Rocket science: Why Notre Dame RB Jeremiyah Love is set to take off in 2024

Every once in a while, Jeremiyah Love reminds onlookers that he’s different.

The sophomore running back might explode up the middle for a chunk play before the second-level defenders have a chance to react. He might haul in a downfield completion with wide receiver-like concentration. Or he might run over a defensive back like a speed bump.

Anyone can see it. Notre Dame does, too. And it knows what it has to do to take advantage.

“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know in our offense, you gotta find ways to get Jeremiyah Love the ball,” Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said.

The “how” is more complicated and, of course, more secretive. But Notre Dame understands that Love is too explosive to be content with handing him the ball in the backfield and leaving it at that.

New offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock figured that out early, expressing similar feelings in March and April. Everything he’s seen since then has proved his point.

“He’s got that ability to hit a home run every time he touches the ball,” Denbrock said. “Obviously, the more of those guys you have, the better chance you have of creating explosive plays. And we want to be an offensive unit that’s built on explosive plays.”

Denbrock, who is reported to be the highest-paid offensive coordinator in college football at $2.1 million per year, has the job of finding ways to get the ball in Love’s hands. He sowed the seeds of expanding Love’s role in spring ball, when the St. Louis Christian Brothers College graduate cross-trained with the wide receivers for several days.

As the Irish go through their installs, Love has stuck with the running backs early in fall camp. But when he went home for the summer, he trained as a wideout. That’s his preference, as he explained Aug. 2.

“Just trying to improve my game in that area, because running back, I think it just comes naturally to me,” Love said. “I haven’t really had to work exceptionally hard on my running back skills; it’s just all natural. I’m just talented in that area. Thank God for that.”

Love found his wide receiver trainer through a friend: Sophomore Michigan wide receiver Fredrick Moore , from St. Louis Cardinal Ritter.

St. Louis Ladue wide receivers coach Kortland Webb , a former quarterback at Missouri who also coached Moore at Cardinal Ritter, had worked out Love once in May 2023. Shortly before the Irish went home for the summer, he got a call from his former player.

“J-Love wants to work with you,” Moore said.

“He just came to me and was like, ‘I just wanna shore this part of my game up, so that on third downs, I feel like I don’t have to come off the field,’” Webb told Blue & Gold Illustrated . “He’s worked on it all. He’s worked top of the route, he’s worked releases, he’s already getting in and out of breaks. He pretty much can do it all.”

Denbrock’s vision for Love extends beyond third downs, although that’s certainly a large part of it. It’s difficult to go in-depth with the former LSU and Cincinnati play-caller without hearing the word “multiple.”

That, at its core, is Denbrock’s philosophy: The more weapons an offense has and the more ways it has to use those weapons, the more dangerous and difficult to defend it is. Love, and his ability to play every spot on the field, is a massive piece of that.

“It puts you in a position where if you can catch something on tape that you can take advantage formationally or how they’re going to cover a back motioning out of the backfield or in [an] empty [set], how they’re going to try to defend the back in particular,” Denbrock said. “Use those things to your advantage.”

Love understands this, which is why he went to Webb.

“It just makes me more versatile,” Love said. “You can put me out in space, give me the ball.”

How natural did Love look doing wide receiver drills over the summer? Webb said that if he made the switch full-time, he could start at that position at Notre Dame.

Webb’s brother, Vincent Webb , was an Eastern Illinois Hall of Fame running back and used to coach as well. He helped train Love, too, and rarely has he seen someone transition as easily as the Notre Dame back.

“Those skills kind of translated just naturally,” Vincent Webb told BGI . “We did a lot of change of direction, we did a lot of starts, obviously catching the ball and running various routes. He just excelled in all of those.”

“I tell all the kids, he has cayenne pepper in his feet,” Kortland Webb said. “His explosiveness, his ability to look smooth and then in one, two steps, be at full speed. He has a transition from acceleration to top speed that is unlike many people at his size.”

Love feels more comfortable lining up at various wide receiver spots than he did at the beginning of spring. When the Irish install those packages in the weeks leading up to Week 1 at Texas A&M, he plans to pick up where he left off.

What makes Love’s skill set truly rare, Kortland Webb believes, is that size. Most running back/wide receiver hybrid types tend to be around 5-foot-9, akin to someone like former Rams gadget player Tavon Austin. Love, on the other hand, is listed at 6-foot, 206 pounds. He said he’s now up to 210.

Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden is not one for hyperbole or outlandish comparisons. But when he faces Love in practice, he’s reminded of an Irish running back he played against as tight end at Penn State in the late 1980s.

“He runs like Ricky Watters ,” Golden said. “Just strong and run through. High knee kick. Good acceleration.

“Maybe he’s faster, but that’s who he reminds me of in terms of just a violent runner. And if you’re out of place, he’s going to get to the next level.”

Love was around 190 pounds, maybe less, when he started the Sun Bowl against Oregon State Dec. 29. It’s good weight that he has added, running backs coach Deland McCullough confirmed Aug. 2.

Not that it needed confirmation. Love looks stronger than he did last year, a testament to his offseason efforts. He took after former Irish running back and absolutely jacked individual Audric Estimé’ s habits, both on the field and in the weight room.

That’s been evident in fall camp.

“These last couple days of practice, he’s been around 97, 96 percent each day,” said McCullough, who grades each practice rep for execution. “He’s setting the tone with how he plays, but the details and fundamentals he’s applying.”

Love feels his added strength most in his quads and his hamstrings, which A) make him faster and B) let him, in his words, “push through people.”

Put all of this together, and it’s easy to see why those who know best believe Love will become a household name on the national landscape in 2024.

“Jeremiyah Love is going to have a big year,” Freeman said. “We’re going to do multiple different things with him.”

“Whatever you see guys doing to get special guys the ball, that’s on the menu,” McCullough said. “That menu is vast.”

Love is, understandably, confident entering what many expect will be his breakout season. But that’s a constant state of mind for him. When a would-be tackler gets their arms on him, he expects to break it. When he meets a defender in the open field, he expects to evade them.

Despite the lofty comparisons, Love doesn’t liken himself to anyone. If he’s being honest, he doesn’t even watch football that much.

“I probably need to start watching it,” Love said, laughing. “But I kind of just play football. I don’t model my game after anybody. It’s just all me out there.”

He knows it’s coming. Freeman knows it, too. Denbrock knows it, and he’s going to craft his game plan accordingly.

There are more specific sources of optimism, but in general, the upside of Notre Dame’s new offense is based on being significantly more explosive than it was last season. No one can explode like No. 4.

“Everybody’s doing great things, but you know, I am me,” Love said, with another laugh. “So I’m going to go out there and do my thing as well.”

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