When watching Jeremiyah Love, the first quality that stands out is his explosiveness. As a former track and field champion from St. Louis, Missouri, Love has successfully transferred his elite straight-line speed from the track to the gridiron.
On multiple occasions this season, Love has exploded with long breakaway touchdown runs — none more impactful than his 98 yard scamper that jumpstarted Notre Dame’s CFP demolition of in-state foe Indiana.
Explosiveness (speed, agility, and power)
In addition to his game changing speed, Love possesses another explosive quality — tremendous agility. Not only can the Irish tailback make a man miss on the ground, he’s also shone a Superman-like ability to glide high through the air as he hurdles past would-be tacklers time and again — most recently in the second half against Penn State.
Lastly, Love has a propensity to finish off his runs with forward momentum. Despite his slender frame, Love plays with physicality. The power, the lower body strength that he runs with, routinely earns him an extra yard or two per carry. Needless to say, it’s an attribute that, at times, can be pivotal to extending or even finishing off an offensive drive.
Love's Intangible: Grit
Whilst Love is a special talent, it’s an intangible quality of his that separates himself from many other elite athletic specimens — grit. The performances that Love produced against Indiana and most recently versus Penn State, is a resounding example of the courage, resolve, and strength of character that he possesses.
Since getting banged up against USC in Notre Dame’s final game of the regular season, Love has been battling through an injury to his right knee. In addition, he had the flu whilst outrunning the Indiana defense from goal line to goal line. Yet, the perceived physical limitations haven’t hampered his heart and his overwhelming desire to contribute and to win.
Although Love may have only produced 44 yards rushing on 10 carries against the Nitty Lions, he played — even though the coaching staff and his teammates would have understood if he hadn’t. And not only did he play, he sacrificed his body by still managing to provide the explosiveness that we’re accustomed to seeing from him.
The most notable example of this was the 2 yard goal line touchdown that Love produced in the third quarter. Despite the run play looking destined to be blown up by the Nitty Lions’ defense, Love persevered, breaking past five PSU players that managed to at least get a hand on him, if not more. In the end tho, the Penn State players proved to be wimpy tacklers as the golden domer wasn’t going to be denied from reaching pay-dirt.
The second instance of his grit was when he hurdled over a Penn State defender to ensure positive yardage on the play, despite stating in pregame that he wouldn’t utilize this superhero move due to his compromised right knee. In the moment, the heat of battle, Love laid it all out on the field. He sacrificed his body for his team and his coaches, and ultimately for, as coach Freeman likes to say, team glory. Now that’s a running back to love!
Love and his fellow Irishman have one final hurdle to clear
It’ll be Notre Dame’s largest hurdle to date — facing off against Ohio State. The Scarlet and Grey is, despite being seeded 8th in the College Football Playoff, ranked 1st in the country, according to Jeff Sagarin’s College Football Rankings — Notre Dame is ranked 2nd. With that being said, this imposing obstacle that is Brutus and the Buckeyes is one that both Love and his fellow Fighting Irish teammates was hoping for. Per Jeremiyah’s postgame comments following Notre Dame’s Orange Bowl victory, he said, “we want to play Ohio State. I feel like Ohio State is better than Texas. I want to play the best and win.”
Whelp, many might point out that one must be careful for what he wishes for whilst others would counter by believing that in order to be the best, you need to beat the best. I’d imagine that coach Freeman loved hearing that both Jeremiyah and the rest of the Notre Dame squad wants to test themselves at the highest level — that’s the mindset of champions. And after all, coach Freeman consistently preaches competition, play in and play out.
Come January 20, Love and the Irish will face their final hurdle of the 2024 campaign, and it’ll be against the best on college football’s biggest stage — OSU in the national championship game. It’s straight-forward for Love and his teammates now, hurdle past the Buckeyes and then forever be beloved by the Notre Dame faithful thanks to claiming the program’s first national title since 1988.
Watch: #7 Notre Dame vs #8 Ohio State | Friday, January 20 | 7:30 pm ET | ESPN
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