‘It’s Hard to Impress Me’: Jeremiyah Love Continues Dominating Opponents

At this point in his Notre Dame career, it’s hard to surprise Jeremiyah Love. 

So when he rolled off a defender and sprinted 48 yards for a touchdown last Saturday against Navy he wasn’t surprised, or even impressed that he had the ability to pull a play like that off.

A moment like that is what he has dedicated his life to. It’s something he expects to happen. 

“It's hard to surprise me, I guess you could say, or it's hard to impress me,” Love said.  “It's hard for me to impress myself because I have such high standards for myself. 

There are a handful of moves that Love hasn’t pulled out of his bag of tricks that would still impress even himself though.

“Something impressive to me would be me jumping in the air and hurtling two people at once, or spinning in the air and jumping over somebody,” Love said. “That's impressive to me. The things that I've done so far, I feel like anybody can pretty much do those things. I probably do things more consistently than other people, but pretty much anybody can do those things. Not everybody can jump in the air and jump over two people."

Love credits his ability to keep so many plays alive to the daily training that the Irish undergo in South Bend. Playing through the whistle is the standard, and to Love, he was just doing what is expected. 

“So the play was kind of blown up, from the get go,” Love said. “Try to make a guy miss and get as many yards as I could. The guy ended up trying to get me down. I felt no part of my body touch the ground, so I just got back up and just kept on running. It was kind of a lucky play. 

“I credit that play to how we train day in and day out. You know, playing through the whistle,, playing just as hard as we can through the whole interval of the play. You never know when the play is over. But it was a kind of one in a lifetime type of play.” 

But being the best running back in America does come with its own challenges. Every week the opposing team is going to do everything they can to neutralize Love. When Boston College or Navy are stacking the box, even Love is going to have a tough time breaking free. 

For a guy who’s accustomed to busting out 90+ yard runs, it can be hard to stay engaged when the big plays may not be there. 

"It's hard for me, to be honest, because I'm the type of guy that wants to break off for a touchdown run every single play,” Love said. “So if I'm to consistently get one, two, three-yard gains, it's just not what I want. But I have made myself okay with getting the hard yards and waiting for that one opportunity to hurt the defense by breaking off a ball run. I mean, I've learned it's just football. 

“You can't score on every single touch that you get. You can't break off a run on every single touch that you get. So I go in there and I grind those hard yards. Whenever I get that opportunity to break one, I take advantage of it. But, yeah, I don't really like two- to three-yard runs. I like breaking off and scoring touchdowns."

At the same time Love understands that when teams sell out to stop him, it gives more opportunities for CJ Carr to spread the ball around. Love takes pride in the fact that even when he’s not taking over the game, his presence is still dominating opponents. 

“I would like to think that's just respect,” Love explained.”Teams respect the running back room and respect the things that we can do when we get the ball in our hands with space and without space as well. I mean, if we catch you slipping, whether it's space or not, we can hurt you. So I think of it as respect. And sooner or later, they're going to have to start respecting the passing game and the running game.” 

With three regular season games left and a potential CFP run in play, expect Love to have many more big plays in store.

Just don’t expect him to be surprised when he pulls them off. 

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