Notre Dame Football: Irish Cornerback Earns National Defensive Freshman of the Year Honors

Coming in as just a three-star recruit, Notre Dame fans who follow recruiting closely knew that the Irish coaching staff loved Leonard Moore and were pumped to have his pledge, but no one could have reasonably anticipated him being this good, this fast.

Notre Dame cornerbacks coach Mike Mickens deserves a ton of credit here for his evaluation and development, yet again, of a young stud Irish defensive back. Mickens has truly redefined the defensive backs room at Notre Dame as a whole, which was a weakness for many seasons.

Beginning with his star pupil Benjamin Morrison and continuing on with Christian Gray, Xavier Watts, Adon Shuler, Leonard Moore and others, Mickens has turned major weakness for Notre Dame into one if its biggest strengths.

Even still today, I never really imagined saying (or typing) that Notre Dame boasts one of the best secondaries in college football, again. Yet, every season it seems to get better and better under the tutelage of Mike Mickens.

Shifting the focus back to Moore, he's been a lockdown corner since he took over for the injured Morrison, who went down back in October. Moore had already been playing in a rotational role for the Irish defense, but with Morrison down, he was asked to step up in a big way and has answered the bell.

Standing at over 6-2, the lanky Moore leads the Notre Dame defense with 10 pass breakups to go with 43 tackles, two interceptions and two forced fumbles. He flies around with confidence not traditionally seen with a true freshman, which bodes well for him and Notre Dame moving forward.

Moore will face his toughest test yet on Monday night in the College Football Playoff as he will likely lineup with fellow true freshman phenom, Ohio State's star wide receiver Jeremiah Smith.