The Notre Dame offense continues to be explosive for the Irish football team as they head into week seven of the 2025 college football season. One of their strong points revolves around the running back duo of juniors Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price.
Sophomore quarterback CJ Carr, who has filled the shoes of former signal-caller Riley Leonard, has consistently commented on how important having Love is on offense. “It’s easy when you have Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price and the best O-line in the country,” he said. “It just takes all the pressure off my shoulders.”
Offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock also commented on the importance of Love and Price saying, “Those guys understand there’s a lot of really talented football players in that room. It obviously starts with J Love and JD, the camaraderie that’s in that room, how they trust, love and respect each other. It’s not just coach speak. It’s real and you can see that by the way they play.”
Additionally, running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider has commented on his players, saying, “The sky’s the limit, we [are] still progressing … we adapted and I think there’s a lot of room for growth.”
Jeremiyah Love
Continuing to break records, and occasionally defy the laws of gravity, Love proves his place on the field every week as he breaks through opposing defenses.
Love showed early on in his college career why he should be on the field. As a true freshman, Love only started one game but he played in 13 games overall for Notre Dame, finishing his season with 385 rushing yards, one touchdown and averaging 29.6 yards a game. Additionally, he had 77 receiving yards and one touchdown.
In his sophomore year, Love broke out on the national scene. He started all 16 games for the Irish and finished his season with 17 rushing touchdowns, 1,125 rushing yards, averaged 70.5 rushing yards per game, and added 237 receiving yards and two receiving touchdowns.
The junior has made an explosive mark to start the 2025 season. So far over the course of six games, Love has 530 rushing yards, which is nearly half of what he finished with during his sophomore year. In addition to this, Love has eight rushing touchdowns and three receiving touchdowns, which have been spread out over the last few games. After being shut out against Miami, he scored twice in the home opener against Texas A&M, two more times against Purdue, four in the win at Arkansas, one against Boise State and two on NC State last week.
Additionally, Love surpassed 2,000 career rushing yards, which he achieved over a staggering 329 carries. He reached this milestone more quickly than any other Irish player since Josh Adams, the Irish running back who was on the team from 2015-2017, who achieved it in just 313 carries.
Love’s first touchdown of the NC State game came in the first quarter when Carr dumped it off to him in the flat before he rushed two yards to reach the touchdown and put the Irish ahead 7-0 at the 9:49 mark. His second touchdown of the game appeared at the very end of the fourth quarter and was the final touchdown of the day, securing the 36-7 win for the Irish. Overall for the NC State game, Love finished with two touchdowns, 86 rushing yards and averaged 4.8 yards per rush.
Jadarian Price
Like Love, Price entered Notre Dame and played all 13 games of his freshman season, but he was a medical redshirt after not being able to compete in his first season due to an injury. Price finished 2023 in the Irish uniform with 272 rushing yards, three rushing touchdowns, 65 receiving yards and one receiving touchdown.
In his sophomore season, Price played in all 16 games for the Irish and continued to make an impact as he rounded out the season with a high total of 746 rushing yards, averaging 46.6 rushing yards per game and finding the end zone seven times.
Price didn’t stop there. Now in his junior season, he has kept the momentum going from the previous year. Over the first six games of the season, Price has managed 422 rushing yards, seven rushing touchdowns, 35 receiving yards and one receiving touchdown.
In total over the past three seasons, Price has a total of 35 games played, 1,440 rushing yards, 17 touchdowns, an average of 41.1 rushing yards per game, 110 total receiving yards, two receiving touchdowns and an average of 3.1 yards gained per reception.
Now the duo looks ahead to face USC with the support of each other, their coaches and their teammates.
Head coach Marcus Freeman said, “You know, I think our offense continues to play well. Wasn’t perfect [against NC State] but had some good explosive plays.”
The offensive line has been key to helping Love and Price find their way down the field, and they play a key role in how the team works together to make that happen.
Junior offensive lineman Billy Schrauth spoke about the importance of working together at the line of scrimmage. “It always starts with communication,” he said. “That’ll always be the name of the game up front for us.”
Another important element for the duo is trust, not only in each other, but in their coaches. Freeman commented, “You earn the trust of your teammates and coaches in practice way before you’re doing it on the game field.”
Love also commented on the importance of staying together as a unit no matter what happens, and the mindset that they have when they take the field, adding, “We believe that, no matter who we are up against, we’re going to go out there and make plays.”
The Irish will host USC this Saturday, Oct. 18 for their second night game of the season, with kickoff set for 7:30 p.m.
