Notre Dame Football Recruiting: Irish loading up in defensive secondary

Notre Dame football added another cornerback to the 2021 class Wednesday. Irish fans should be excited with the haul in the defensive secondary.

Though he hasn’t coached a live game for the Notre Dame football team yet, new cornerbacks coach Mike Mickens has been nothing short of fantastic during his short time in South Bend so far. Mickens has been instrumental in the recruiting of multiple young defensive backs with tremendous talent and upside.

With the emergence of the spread and run-and-gun offenses over the course of the past 10 or 15 years, it has become increasingly important to have versatile players at the cornerback position. It’s also important to have a lot of them, and that seems to be the aim for the Notre Dame football staff.

When the Irish added three-star corner back Chance Tucker on Wednesday, they added a tremendously talented, lengthy corner with a ton of upside. But perhaps more importantly, the Irish added a ton of depth to an already-talented defensive secondary in the class.

Tucker joins Phillip Riley and Ryan Barnes as cornerbacks in the class of 2021. Together, the three form a deep, complementary corp of players at the cornerback position that should have Irish fans excited about the future of the Notre Dame defense. Add in a talented safety in Justin Walters to this group and there is plenty of reason for excitement in South Bend.

The Irish took 3 corners in the incoming 2020 class in Caleb Offord, Clarence Lewis, and Ramon Henderson, but the Irish have continued to place emphasis on the position to develop the type of depth they feel they need to be able to compete on the highest level.

For the Irish coaching staff, Tucker’s Wednesday commitment makes 13 total commitments in the class of 2021. The staff could go a variety of ways with the rest of the 2021 class, including adding another safety or a linebacker.