing her out for the Ohio State game and maybe Tennessee State. We’ll see.”
Help Nilka Fight Stage 4 Colon Cancer
