Marcus Freeman: JD Bertrand sets the standard

Along with leading Notre Dame in tackles from his off ball linebacker position, JD Bertrand is just the type of player head coach Marcus Freeman loves to have. He might not be the most physically gifted athlete, but Bertrand works immensely hard to maximize what he can do.

Freeman sees the focused regimen — from film study to recovery to nutrition — that helps Bertrand be so good. It had Freeman making a comparison to one of his former Ohio State linebacker teammates.

“He probably doesn’t want to hear me say this, but I don’t know that he has as much ability as everybody in that room, the linebacker room, but he maximizes what he can be because of the way he prepares,” Freeman said. “The way he takes care of his body. The preparation. He’s a guy that’s on a timer in terms of when he goes to sleep, how many hours, what he puts in his body. A guy I remember similar to that was probably AJ Hawk. I played with him at Ohio State. Was just truly, everything was regimented. Everything he did. And I’m not saying JD Bertrand is AJ Hawk — I’m just saying that he maximizes his God-given abilities and you’re seeing the rewards of it in the game.”

With undefeated No. 4 Clemson coming to South Bend this Saturday, Bertrand’s value is no more important than now. On top of being the leading tackler for Notre Dame, Bertrand is second on the team in tackles for loss behind only NFL prospect edge defender Isaiah Foskey.

Freeman explained that the way Bertrand has gotten so good is constant film study — almost too constant for the head coach.

“The thing I remember about JD is every day he would ask me, ‘Hey, coach, when can we watch film?’ When you’re a new coordinator it’s ‘Yeah, OK, you want to come and watch film, let’s watch a little bit of film.’ Every day — religiously — he would say ‘When can we watch film?’ And it could be six, seven in the morning or it could be seven or eight at night. My family wasn’t here at the time, so I was here all night. He would come in exactly when I would say come in, and almost to the point where sometimes you’d roll your eyes like, ‘Man, you’re back. Shoot, you remembered,'” Freeman said, joking about Bertrand never missing a beat.

But it’s that sort of commitment and follow through that leave Freeman thoroughly impressed with the Bertrand.

“I would have to say JD Bertrand probably sets the standard,” Freeman said.