Jeremiyah Love's Heisman Finalist Season, By the Numbers and the Moments
On Saturday night, Jeremiyah Love will stand on a stage in New York City alongside Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, and Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin as one of the four finalists for the 2025 Heisman Trophy. It is a trip that seemed almost unthinkable in early September, when Notre Dame stumbled out of the gate to an 0 and 2 start and Love's own name barely registered in national award conversations. Twelve weeks later, he arrives in New York as the only non quarterback finalist, the first Notre Dame Heisman finalist since linebacker Manti Te'o in 2012, and the centerpiece of one of the most complete individual seasons produced by any running back in college football this year.
A Season That Started Quietly and Ended Loudly
Love's numbers by the end of the regular season told the story of a player who simply did not stop scoring. He finished with 199 carries for 1,372 yards, an average of 6.9 yards per carry, and 18 rushing touchdowns. He added 27 receptions for 280 yards and three more scores through the air, giving him 1,652 total yards from scrimmage and 21 total touchdowns, the most in a single season in Notre Dame history. He ranked third nationally in yards from scrimmage among all FBS players and averaged 114.3 yards per game, the sixth highest mark in the country. He scored a touchdown in every game but one all season and closed the year with a touchdown in eleven consecutive contests.
What made the numbers even more remarkable, according to those who watched him closely all year, was how efficiently he produced them. Love shared the Notre Dame backfield all season with Jadarian Price, a dangerous back in his own right, and never carried the ball more than 24 times in a single game. Where other Heisman contenders piled up bulk carries, Love simply made nearly every touch count, a fact that head coach Marcus Freeman referenced often when asked to make the case for his back's candidacy. Love was named the Associated Press National Player of the Week and the Doak Walker National Running Back of the Week during the season, and he went on to become the first running back in Notre Dame history to win the Doak Walker Award outright, given annually to the nation's top back, along with First Team All America honors and finalist nods for the Walter Camp Player of the Year and Maxwell Award.
Top Five Moments of the Season
1. The USC Explosion, October 18. Love's signature performance of the year came in the Fighting Irish's rivalry win over USC. He carried the ball 24 times for 228 yards, a 9.5 yard average, and a touchdown, adding 37 receiving yards on five catches. The 228 rushing yards were the most by a Notre Dame player in the storied series and instantly reset the national conversation about who the best running back in the country really was. The game opened with a 75 yard run in which Love raced straight through the heart of USC's defense, a play that became the signature highlight of his entire season and the moment many national analysts point to as the true beginning of his Heisman push.
2. The Syracuse Eruption, November 22. With Notre Dame's Senior Day turning into a 70 to 7 rout, Love scored three touchdowns and produced one of his most explosive days of the year, including touchdown runs of 45 and 68 yards. The performance vaulted Love from a distant longshot in the Heisman odds market, sitting around plus 4000 the week before, all the way to plus 375, suddenly the second best odds of anyone in the race. It was the moment that turned Love from a fringe candidate into a legitimate trip to New York.
3. The Navy Highlight, November 8. Against Navy's option based defense, Love broke off a 48 yard touchdown run that appeared dead in the backfield, with a defender seemingly wrapping him up for a loss, before Love spun free and outran the entire Navy secondary to the end zone. Freeman called it the kind of run that defines a season, and it became one of the most replayed individual highlights of Love's junior year, part power, part balance, and part pure improvisation.
4. The Boston College Breakaway, November 1. With Notre Dame clinging to a shaky lead in a sloppy, error filled road win, Love delivered the dagger, breaking off a 94 yard touchdown run on the very play after safety Adon Shuler's game turning interception near the goal line. It was the longest run of Love's college career and the exact kind of home run play that had come to define Notre Dame's late season surge.
5. The Record Breaking, Bittersweet Finale Against Stanford, November 29. In Notre Dame's regular season finale, Love scored a first quarter touchdown that made him the program's all time single season leader in total touchdowns with 21, passing the mark of 20 set by the legendary Jerome Bettis in 1991. The score was also his 18th rushing touchdown of the season, tying Audric Estime's single season program record. Love was shaken up on the play and did not return until the second half, finishing with a modest 66 rushing yards, a stat line that likely cost him any remaining momentum in the Heisman race after a cheap hit well after the whistle from a Stanford defender.
Love in His Own Words
Speaking on Notre Dame's Echoes Podcast before his Heisman finalist status was even confirmed, Love was candid about what a trip to New York, and potentially the trophy itself, would mean to him personally and to the program he plays for.
"It would mean a lot, not only just for the program, but for myself," Love said. "You know, I want to be in that position to have a chance to win the Heisman. That's just me speaking individually."
Once the finalist announcement arrived, Notre Dame's own social media account captured the moment with a simple message, calling Love "NYC bound" and tagging him alongside the Heisman Trophy's own account. Love, for his part, arrived in New York carrying more than just his own individual accolades. Notre Dame had finished the regular season 10 and 2, having reeled off ten straight wins after its 0 and 2 start, only to be left out of the expanded College Football Playoff field entirely, a snub that clearly still weighed on him even amid the celebration of his own honor.
"I feel like if he was to go and do it at the NFL level he would still connect with the players, but it's a little bit different," Love said of Freeman, when asked about swirling speculation over his head coach's own NFL future during Heisman weekend, a measure of how much trust and loyalty Love has built with his coach over three seasons together. Love also pushed back firmly on suggestions that rival programs were shying away from scheduling Notre Dame in future seasons. "They're scared to play us," Love said. "They don't want to play Notre Dame because we're Notre Dame. You're leaving us out of your schedule, it's not a good look. Why not play us? That's how I think about it."
Even with a trophy on the line, Love's comments throughout the week leading up to the ceremony reflected a player who seemed more invested in Notre Dame's program and its future than in his own individual glory, a theme that has followed him throughout his three years in South Bend.
What Comes Next
Whatever happens on stage Saturday night, Love's college career has already secured him a place among the most productive running backs to ever wear a Notre Dame uniform. Across three seasons, he carried the ball 433 times for 2,882 yards and 36 rushing touchdowns, adding 594 receiving yards and six more scores through the air for 42 total touchdowns, numbers that already rank him seventh all time in program rushing yardage with two full seasons of that production coming back to back. Love is widely expected to declare for the 2026 NFL Draft shortly after the Heisman ceremony concludes, entering as the presumptive top running back available and a player several draft analysts have already compared to Saquon Barkley for his rare blend of contact balance, patience, and receiving skill out of the backfield.
For now, though, the focus remains on New York City, where Love will represent not just himself, but a Notre Dame program that spent all season trying to prove its resilience could translate into results, and whose best player, in the end, became its clearest argument for exactly that.
