Drew White Believes Notre Dame's Defense is Fearless
No. 2 Notre Dame will travel Boston College this weekend and the Irish facing quarterback Phil Jurkovec has taken every headline.
While some worry about the former Notre Dame signal-caller being up for the Irish, it could favor Brian Kelly's squad after beating Clemson.
The Irish aren't going to want to lose to their former teammate and it could result in giving Notre Dame enough motivation and emotion to avoid a letdown.
"I'm excited," stated Notre Dame linebacker Drew White. "I know that's a big story, but whoever I'm lining up against, I'm looking to compete and we're looking to dominate. It's really no different.
"Off the field, I'm close with Phil and I wish him the best, but once we step inside those white lines, it's the game of football and you're trying to win - trying to dominate."
Clark Lea's defense is well-aware Jurkovec leads the ACC in passing yards, but the focus is about improving from last week.
"As a team, we talk about a faceless opponent, so each week, we're going into The Gug and practice with no face to the opponent," explained White. "It's our standard of play. It's our performance we want to keep improving. Watching film on Clemson, we won and made some great plays, but there are areas to improve, so that's where we're trying to head."
'Run game and defense travel' is a famous saying in football and the Irish have both, but there's a third bullet point.
Physicality travels and White wants the Irish to set the tone in Chestnut Hill on Saturday.
"One of our key identifiers is being physical, especially at the point of attack at the line of scrimmage," said White. "That was something we thought Clemson hadn't experienced until last week. You see our interior defensive line controlling gaps and the linebackers flowing downhill and posting up offensive linemen. That was our mindset going into the game and our mindset going into every game - being the more physically dominant team."
The physicality is something Lea and Kelly have stressed, but Notre Dame's defense is starting to take the ball, which wasn't there until the Pitt game in October.
White expects turnovers to become the norm for the Irish defense and it starts with playing loose.
"The big plays come from being fearless," White explained. "It's not being scared to miss. I think Coach Rees gave this analogy a while back, but it's big-time players shoot. When the game is on the line, they are putting the ball up.
"On defense, we want everybody to be playmakers. It's having no fear—fearless guys flying around, not overthinking anything and playing to their ability. One example would be Wu on his touchdown. Came back that drive and shot full speed and blew up the play. Him just being a playmaker, it ends up with him scoring a touchdown.
"It's guys playing fearless and not being afraid to make a mistake when they're out on the field."