White's Role: Traffic Control

The perseverance is borne from confidence, which in turn is intrinsic from being the youngest brother in a competitive household.

Which in turn, explains why Notre Dame’s Drew White never misses an opportunity to be challenged.

Never has, explains his father, Don White.

“He’s always kind of been that way, always been determined even as a real little kid,” the elder White told IrishSportsDaily.com. “Just basically been a confident person. It was almost in his makeup and he grew up that way, being the younger brother of an athlete by about three years (former Auburn quarterback Sean White) and just a lot of determination and hard work in him.

“I give the credit to him, really.”

Like Drew’s insistence on playing above his age in youth baseball. Or Drew’s decision to transfer high schools, in order to compete at Miami-area stalwart and national powerhouse St. Thomas Aquinas.

A move complete with a daily roundtrip commute of at least an hour in the car.

“He would be more than willing to play on a team older than his current age, not being concerned about the kids being bigger and older,” Don White said. “He took on the challenge and didn’t really care about all the factors and things around him.

“He basically transferred into St. Thomas, because we live about 30 to 45 minutes from the school, and he basically needed to wait to being able to drive and transport himself down there. He was basically transferring into St. Thomas unknown, and he showed some determination and confidence. He didn’t have any credibility on that team. But he drove down I-95 every day, and it’s a pretty crazy area. But he was willing to do that and not think twice about it.”

Drew White’s ability to navigate traffic is going to take center stage once again this week, when No. 16 Notre Dame (7-2) hosts No. 23 Navy (7-1) Saturday inside Notre Dame Stadium (2:30 p.m., NBC).

The Fighting Irish’s middle linebacker is cast into a central role against the Midshipmen’s discipline-taxing option offense.

“The biggest key to Navy is not letting any yards leak,” said Drew White, Notre Dame’s second-leading tackler with 55 stops, including a team-leading eight tackles-for-losses. “Navy really does a good job of pushing the line, falling forward, gaining four or five yards every play, and while sometimes the audience or whoever is watching might not think that’s a good play, that’s what Navy thrives on. They just want to get that every play; wears down opponents.

“So really this week me and just the rest of the team are just focusing on being physical at the point of attack and pushing them backwards.”

White’s ability to prove his in-game physicality traces to this same matchup a year ago, when injuries and necessity resulted in the 6-foot-quarter-inch, 230-pounder filling in off the bench with six stops.

No, White doesn’t own considerable experience defending the triple-option from his prep days in Florida, but he does have his teammates’ trust.

“He does his job,” said senior defensive end Ade Ogundeji. “When it’s time for him to get the quarterback, he gets the quarterback. When it’s time for him to get the running back, he gets the running back. He does his job. It’s not anything crazy. You’ve just got to do your job and make sure you’re looking at your keys.”

White is studying his keys, studying film and focusing strictly in the moment of this game; he isn’t interested in talking about last year’s meeting and he doesn’t accept the outsiders’ notion that he’s overachieving this year for the Irish.

“It’s always been part of my vision. People talk about the process. I’ve worked up to this point to be where I’m at,” said White, starting for a Notre Dame squad chasing its third-straight season of 10 or more wins. “I haven’t done anything yet in my eyes, I haven’t arrived; I haven’t met my goals or anything. Every week I want to get better. I watch the tape and I hope next week when I watch that game, it’s going to be better than the previous week.

“I haven’t felt like I’ve surpassed my expectations at all. If anything, I think I’m just getting started and I’m trying to get better every week.”

This, after all, is a guy whose time on the scout team a couple years ago was spent repeatedly getting a college indoctrination from a pair of future NFL All-Rookie selections.

And always going back for more.

“He enjoyed playing scout team because he had to go against Quenton Nelson (Indianapolis Colts) and Mike McGlinchey (San Francisco 49ers), and he got pounded by them every day,” said Don White, also pointing to the mentoring Drew received from former teammate Drue Tranquill. “But he will tell you how much he learned going against those two guys.

“He views his time on the scout team as invaluable.”

Which, now, is the role Drew White is filling for the Irish defense.