Notre Dame's star running back Jeremiyah Love has certainly made a name for himself this season. He's racked up several highlight plays over the last few weeks including a 228-yard rushing performance against USC, a 94-yard touchdown run against Boston College and a 48-yard touchdown run against Navy that defied the laws of physics. He's truly performing and living up to his reputation as the best running back in the country.
So far this season, the St. Louis native has 154 carries for 988 yards, 13 rushing touchdowns, is averaging 6.4 yards per carry, tallied 254 receiving yards and has three receiving touchdowns on the year. His season-long performance has gotten Love a lot of recognition and he's made his way into the Heisman conversation. The Heisman Trophy is a heralded award in college football that gets awarded to the best player in the country, but Love has his sites set on something bigger.
"It's good to see, but I try to just keep everything just as straight as possible," Love said about his Heisman notoriety. "I have to finish the rest of the season and perform well. Hopefully I have a chance at going to New York and winning the Heisman but I definitely see stuff. It's good to see. It's also a tribute to us doing well as a program in general. At the end of the day, it's a team sport. The performances that I go out there and have is not just because of me. It's because of the whole team that's playing complementary football. So it's great to see, but I got to finish the rest of the season."
Love has always been extremely confident in his abilities on the football field. Can you blame him? He's one of, if not the most, electric player in college football and has seamlessly picked up where he left off from a season ago. Love has worked his way to be being an all-around type of player and is now effective in both the pass game and the rushing attack. But this wasn't a surprise to most, especially Love.
"No, not really," Love answered when asked if he ever surprises himself. "It's hard to surprise me, I guess you could say. It's hard for me to impress myself because I have such high standards for myself. Something impressive to me would be me jumping in the air and hurdling two people at once, or spinning in the air and jumping over somebody. That's impressive to me. The things that I've done so far, I feel like anybody can pretty much do those things. I probably do things more consistently than other people, but anybody can do those things. Not everybody can jump in the air and jump over two people."
Opposing team's have done their best to limit Love's production this season, but few have succeeded. An argument could be made that the most effective way to limit his production is to simply not give him the football. Team's have attempted to load the box and stop Notre Dame's rushing attack, but Love has still rushed for 94, 136, 228, 86 and 103 in his last five games.
"I would like to think that's just respect," Love replied when asked about team's stacking the box. "Teams respect the running back room and respect the things that we can do when we get the ball in our hands with space and without space as well. If we catch you slipping, whether it's space or not, we can hurt you. Sooner or later, they're going to have to start respecting the passing game and the running game. You might just have to start playing base defense. You can pick and choose your poison. Maybe you want to get beat in the passing game or you want to get beat in the running game. But I think of it as all respect."
Jeremiyah Love has been special this season for Notre Dame. He's on pace to finish the regular season with 1,317 rushing yards, 17 rushing touchdowns, 338 receiving yards and four receiving touchdowns. That's more rushing yards, the same amount of rushing touchdowns, more receiving yards and more receiving touchdowns than he had in a 16-game season in 2024. If this is potentially Love's last season in South Bend, it sure has been one to remember.
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