UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 14, 2023

JD Bertrand

Press Conference

Notre Dame 48, USC 20 JD.

Q. JD, the second loss in college football is different. Playoff era. No team has ever made the playoffs with two losses. You guys lose your second game last week. Why were you guys able to bounce back, and not just do that, but play as well as you did, especially from a defensive standpoint?

JD BERTRAND: We have great coaches and great players that believe in it. I mean, it was just next step forward and just see where we can get better from last game. I think it showed how we could get better.

Crazy thing is we can still get better from this game and we can take it a step up.

Q. What would you say would be the biggest key just to slowing down Caleb Williams and getting some of those turnovers early? What was the biggest key tonight defensively?

JD BERTRAND: Coaches put an awesome game plan in. One of the big things was keeping him in the box. Last year, I mean, we really experienced him getting out, him really playing backyard football where he is scrambling, holding this play, making ten seconds long, and now at that point it's hard to cover downfield and the receivers are getting open.

So that was a big emphasis, and I think you could see that we tried to contain him as much as we could in that pocket.

Q. JD, in terms of that, how helpful was Kenny Minchey in simulating Caleb this week? How much fun do you think Kenny had? How could you tell as the week went on that it was Williams-like?

JD BERTRAND: Yeah, the scout team did an unbelievable job. We say that every week, but they really took it personal this week. Kenny did awesome. Not going to start calling him Kenny Williams, but he just extended every play, so whether he got sacked or not, he was still extending the play and making sure that in the back end we were finishing. Those boys did an unbelievable job.

Q. And then your two back-to-back stops early on third and fourth down on Jones. Think back to that in terms of what was at stake there. You guys were kind of laying down the line in terms of physicality.

JD BERTRAND: Yeah, I mean, just execute our jobs, do our jobs, win the interval. That's all I was thinking. I didn't think much more of it.

What our defense put on display up to this season is like no matter if it's fourth and one, no matter how many yards are left in the red zone or whatever, we stand a chance. It's been really cool being able to have that mentality as a defense that no matter how many yard they need to get, even just one yard, half a yard, we are able to stop them. We have been doing that and hope to keep it up.

Q. Just to go further, your timing was in sync with the USC offense there. What did you see there? Take us through that.

JD BERTRAND: Yeah, big thing was the clock was clicking down. Sometimes I'll hit that blitz, but then right there I knew the play clock was ticking down and so I just got up there and took my shot.

Q. You played a lot of football here. Whether it's you making those stops, Xavier coming up in multiple turnovers, how do you sense the entire operation feeding off those big plays on the defensive side of the ball and building on top of each other?

JD BERTRAND: Going into this game we talked about, especially after last week like we weren't dominate in the turnover margin. Like we had to emphasize that in practice, and it's the biggest thing. It's so easy for us to be able to feed off the turnovers.

Props to the offense, because they put it in the end zone every single time when we had the turnovers.

Q. Wanted to ask you Javontae Jean-Baptist. He is going to be credited with two hurries, but it was a lot more than that this game. What happens to him in these games? He's had a great month of football, but he's played his best against the best opponents.

JD BERTRAND: Yeah, he's just a great player overall. Going back to the Ohio State game he played really well. For us that was personal. We wanted to just there for him during that whole thing. I mean, he puts the work in practice. That's the thing. It's clear in practice. He's getting the quarterback, so it's no surprise to us as he comes out on game day and does the same exact thing.

Q. One of your reserver linebackers, Jaylen Sneed, probably had his best game from a pass rushing standpoint. Where have you seen his growth?

JD BERTRAND: I'm just happy for him. He balled out. I mean, he's a young guy and he's been pushed different ways, and so just for him to be able to have that success, it's awesome, and really proud of him.