Running for the Heisman: Notre Dame’s Jeremiyah Love and His Path to Legacy
- Connor Regan
- 2 hours ago
- 13 min read
Updated: 6 minutes ago
Notre Dame hasn’t touched a Heisman since 1987, or a national title since 1988. Jeremiyah Love has the numbers, the moments, and the aura to change that. In 2025, he isn’t just chasing yards, he’s chasing history.
The Irish line up, first and goal at the 2-yard line. 4th quarter. Tie game. Everything on the line. Riley Leonard sets up in shotgun with Jeremiyah Love at his hip. Across from them, a stacked box with 7 men crowding the line of scrimmage. Jaden Greathouse motions across the formation just before the ball is hiked. Leonard jumps to grab the high snap and hands the ball off to Love in one swift motion. That’s when time slows down.
Love cuts left, bodies falling around him as he searches for space. A diving defender breaks through the line and spears his battered right knee. As his legs get taken out from underneath him, he goes airborne, planting a single hand on his opponent’s back — the only thing keeping him from going down. This is where the play should have ended.
As he falls toward the ground, Love plants his foot on the turf, the rest of his body flailing, momentum sending him downward for a loss. Yet somehow, he rights himself, planting his other foot down and backpedaling towards the goal for just a second. He fights to stay upright before turning his shoulders back to his mission.
Another defender meets him dead on, the collision standing him completely upright and driving him backward once more. This is where the play should have ended — but it doesn’t. Love powers into his opponent’s chest, breaking the stalemate and driving forward inch by inch. Just as he gains the edge, the flood arrives. A second defender lunges at his legs, another flying in over the top for a punch at the ball. He is completely engulfed — three men, six arms, a pile of momentum driving him down. This is where the play should have ended. But once again, it didn’t.
With a man draped over his shoulders, he drives his legs into the ground and launches himself, with every last bit of determination in his tank, towards the goal line. Against all odds, Love lifts off the ground, fully horizontal, and dives with the ball at complete extension. And that’s where the play finally ends, with the ball breaking the plane, and the Irish taking the lead. This isn’t just a career-defining play; this is what Jeremiyah Love does — the impossible, again and again.
Now, in 2025, Love carries that same mission against the impossible. The Irish ended last season in the National Championship, their first shot since 2012. They fell short. The drought stretches on — no title since 1988, no Heisman since Tim Brown in 1987. Both have seemed impossible at times. But with Jeremiyah Love in the backfield, Notre Dame finally has its best chance in decades to end at least one.
The 2024 Breakout Season
Every Heisman story begins with a breakout. For some players, it’s a gradual rise: a freshman spark, a sophomore step forward, a junior leap. For Jeremiyah Love, the jump came in Year Two, and it wasn’t just a step into the spotlight; it was an explosion that shook the Notre Dame record book.
Love’s sophomore year wasn’t about chasing 30 carries a game like Ashton Jeanty or Derrick Henry. It was about squeezing the most out of every single touch, and more often than not, those touches ended in the end zone.
On just 163 carries, Love stacked 1,125 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns, and he added 28 catches for 237 yards and 2 more scores. That’s 19 total TDs at a nasty 6.9 yards per carry — better per-carry juice than Derrick Henry’s Heisman year and right in the neighborhood of Reggie Bush’s highlight-reel prime.
Jeremiyah Love — 2024 Season Stats
Rush Yards: 1,125 (163 carries, 6.9 YPC, long of 98)
Rush TDs: 17 (scored in 13 straight games — ND record)
Rec Yards: 237 (28 receptions, 8.5 avg, long of 32)
Rec TDs: 2 (Louisville, Army)
Total TDs: 19 (2nd-most in single-season ND history, trailing only Jerome Bettis’ 20 in 1991)
And it wasn’t empty numbers, it was moments. Against Virginia, when the passing game sputtered, Love carried the load with 137 yards and two scores. Against Army, he turned seven carries into 130 yards and three touchdowns, like he was playing backyard ball. In the playoff against Indiana, he ripped a 98-yard touchdown run that’s already legend in South Bend’s deep lore. And in the Orange Bowl vs Penn State, when it mattered most, he muscled in a score that showed his nose for the end zone never disappears, even against elite competition.
That’s who he was all year: the guy who showed up when the lights were brightest. He scored in 13 straight games, setting a school record. He wasn’t a “volume back,” but he didn’t need to be. He was the efficiency assassin, waiting for his moment to strike and never missing when it came.
National Context — The Elite Backs
College football is a quarterback’s game now. The Heisman has gone to a quarterback in 21 of the last 24 seasons, and wide receivers have stolen the spotlight twice. Running backs, once the heartbeat of the award, are nearly extinct in the trophy race. Since 2000, only two have carried home the trophy: Reggie Bush in 2005 (later vacated) and Derrick Henry in 2015.
That context makes Jeremiyah Love’s rise all the more remarkable. In 2024, the headlines were dominated by backs like Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty, who racked up 1,916 rushing yards and 569 receiving yards, and UNC’s Omarion Hampton, who battered his way to All-American honors. Love didn’t lead the nation in yards. He didn’t need to. His efficiency and scoring punch kept him in their orbit while carrying fewer touches, and by season’s end, the whispers were already starting: this kid might be next.
Now, entering 2025, the whispers are gone. Love is at the top of every list. ESPN, FOX, CBS — all of them have him as the nation’s consensus No. 1 running back.
Top 5 Running Backs Heading into 2025 (ESPN)
Jeremiyah Love — Notre Dame (1,125 rush yds, 19 total TDs, 6.9 YPC)
Nicholas Singleton — Penn State (1,099 rush yds, 12 rush TDs, 375 rec yds, 5 rec TDs)
Kaytron Allen — Penn State (1,108 rush yds, 8 TDs, 153 rec yds, 2 rec TDs)
Makhi Hughes — Oregon (via Tulane) (1,401 rush yds, 15 TDs, 176 rec yds, 2 rec TDs)
Isaac Brown — Louisville (emerging ACC star)
That jump matters. In 2024, Love was an underrated sophomore. In 2025, he’s the consensus No. 1 back in America. That’s the kind of preseason narrative Heisman campaigns are built on.
Notre Dame RB History & Records
At Notre Dame, running backs aren’t just athletes; they’re lore. George Gipp. The Four Horsemen. Pinkett. Bettis. Denson. To play running back in South Bend is to carry not only the football but the weight of the past. It’s about more than production. It’s about becoming a chapter in a story written over a century.
Jeremiyah Love is only two years in, and already, the numbers say he belongs in that story. His 1,125 rushing yards in 2024 didn’t quite crack the top 10 — but at just 67 yards shy, he’s right outside, chasing names like Ferguson and Walker. His 17 rushing touchdowns tie him for 2nd all-time in a single season, alongside Vagas Ferguson (’79) and Allen Pinkett (’83). And when you add in his two receiving scores, Love’s 19 total touchdowns rank 2nd in Notre Dame history, trailing only Jerome Bettis’ 20 in 1991.
Notre Dame Single-Season Leaders (Selected Categories)
Rushing Yards (Single Season)
Vagas Ferguson — 1,437 (1979)
Josh Adams — 1,430 (2017)
Allen Pinkett — 1,394 (1983)
Reggie Brooks — 1,343 (1992)
Audric Estimé — 1,341 (2023)
Julius Jones — 1,268 (2003)
Autry Denson — 1,268 (1997)
Darius Walker — 1,267 (2006)
Darius Walker — 1,196 (2005)
Vagas Ferguson — 1,192 (1978) — Jeremiyah Love — 1,125 (2024, just outside Top 10)
Rushing TDs (Single Season)
Audric Estimé — 18 (2023)
T-2. Vagas Ferguson — 17 (1979)
T-2. Allen Pinkett — 17 (1983)
T-2. Jeremiyah Love — 17 (2024) T-3. Jerome Bettis — 16 (1991)
Total TDs (Single Season)
Jerome Bettis — 20 (1991)
Jeremiyah Love — 19 (2024)
Allen Pinkett — 18 (1983, 1984)
What does this mean? That Love, with just one season as the feature back, already sits shoulder-to-shoulder with Notre Dame’s immortals. Bettis, Pinkett, Ferguson, Estimé, Love’s name is already etched beside theirs.
And yet, the most important thing is what comes next. Notre Dame running backs aren’t remembered for one good season. They’re remembered for their careers, for consistency, for carrying the Irish through entire eras. Love’s 2024 was the spark. 2025 is the chance to turn it into a fire - the kind that makes history.
Career Trajectory vs Irish Legends
When you measure a running back at Notre Dame, you don’t just look at the single season. You look at the arc. Can he sustain greatness? Can he stack seasons? Can he climb the mountain that Autry Denson and Allen Pinkett once climbed?
Through two years, Jeremiyah Love’s arc looks historic. He’s already at 1,510 career rushing yards and 22 total touchdowns. By comparison, Josh Adams, who nearly earned a Heisman invite in 2017, had fewer touchdowns at the same point. Darius Walker, Julius Jones, and even Vagas Ferguson all trail Love’s current pace. The only names who matched him in scoring punch were Allen Pinkett and Jerome Bettis, two of the program’s all-time great finishers.
Jeremiyah Love Career Projection (if he repeats 2024 production)
2023: 385 rush yds, 2 TD (career: 385 / 2)
2024: 1,125 rush yds, 19 TD (career: 1,510 / 21)
2025*: ~1,200 rush yds, ~19 TD (career: ~2,710 / 40)
2026*: ~1,200 rush yds, ~19 TD (career: ~3,910 / 59)
The math is staggering. If Love repeats his 2024 production over the next two seasons, he’ll graduate with nearly 3,900 career rushing yards (Top 3 all-time) and 59 total touchdowns, smashing Pinkett’s long-standing career TD record of 53.
This is what separates Love from “great back” to “greatest ever” territory. By the end of 2025, he could already be in the Top 5 in touchdowns and yards with a senior season still to come. By the end of 2026, he could be Notre Dame’s all-time touchdown king, and within striking distance of Autry Denson’s rushing yardage crown.
In other words, Love doesn’t just belong in the conversation with Notre Dame’s greatest. He’s on pace to eclipse them.
Heisman Benchmarks — What It Takes
The Heisman has always been cruel to running backs. Quarterbacks put up video game numbers. Wide receivers make viral highlights. Backs, even great ones, get overlooked. To win, a running back has to be undeniable.
History tells us what that looks like. Derrick Henry, the last back to win, bulldozed his way to 1,986 yards and 23 touchdowns in 2015. Mark Ingram won with 1,658 yards and 20 total TDs in 2009. Reggie Bush dazzled in 2005 with 1,740 yards on the ground, 478 receiving yards, and 18 touchdowns, averaging an absurd 8.7 yards per carry. Before them, Ron Dayne pounded his way to over 2,000 yards and 20 touchdowns in 1999.
Recent RB Heisman Winners
2015: Derrick Henry — Alabama (1,986 rush yds, 23 TDs, ~91 rec yds → 23 total TDs)
2009: Mark Ingram — Alabama (1,658 rush yds, 17 rush TDs, 334 rec yds, 3 rec TDs → 20 total TDs)
2005: Reggie Bush — USC (1,740 rush yds, 16 rush TDs, 478 rec yds, 2 rec TDs → 18 total TDs)
1999: Ron Dayne — Wisconsin (2,034 rush yds, 20 TDs)
Heisman RB Average: ~1,800 yards, ~20 touchdowns, 6.0 YPC, plus 250–400 rec yards.
But big stats alone aren’t enough. Just ask Ashton Jeanty. Boise State’s star put up video-game numbers in 2024 — 1,916 rushing yards, 19 rushing TDs, 569 receiving yards, 5 rec TDs. The Broncos even made the playoff, but when it came to the games that mattered most, Jeanty’s production dipped. Against top-tier defenses and playoff competition, he ran well under his season pace and never delivered a single season-defining moment.
Jeremiyah Love flipped the script. He ripped a 98-yard TD in the CFP vs Indiana, scored an impossible run from the 2-yard line vs. Penn State in the Orange Bowl, and found the end zone in 13 straight games. Where Jeanty’s résumé felt inflated by soft weeks, Love stacked real moments against real teams, the stuff voters remember.
And that’s where the comparison gets real: in 2024, Love logged 1,125 yards, 19 total touchdowns, and 6.9 yards per carry. He’s already in the efficiency range of Bush, Ingram, and Henry. The only thing missing is volume.
To win in 2025, Love will need to hit:
1,750–2,000 rushing yards
23–26 total touchdowns
Keep YPC at 6.0+
300–400 receiving yards for versatility
That’s the bar. And with Notre Dame’s offense shifting to a redshirt freshman quarterback, Love will have every opportunity to be the engine.
The 2025 Heisman Blueprint
If 2024 was the breakout, 2025 is the proving ground. Every Heisman season has a blueprint, a combination of raw production and signature moments that voters can’t ignore. For running backs, that blueprint is brutally clear: you need the yards, you need the touchdowns, and you need to shine under the primetime lights.
Notre Dame’s schedule gives Jeremiyah Love that stage. The Irish open at Miami in a nationally televised night game. Two weeks later, they welcome SEC heavyweight Texas A&M to South Bend for a Saturday night showcase. The midseason brings the rivalry with USC, always one of college football’s marquee events. And if the Irish make another playoff push, voters will have a season’s worth of evidence that Love isn’t just productive, he’s defining the year.
Jeremiyah Love — 2025 Heisman Pace Projection
(Defensive tiers based on 2024 performance — the most reliable projection heading into 2025)
Season Totals on This Pace
~1,750–1,805 rushing yards
300–350 receiving yards, 3–4 TDs
24–26 total touchdowns
6.0+ YPC maintained
That’s the Derrick Henry / Mark Ingram neighborhood. But more importantly, it’s the kind of balanced stat line, consistent 100-yard games with a few monster primetime nights, that shapes a Heisman campaign.
Heisman Math
Even with a sub-100-yard grind against Texas A&M, Love’s blueprint still clears the 1,750-yard, 24-touchdown threshold voters look for. What seals the deal is one historic performance, a 200+ yard, 2-TD night at Stanford to close the season. That would be Notre Dame’s first 200-yard rushing game since Audric Estime in 2023, and the kind of headline stat that cements a Heisman case.
For Love, the USC game in mid-October looms largest. A 160-yard, 2-touchdown night in the rivalry under the lights could become the clip voters see replayed every Saturday. The same goes for the season opener at Miami and the NC State showcase in the middle of the year. He doesn’t need 200 yards every Saturday. He just needs a handful of 150-plus, 2–3 touchdown statements in front of the country, with ruthless efficiency everywhere else.
The blueprint is there. Now it’s about execution.
The Image Factor
Heisman winners aren’t chosen on stats alone. They’re chosen on moments, stories, and images that stick in voters’ minds. Tim Brown had his double punt return game against Michigan State. Reggie Bush had his jaw-dropping cutbacks and video game YPC, while Derrick Henry had his endless highlight reel of defenders bouncing off his 240-pound frame.
Jeremiyah Love has the makings of that kind of image. His running style is violent, but his demeanor off the field is almost serene. He celebrates with a signature heart-shaped gesture, a symbol that’s as brandable as it is memorable. In an era where NIL matters as much as stat lines, Love has already inked a deal with New Balance, positioning him as both a national face of the program and a marketable star beyond South Bend.
What makes Love unique is the duality. Between the tackles, he runs like a storm, lowering his shoulder, dragging defenders, fighting for every inch. After touchdowns, he flashes that heart, reminding fans and voters alike that he plays not just with power, but with passion. It’s the kind of branding that fits perfectly in a Heisman race: highlight-reel runs backed by a signature symbol.
Heisman campaigns need three things:
Production — the numbers that stack against history.
Moments — primetime highlights voters can’t forget.
Image — a hook that tells the story.
Love already has the first. He’s on pace to deliver the second. And thanks to his style and presence, he might just have the third. 2025’s mission will be tying them all together en route to another shot at the National Title.
Legacy Stakes
Notre Dame doesn’t just want a Heisman. It needs one.
The Irish haven’t won a national championship since 1988. They haven’t produced a Heisman winner since Tim Brown in 1987. For decades, both achievements have loomed as ghosts over South Bend, reminders of glory days that fans fear may never return.
Marcus Freeman has given the program proof that it belongs in the playoff fight. But it’s Jeremiyah Love who represents the chance to exorcise at least one of those ghosts. His 2024 season already rewrote chunks of the record book, and his 2025 campaign could put him on track to topple the program’s most hallowed marks. He isn’t just stacking numbers; he’s chasing names that have defined Notre Dame football for generations.
Notre Dame Career Leaders
Rushing Yards: Autry Denson — 4,318
Rushing TDs: Allen Pinkett — 49
Total TDs: Allen Pinkett — 53 (49 rush, 3 rec, 1 KR)
Love’s Projected Totals (through 2026)
~3,900 rushing yards → Top 3 all-time, within striking distance of Denson.
~59 total TDs → Passing Pinkett, becoming Notre Dame’s all-time touchdown king.
That’s not just production. That’s rewriting the hierarchy of Notre Dame football. Bettis, Pinkett, Denson, Estimé; Love could surpass them all.
And it’s not just about New York. If Love delivers the Heisman, he ends a 37-year drought. If he delivers a national title, he ends both droughts at once.
The stakes are bigger than a trophy. They’re about South Bend itself. For a fanbase that has lived on memories of yesterday for too long, Jeremiyah Love offers a chance at tomorrow, a chance to be more than a star, to be the bridge between Notre Dame’s past and its future.
The Payoff
It always comes back to that play. First and goal. Defenders draped over him. Balance broken. Destiny still reached.
That’s Jeremiyah Love in a single snapshot, the back who refuses to fall, the player who makes the impossible look inevitable.
Every Heisman case ends with an image. For Tim Brown, it was back-to-back punt returns. For Reggie Bush, it was a cutback that broke physics. For Derrick Henry, it was a stiff-arm that looked like a truck plowing through traffic. For Love, it’s that dive across the goal line — the ball outstretched, time standing still, the stadium frozen in disbelief.
The Heisman isn’t won in one game, but in the way a player makes time stop. Jeremiyah Love has already done that, and in 2025, he just might do it all the way to New York.
The Blueprint Recap
Production: 1,700+ rushing yards, 24–26 total TDs, 6.0+ YPC.
Moments: Miami, USC, and Stanford circled as primetime statement games.
Image: The heart celebration, the duality of storm and serenity.
Legacy: A chance to end Notre Dame’s 37-year Heisman drought and etch his name alongside the program’s all-time greats.
When voters sit down with their ballots in December, they won’t just see numbers. They’ll see the image of Jeremiyah Love breaking free for 98, diving across the goal line against all odds, and reminding them what Notre Dame football is supposed to feel like. And if 2025 unfolds the way it can, that image won’t just be a play; it’ll be the moment that brings the Heisman back to South Bend.
