This past February, Notre Dame was in need of a new running backs coach as Delland McCullough headed to the NFL after accepting a position with the Las Vegas Raiders. McCullough helped coach some of the better running backs of the past decade for the Irish including Audric Estime and currently Notre Dame backs Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price. He was an excellent running back coach, developer of talent and an exceptional recruiter which ultimately led to his ability to head to the NFL. Head coach Marcus Freeman needed to make an impact hire to replace a coach like McCullough and did so when he went out and hired Penn State's running back coach Ja'Juan Seider.
Seider was at Penn State from 2018-2024 where he coached players like Miles Sanders who rushed for 1,274 yards and nine touchdowns in 2018 and current Nittany Lion backs Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen who has combined for 6,675 rushing yards, 1,318 receiving yards and 83 total touchdowns since 2022. Seider made the move to come over to Notre Dame and took over a running back room that consisted of Love, Price, redshirt junior Gi'Bran Payne, sophomore Aneyas Williams, redshirt freshman Kedren Young and true freshman Nolan James Jr.
Expectations were at an all time high for Seider coming to South Bend given the talent in the room which led to some criticism after their first loss of the season on the road against Miami in week one. Love was considered, and still is, the best running back in the country while their backfield as a whole was considered a top five backfield in the country heading into the season, which made Love's 10 carry, 33 yard performance against the Hurricanes so puzzling. Price ended the game as their leading rusher, but only amassed 45 yards and didn't have a single touch in the second half.
Thanks to Notre Dame's early bye week, the running back room started to get things figured out, Seider stuck with a rotation plan that worked and the Love-Price duo has been unstoppable. Since their week one loss to Miami, Love and Price have combined for 1,189 rushing yards, 215 receiving yards and 21 touchdowns. That doesn't include Price's 100-yard kick return against Purdue and his 100-yard kick return against USC this past weekend.
Love is currently on pace for 1,299 rushing yards in the regular season while Price is on pace for 872 rushing yards in the regular season; both outputs would be career highs for Notre Dame's dynamic duo in the backfield. There's a ways to go in the regular season, and the backs still have some things to work on, but after their performance against USC where Love and Price combined for 352 rushing and receiving yards and two touchdowns, it's safe to say that Seider has this running back room trending in the right direction.
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