Jadarian Price is one heck of a football player. You’d be hard-pressed to find many running backs in the annals of Notre Dame history who can turn a corner faster than he can. Few anywhere in the country are more explosive — whether on the ground or in a kick return.
But Price’s impact on the Irish goes well beyond his skills and his statistics. Just ask his head coach.
“I’ll say this every time you ask,” Marcus Freeman said after Saturday’s game against Purdue. “Yes, he’s talented, but he is the most unselfish individual along with others on our team, and that’s what I wanna point out — not his great play, not his touchdowns.”
If not for his selfless approach, Price easily could’ve sulked through the early part of Saturday’s game. He did not receive a touch until the second quarter, as fellow junior running back Jeremiyah Love totaled 19 carries to Price’s nine.
Regardless of who got how many rushing attempts on Saturday, Price and Love accomplished two feats they set out after as a team. First, they helped the Irish win their first game this season. Second, after combining for 4 touchdowns last week against Texas A&M, they reached the next level.
“We were like, ‘Okay, we gotta top it this week. You gotta score six,’ and we did that,” Price joked.
Love scored two while rushing for a career-high 157 yards, and Price set his own career best with four scores. Three of Price’s house calls came on the ground, as he efficiently totaled 74 rushing yards on just the nine carries. He found paydirt from distances of 21, 9 and 1 yard out, becoming the first Notre Dame rusher with a hat trick of touchdowns since Audric Estimé in 2023.
More on the Price-Estimé parallels in a moment.
Price’s fourth touchdown — his third in chronological order — came on the kick return. He had already previewed the runback with an earlier return in the first quarter, covering 42 yards to kickstart a touchdown drive. Price felt that he would have scored on the play by beating one more Boilermaker, supplying him with some extra motivation for the next return.
“I owed them one on the second one for sure,” Price said.
He’d have to wait for that opportunity, though. With less than two minutes to play in the first half, lightning moved over Notre Dame Stadium, shutting down the game for almost two hours.
“No one likes the delay when you’re out there on fire. The last thing you wanna do is go to the locker room and get stiff,” Price said. “The main thing we did was just hammering on the details, the little things that we saw throughout the first half of the game. I don’t think a lot of people were expecting the outcome of the kickoff return, but that just goes to show that you know no matter what phase, no matter what unit is out there, we’re ready to go when our name is called.”
Why were the Irish ready to go? Apparently, they took a trip down memory lane to their most recent September weather delay. In 2023 at North Carolina State, the Irish and Wolfpack took shelter for a similar lightning stoppage in the first half. On the first play back from the break, Audric Estimé ripped off an 80-yard touchdown run.
Price, who received seven carries during that game in Raleigh, remembers the play well.
“That’s all we were talking about during the delay,” Price recalled. “We were like, ‘Remember when Audric scored that?’”
The Irish remembered the play so well, they practically reenacted it on special teams. Although, technically speaking, Purdue ran the first few plays after the weather delay en route to a made field goal, Notre Dame still scored on its first chance to touch the football. It was Price taking the aforementioned second kickoff return 100 yards to the end zone, outdoing his 99-yard return score against USC in 2023.
NC State all over again, right? Yes, but this time, the running back harmed no hot dogs in the making of his touchdown.
“I did not have a hot dog during the delay like [Estimé] did, so it’s not the exact same, but it brought back memories for sure,” Price laughed.
At the end of the day, Price scored four touchdowns on Saturday, but he would have been just as happy to finish with four yards on one carry. And in some games, like this weekend’s, the flow of play favors more touches for Love and thus less for Price.
None of that matters to No. 24, though. As long as he can contribute to a Notre Dame victory in some way, Price will leave the field a happy man.
“That individual could have the ball and be on the field every single play,” Freeman said. “But what does he do? He says, ‘Coach, if you want J Love in there, put him in there. But when I get my opportunity, I’m gonna make the most of it … That’s the trait that I want our players to emulate — not the talent, the touchdowns — it’s the unselfishness that he displays.”
Heading into next week’s test against Arkansas in Fayetteville, Price and Love won’t chat about who will run the rock or find the end zone more. Instead, they’ll probably scheme up a means of scoring eight combined touchdowns and helping the Irish hang 60 on the Razorbacks.
It’s the nature of Notre Dame’s two-headed monster of a backfield. The backs are talented, selfless and such an exhilarating watch.
“That’s just what we do here at Notre Dame,” Price said. “The team comes first, whatever we need to do to get our first win of the season, everything for team glory. Whatever I need to do, whether that’s score six touchdowns or score zero, it doesn't matter to me — whatever is gonna help our team win.”
