SOUTH BEND — Notre Dame football will be without sophomore nickelback Dallas Golden for the rest of spring practice, coach Marcus Freeman said Saturday, April 18, after Golden missed the jersey scrimmage.
Freeman described Golden’s issue as a “lower back kind of sprain/strain/stress that we want to get calmed down.”
After playing 310 defensive snaps as a freshman, with 85% of those lined up in slot coverage or something similar, Golden is vying with senior Christian Gray and Michigan transfer Jayden Sanders for playing time as the fifth defensive back.
Golden, a Tampa Berkeley High School product, participated off and on for about three weeks of Irish spring drills before being shut down. He will miss the final three practices of the spring, including the April 25 Blue-Gold Game at Notre Dame Stadium.
“We said, let’s put him on the shelf for a little bit to let his back calm down,” Freeman said. “We think that’s going to make him better.”
After pairing with shutdown cornerback Leonard Moore the past two seasons, Gray has willingly shifted inside with Colorado grad transfer DJ McKinney due to arrive in June.
Sophomore Mark Zackery IV handled field corner duties with the first team on Saturday and struggled to keep Jordan Faison under control.
Gray was flagged for pass interference against Ohio State transfer Mylan Graham on CJ Carr’s first full series, but Gray also broke up quick out from Carr to Jordan Faison on a third-and-goal play from the 1.
“We thought he would be a natural nickel,” Freeman said of Gray. “We thought this would be a good move for him. He’s really worked at it. Like anytime you’re trying to improve, you’ll go through some of the failures that he went through early in the spring, and he’ll continue to go through failures, but those make you better.”
Gray’s forte is man-to-man coverage, typically in an “off” approach, but the 6-foot, 196-pounder is making the adjustment to the high-traffic nature of life in the slot. Freeman lauded Gray’s toughness in zone coverage this spring as well as his improvement in the “press situation” against slippery slot receivers.
“The greatest challenge is really learning the zones,” Gray said recently. “I’m learning about the playbook more now because it’s very different from corner. Everything is a lot faster.”
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Christian Gray tries to adapt after Notre Dame bumps him inside
Reporting by Mike Berardino, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
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