Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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8 NOV. 5, 2022 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME It All Starts Up Front … On Offense By Tyler Horka Ask yourself this: When's the last time the play of senior center Zeke Correll came up in a conversation about Notre Dame football? Feels like it's been a while, yeah? That's a good thing. Being an offensive lineman is a thankless job. You're the center of attention when things aren't going well, and you're in the background when they are. Correll is probably OK with that. Offensive linemen are a humble bunch. The consummate "team" guys. Notre Dame would be in even worse shape two months into the season if the offensive line was not playing as well as it has been. Sophomore right tackle Blake Fisher is getting better with every start. Sophomore left tackle Joe Alt, meanwhile, is ranked No. 3 among offensive tackles nationwide with a Pro Football Focus grade of 90.6 through Week 8. He's as good of a building block as any at the most impor- tant quarterback-protecting position on the field. Graduate student guards Jarrett Patterson and Josh Lugg have been quietly flanking Correll. Again, not a bad thing. They don't have the awe-striking up-and- coming talent of Notre Dame's tackles, but they are two veteran presences for the Irish. Alt called Patterson the leader of the group, emotionally and otherwise. Notre Dame has been far from an offensive juggernaut this season, but it hasn't been the offensive line's fault. Junior quarterback Drew Pyne's pocket is often clean, and the running lanes for the Irish running backs are often wide. Can't ask for more than that. The Irish Defensive Line Is As Good As Advertised By Todd D. Burlage During the 0-2 start this season, when none of the Notre Dame units on either side of the ball played particularly well, the Irish dropped to No. 113 nationally in rushing defense at 195.5 yards allowed per game. That aver- age inexcusably included allowing 219 yards rushing to Marshall. Fast forward five games and about seven weeks, and the Irish defense had trimmed more than 55 yards a game off its opponents' rushing average and climbed to No. 61 in rushing defense at 139.4 yards surrendered per game. And that improvement starts and ends with the big guys up front. In the five games after Marshall — Cal through UNLV — Notre Dame allowed only 117.0 rushing yards a game. Twice in those five outings it didn't even allow 100 yards, and only once did it give up more than 160 yards to an opponent. Remarkably, three of Notre Dame's top seven tacklers following the UNLV game were defensive linemen. Additionally, led by the work from senior defensive end Isaiah Foskey and graduate student linemen Jayson and Justin Ademilola, Notre Dame has climbed to No. 23 in the country in sacks with 2.86 per game. The Irish defensive linemen had 15.5 of Notre Dame's 20 sacks through seven games. As my colleague Tyler Horka properly points out, the Irish offensive line is also finding its footing, especially in the running game. But not at the pace, or with the consistency the defensive line is showing during its steady ascent. Point ✦ Counterpoint: HAS THE NOTRE DAME OFFENSIVE LINE OR DEFENSIVE LINE BEEN BETTER IN 2022? The 2022 season has been an up-and-down one for senior Notre Dame linebacker JD Ber- trand. Despite about five quarters of missed time because of targeting penal- ties, the senior team cap- tain still easily led the Irish with 43 tackles through seven games. After making 7 tackles in 15 appearances through his freshman and sophomore seasons in 2019 and 2020 — mainly on special teams — Bertrand became a 13- game starter at Will line- backer as a junior in 2021 and blossomed. The sturdy and smart 6-foot-1, 230-pounder eas- ily led the Irish with 101 tackles last season, the first Notre Dame player with triple-digit stops since 2018 when Te'Von Coney recorded 123 stops. BGI: You're in the middle of three out of four games against ACC teams, is there any common theme among those? Bertrand: "Not really. That's the cool thing about Notre Dame is you're always going to play so many different teams from different confer- ences. It's cool just to be able to play a bunch of different styles. "That goes into the learn- ing curve. You're going to be able to learn how to ap- ply our defense to a bunch of different schemes." BGI: Notre Dame's red zone defense has ranked near the worst in the coun- try all season, what's being done to fix it? Bertrand: "We've been trying to work on that as a defense, just trying to have more player-led meetings. … Have only players so that guys can ask questions, and they're not afraid to have the coaches [around]. "And, not let the coaches know that they don't necessarily know the exact fit." BGI: Assess your play to this point in the season? Bertrand: "I feel like overall I'm doing well. Obviously, there's areas to clean up. That's the beauty of football. You're able to look at the last game, find out what you need to clean up, and apply it to the next game." BGI: Two targeting penalties in consecutive games sidelined you for parts of three games, how would you assess those? Bertrand: "It's never meant to be malicious. You're always trying to finish the ball carrier, make sure they feel you. But everything happens so fast. It's a split-second thing. It's hard because you slow things down [on replay] and everything looks more malicious. "I've had my head up in all the situations, so it's just making sure that I shoot a little lower on the body." BGI: Overall, the Irish defense has played well, but it remains prone to gash plays, and failures in important situations, how frustrating has that been? Bertrand: " There's always going to be little frustrating plays, that's the consistency part. We'll have a great stop, stop, stop, stop, big play. And, then it seems like those drives just start the bleeding. "We need some sort of negative snap, or some- thing to be able to get ourselves back on track and get them into a negative play." — Todd D. Burlage Five Questions With … SENIOR LINEBACKER JD BERTRAND Bertrand compiled a team-high 43 tackles in Notre Dame's first seven games this season. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER AL WASHINGTON HARRY HIESTAND