Notre Dame football secondary gets more plaudits ahead of 2024 season

While not everyone agrees, for the most part, the Notre Dame football team is expected to have a very good 2024. There are even some analysts who believe that Marcus Freeman’s squad has the best change to have an undefeated 2024 regular season.

While the offense is going to be important for Notre Dame, there’s very little doubt that the defense is what is considered the game-changer. With guys like Xavier Watts, Benjamin Morrison (eventually) and Howard Cross III coming back, Al Golden’s unit is expected to be among the best in the country.

Notre Dame football secondary gets plaudits

Earlier this week, CBS Sports released its breakdown of the five best secondaries for the 2024 season, and it ranked the Notre Dame football team’s unit as the second-best in all of college football. Among the reasons why it ranked them that high, is that guys who haven’t gotten the spotlight yet, could be in for big campaigns.

"Notre Dame comes into the 2024 season with high expectations in Year 3 of the Marcus Freeman era. Spearheading the hype are players like Benjamin Morrison and Xavier Watts, the latter of whom earned First Team All-America honors from CBS Sports and won the Bronko Nagurski Trophy -- awarded to the top defensive player in the country -- after recording 52 tackles and seven interceptions last season.”

“Former four-star cornerback Jaden Mickey could be due for a breakout season after recording 11 tackles and an interception in two starts. Former Northwestern cornerback Rod Heard ll and ex-Arizona State safety Jordan Clark arrive from the transfer portal. Both should contribute to a defense that ranked third in passing yards allowed (154.2 per game) last fall." - Cameron Salerno, CBS Sports”

So who ranked ahead of the Notre Dame football team? That would be Ohio State at No.1, Iowa at No. 3, Georgia at No. 4 and Michigan ranked 5th.