Notre Dame Running Back Jeremiyah Love Is Ready To Show What He Has Learned
Freshman Jeremiyah Love is ready for hisrookiefreshman running back has worked as the understudy to Audric Estime out of the backfield this season. But after Estime’s decision to head to the NFL and opt out of the Sun Bowl, Love is in line to shine when he and his teammates take the field this Friday against Oregon State.
"I think it’s great, not only for myself but for all the backs,” Love said of moving up the depth chart after Estime’s departure. "We were kind of all behind Audric and he was kind of the leader, he was our leader. With him gone, I think it gives all of us a great chance to really show what we all can bring to the table and what we all can do with more carries and more playing time. So, I don’t really look at it like it’s just me getting more carries but all of us. We all get to showcase a lot more of what we all can do, and I think that’s going to be great for the bowl game and you’ll really get to see that Audric wasn’t really like the only back that was really nice. So, I think we all get a chance to show what we can do; showcase our talents.”
Love was one of Notre Dame’s highest rated recruits in the 2023 class of current freshmen. He never let that go to his head and/or create any undue frustrations playing behind Estime this season.
"There was no frustration,” Love said. "I knew the situation I was coming in. Audric, he was the main back. He worked for everything that he got and he deserves everything that he’s gotten and what he’s going to get, and I was okay with that. I'm a freshman and I just wanted to kind of sit back this season and learn from him and learn from everybody else and kind of just take my time with it.
"I wasn’t trying to rush into anything," continued the St. Louis native. "Just trying to develop and watch everybody so that I can become a better player. I didn’t want to come into it demanding more carries or demanding more time ... I mean like I don’t want to be too cocky as a freshman. I came into this season just wanting to learn from everybody. I wasn’t looking to get a lot of carries, but I got a few which I did what I did with. I did my best with the carries that I got and that’s kind of how I looked at it. There was no frustration.”
Love’s 56 carries for 346 yards were the second-most for any Irish back behind Estime’s 210 carries for 1,341 yards. He was able to learn a lot playing with his NFL-bound teammate in their lone season together.
"I’ve always been a hard worker, but Audric goes above and beyond,” Love said of his now former teammate. "He does extra work. He’s working out when nobody else is working out. He’s doing all the things that really nobody else is doing and I learned that if I want to be the best I gotta do more and I gotta work when nobody else is working and I learned to run with my pad level a little lower. Audric is a big back. So, watching him plow through people is kind of like, ‘Man, I see what I gotta do.'
"When I first came to Notre Dame, I was more like a upright runner, and as the season went on I kind of lowered my pad level and, shoot, yeah it was successful," continued Love. "I was successful with it, started to get a little bit more yards after contact and I think that we all as a running back room contributed to us being the number one running back group in yards after contact this year.”
While Love’s carries were limited this season, he saw more work as a freshman than three recent Irish backs who all went on to much bigger things by the end of their careers.
Dexter Williams ran for just 81 yards on 21 carries as a freshman in 2015. He finished just five yards shy of 1,000 yards in his final season in 2018. Kyren Williams had four carries for all of 26 yards in 2019, but topped 1,000 yards in each of his last two years and scored a combined 27 rushing touchdowns in 2020 and 2021.
Estime ran for 60 yards on seven carries as a freshman behind Williams in 2021. He set Notre Dame’s single season rushing touchdown record with 18 this season and ran for 2,261 yards and 29 touchdowns in his final two seasons.
Love, the former Missouri Gatorade State Player of the Year, has kept a patient approach to his freshman season as he eyes bigger things in the future.
"I think it went great,” Love said. "(I) just took my time with it. I came in here with an open mind, ready to be coached, to accept coaching and to learn from my superiors and that’s what I did. I started off just taking in all the information that I could get and here I am now at the end of the season a lot better than I was when I first came; arrived at Notre Dame. I just came into it with an open mind, ready to soak in all the information I could from my coach, from Audric and from all the seniors. We’ve got a lot of seniors on the team and just from everybody.
"I just wanted to trust the process,” Love continued. “"I mean, of course there are some guys who come in and are like the star right away. They’re starters. Like, some freshmen at other places they come in and they’re the guy. But whether that was me or not, I really didn’t care. I just wanted to come in and try to do my thing. I knew I wasn’t going to get a lot of carries. So, I was okay with that and I just wanted to come in and do the best with what I was going to get and that’s what I think I did this season. I came in and got all the knowledge that I could to become a better back.”
Love now gets his chance to apply all of those lessons.
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