Notre Dame defensive backs coach Aaron Henry has been around elite NFL talent before, but even he might do a double-take at the group he inherited in South Bend.
It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Leonard Moore, Brauntae Johnson, Adon Shuler, Luke Talich and Christian Gray drafted next April. And that list doesn’t even include transfer DJ McKinney, who has been limited to observing practice this spring.
With that level of talent comes a unique challenge of keeping a young, highly touted group grounded and hungry.
“In today’s environment, it’s very hard and challenging because they’re still young people,” said Henry. “They’re hearing about how good they are or how good they could be, and every day we walk in that building and I’m trying to humble them. We have some great young men. These young men are incredible. They take the coaching, they take the points and they’re very, very gracious.”
For Henry, the message is simple. Don’t settle.
“I don’t want to be just good,” explained Henry. “I tell them all the time, ‘It’s like you’re at a buffet. You cannot get full.’ I want to be elite, I want to be great and I don’t just want to talk about it. I want to do it.
“Every time we line up in practice, if you think you’re the best, I need to see that. You need to practice like that and your preparation has to be like that. You’re not going to say you’re great and then start slow.”
Henry has walked this path before.
At Illinois, he coached multiple NFL Draft picks, including cornerback Devon Witherspoon, who was selected No. 5 overall in 2023. That experience shapes how he pushes his current room, but he knows it only works if it’s built on trust.
“You have to have a relationship with them to do that,” Henry stated. “If you’re just going in there talking and yelling, it doesn’t work that way, right? You've got to have a relationship, have to build a relationship. We’re still in the process of building a relationship. I’ll say some crazy, radical things, they’re like, ‘This dude’s a little crazy.’ But I played the position. I also coached the position, I also DC’d the position, also was an all-conference player.”
Henry earned All-Big Ten honors at Wisconsin under current Notre Dame defensive coordinator Chris Ash, and he’s carried those lessons with him by balancing accountability with connection.
Beyond development and relationships, Henry’s focus is on preparing his players for adversity because it’s inevitable.
“If you’ve ever been around a bunch of alphas, that’s what you want,” Henry explained. “Just being able to teach them and coach them through hostile moments so they know and understand this is going to come up again. You’re going to have an opportunity again and how do we handle that?
“Whether it’s you getting beat, whether it’s you getting run over, whether it’s you giving up a touchdown. Whatever it is, take the moment, let’s get over it and let’s move forward. You can have a bad play, but you can’t have a bad game. A bad game will cost us.”
Despite high expectations entering last season, Notre Dame’s secondary needed time to find its rhythm. Costly plays against quarterbacks like Carson Beck and Marcel Reed proved to be valuable lessons, and Henry is making sure they stick.
“We ended up getting it together, but here’s the deal, we have to learn from those moments,” stated Henry. “That moment’s a part of me as well. I wasn’t here, but now it’s a part of me. We have all the tools and intangibles, the potential, but I don’t believe in potential. I don’t.
“I believe in facts. Here’s the facts. We’re not where we need to be, we’re not where I want us to be and whatever’s going on outside the building, no matter how good we can be, what I feel and what the players feel supersedes our potential.”
Notre Dame remembers the pain of last year and Henry has embraced it because it’s real.
That internal standard is fueled by the sting of last season’s shortcomings, something Henry has fully embraced.
“I saw what happened,” Henry explained. “We watch film. All the players were (here). Let’s learn from those situations. How do we want to handle certain things during the course of the game? How are we playing this call now? Are we tweaking this call, are we spinning motions, are we running with motions?
“All those little fine details, that is the difference between a secondary taking the next step and them digressing. It’s a very, very small detail, but it can be major during the course of a game because that can be the difference between winning and losing.”
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