Notre Dame loses veteran defensive back for the season due to torn ACL
Notre Dame football will be without one of its veteran cornerbacks in 2024. On Monday, Fighting Irish coach Marcus Freeman announced that veteran Chance Tucker is out for the season after suffering a torn ACL.
The injury happened during the program’s “jersey scrimmage” on Aug. 17. Before his senior season, Tucker appeared in 10 games, including nine in 2023.
“We love Chance, man,” Freeman told reporters during his Monday news conference. “He’s a great teammate, a great person — you feel terrible for him that he loses this season.”
Entering this season, the 6-foot, 189-pound Tucker projected to be a key depth piece behind juniors Benjamin Morrison and Jaden Mickey and sophomore Christian Gray. When the Notre Dame football communications team released its Week 1 depth chart on Monday, it listed Morrison and Gray as the starters.
Behind Morrison, a preseason All-American, and Gray, one of the program’s up-and-comers, are Mickey and freshman Leonard Moore. Still, Freeman said he is confident in the personnel he will have available to start the season at Texas A&M on Saturday.
“We have a lot of depth there,” Freeman said. “I’m very confident in the depth of both the safety and the corners room. Rod Heard II is a guy that can play multiple positions. He can corner, he can play safety and he can play nickel. So he gives you added depth to both rooms.
“But I really like it, man. I like the depth. Adon Shuler has done a great job of proving that he can be trusted and counted on. He’s going to be a really good player for us.
“Then, we got some good young guys like Leonard Moore and Karson Hobbs. Some of those guys that are all going to be able to help us this year.”
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The Irish listed Shuler as the starting boundary safety, Hobbs as the backup nickel behind Jordan Clark and Heard as the second-string field safety after Xavier Watts.
A look at Chance Tucker’s Notre Dame football career before the injury
A product of Encino (Calif.) Crespi Carmelite, Tucker was entering his fourth season for the Irish.
After redshirting during the 2021 season, he made his collegiate debut in the program’s 2022 home season against Boston College on Nov. 19.
Last season, Tucker played 34 snaps between four games. His heaviest workloads came in Week 1 against Tennessee State on Sept. 2 and the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl against Oregon State on Dec. 12. He played 12 snaps each in those outings, finishing with two of his three career tackles in the postseason.
Tucker appeared in five other contests, see time on Notre Dame’s kick coverage, punt return and field goal block units.
Coming out of Crespi Carmelite, Tucker was a three-star recruit who ranked as the No. 51 wide receiver nationally and No. 28 prospect in California in the 2021 class. He chose the Irish over scholarship offers from Colorado, Northwestern, Oregon State, Washington and Washington State.
