Jeremiyah Love Expects Explosive Notre Dame Offense in 2024
Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love has never lacked confidence, yet he’s been extremely humble during his time on campus.
A year ago, Love spoke about the willingness to learn from the veterans in the room, but he was also more than fine with redshirting if that was on the table.
Love didn’t redshirt as he tallied 385 rushing yards, 77 receiving yards and two touchdowns in his first year in South Bend and now he’s banking on a big offseason to catapult him through fall camp.
“I’d just say my work ethic,” Love stated when asked about Marcus Freeman’s praise earlier this month. “I come in every day and just work. Last year, I really learned a lot from ‘Dric (Audric Estimè). And shoot, I just came in every day and showed up.”
The St. Louis native added good weight to get to 210 pounds, which means Love could very well be a significant problem for defenses given his elite speed.
“It most definitely will help me break tackles,” Love said of the added weight. “I probably got faster. I wouldn’t say I lost any speed. Most definitely got stronger. Smarter. The weight only helps break tackles. Big, fast, strong guy. Nobody wants to tackle that.”
Freeman and offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock have been bold when discussing the need to get Love the football this fall. And it won’t be just from the running back position as Love cross-trained at receiver, which adds another intriguing dimension to the offensive attack.
That said, Love is strictly focused on running back at the start of camp.
“I haven’t practiced at receiver since spring,” explained Love. “We’re kind of just getting into fall camp, so we’re going through the first three installs. That stuff will probably come later. I’ll most definitely be in some out-wide passes. I’ll always train at receiver.
“I like to train at receiver more than I do running back, to be honest. When I’m back at home, I train at receiver, just trying to improve my game in that area. Because running back, I think it just comes naturally to me. 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.”
The vocal praise from his coaches could get into Love’s head, but he’s not focused on the talk. Love is focused on proving them right, whether it’s as a running back or in space as a receiver.
“It just makes me more versatile,” said Love. “You know, give me the ball in the backfield. You can put me out in space, give me the ball. Shoot, I want to do punt returns. You can put me back at kick returner, too. It just gives me a lot of versatility, and that just adds more value as a player.”
As for his relationship with Denbrock, Love has embraced his second offensive coordinator in two years and looks forward to showing that Notre Dame’s offense can be explosive.
“Denbrock is a really cool guy,” stated Love. “Shoot, his offense is great. I would say it’s more explosive than last year. The receiver corps, I would say, we’ve gotten a lot better. And when he brought all the stuff from LSU, that just made our offense more explosive.
“Coach Denbrock as a person, he’s really great. Everybody respects him, and he’s funny, too. Sometimes it doesn’t even feel like he’s the offensive coordinator. He doesn’t even feel like a coach. He’s just, you know, Denbrock. He’s really cool.”
And perhaps the biggest selling tool that the offense will be explosive in 2024 is Love is making explosive plays, but also seeing his teammates do the same.
“I would say we take a lot of deep shots now,” said Love. “We’ve got some fast receivers. We got J2 [Jayden Harrison]. All our receivers are great. Everybody in our receiver corps, I can say, can make a play going downfield or doing whatever.
“He definitely brought some fire to our offense, and our receivers are great. So they’re just taking knowledge from him and showing out, doing their thing.”
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