JD Bertrand breaks down his role in Notre Dame defense against Navy

When Notre Dame takes on Navy at 2:30 EST on Saturday in Dublin, linebacker JD Bertrand knows just what his main task will be. He and the rest of the front seven will be locked in on stymying what will presumably be more option football from the Midshipmen.

While his specific role changes from playcall-to-playcall and those vary week-to-week based on opponent, Bertrand is sure of one thing against Navy: He’ll be playing the run a lot. Navy has a new coaching staff this offseason, but barring a wholesale scheme change, Notre Dame can bet on heavy doses of option running to defend.

“It obviously varies depending on the call. In general you could say the front seven guys are mainly run stoppers and stereotypically when playing Navy in the past, you have a little bit less zone coverage, a little bit more man coverage. That puts us a little bit more in the run-stopping,” Bertrand said.

Bertrand missed the contest against Navy a year ago with an injury, but the 2022 team captain and linebacker is surely ready for the challenge in 2023.

In 12 games last year, Bertrand had 82 total tackles, including 8.5 for a loss and a pair of passes defensed. Facing the onslaught of option runs from Navy, having sound and sure-tackling linebackers will be key for Notre Dame on defense.

Freeman is looking forward to learn about his Notre Dame team vs. Navy

And while there are many unknowns facing the team — like any group starting a new season — Freeman wants his players to be in the best position come Saturday.

“It’s tough because you can never measure your team until you face an opponent,” Freeman said. “You often think about, okay, are we doing what it takes to make sure this team is ready when we face an opponent? But the true test comes on Saturday. With that being said, I’m gonna go back to our focus has to be on today. We got a team meeting at 1:45 and only thing I’m gonna talk to them about is winning today. We’ll get to Dublin, Ireland. We’ll get to the Navy game. Our only objective is to win today. I know that’s coaches speak. I know coaches said all the time but it’s true. I can use Saturday maybe to think about how to plan today. But if we don’t win the day then guess what, Saturday’s not going to be the result we want. So our focus has to be to win today. But Saturday we’ll get to measure what team we have.”