Notre Dame picked up yet another electric playmaker in its 2023 class when running back Jeremiyah Love announced his commitment today. The 6’0″, 190 pound Missourian is fresh off his second visit to South Bend; he was in town for one of the big June official visit weekends and just came back for the Marshall game. Love is a high academic prospect who early in his recruitment was seriously mulling Ivy League offers; once it became clear that he had elite talent on the field as well, Notre Dame became one of his more interesting options. He reportedly loved his June visit so much that he almost pledged on the spot, with the main holdup being that is mother wasn’t on the trip. When that was remedied this past weekend no further obstacles remained for Marcus Freeman and crew.
In the interim Texas A&M became a significant player in his recruitment, for the exact reason you think they did, with Oregon and Alabama lurking to lesser degrees as well. If you want more details on how all that played out we strongly recommend you subscribe to one of the leading Irish recruiting services – our favorite of course is Irish Sports Daily with Mike Frank and Honorary Striper Jamie Uyeyama, but 247/Irish Illustrated and On3/Blue and Gold Illustrated do good work too. The very Cliff Notes version of how the Aggies entered and ultimately exited the picture is that (a) NIL is a thing and (b) Love and his circle came to realize that NIL exposure via Notre Dame and NIL exposure via Texas A&M are two very different things. Would that they could all be so perceptive.
Love hails from the same high school as former Irish top 100 target Kamryn Babb and four star ’24 target Jeremiah McClellan, and is friendly with fellow ’23 commit Christian Gray and ’24 WR Ryan Wingo, #14 overall in the 247 Composite and arguably Notre Dame’s top offensive target in the ’24 cycle. Nobody has hinted at any notion of a package deal, but it certainly doesn’t hurt the staff’s chances to land either of the ’24 kids. St. Louis has slowly but steadily become a talent factory over the last few years; it’s good to see Notre Dame make serious inroads there, especially given that there are a number of prep schools that profile well to the Notre Dame experience. Just since 2019, the Irish have landed Kyren Williams, (cough) Jordan Johnson, Gabriel Rubio, Tyson Ford, Christian Gray, and now Jeremiyah Love; all but Rubio come from St. Louis proper, and Rubio is from just outside in St. Peters. More of all that, please. Preferably starting with 2024.
Recruiting Service Rankings
247Sports Composite — 4 star (.9696 rating), #65 overall, #4 ATH, #3 in MO
On3 Consensus — 4 star (94.86 rating), #63 overall, #5 RB, #2 in MO
The 247 Composite and On3 Consensus both combine 247, On3, Rivals, and ESPN rankings.
247Sports — 4 star (94 rating), #87 overall, #7 ATH, #4 in MO
On3 — 4 star (93 rating), #107 overall, #5 RB, #4 in MO
Rivals — 4 star (6.0 rating), #51 overall, #3 RB, #2 in MO
ESPN — 4 star (84 rating), #95 overall, #5 RB, #4 in MO
Friend of the Stripes Jamie Uyeyama does the recruit evaluations for ISD, and we trust his evals as much as anyone’s. So while the 247 Composite and the On3 Consensus don’t factor in ISD evals, we put a lot of weight on them ourselves.
Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (94 rating), #40 overall
Cohort
In addition to Notre Dame, Love holds offers from Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Georgia, LSU, Miami, Michigan (lol), Oregon, Penn State, Stanford, Texas A&M, USC, Washington, Wisconsin, and many others.
Highlights
Perhaps the most striking thing about Love’s film is how quickly and effortlessly he gets going north-south. He definitely has plus speed and agility, which is on display repeatedly here, but man, I lost count of how many times somebody thought he was contained and poof, he cuts it up without losing speed and he’s through. He shows good physicality, both in his blocking and his ability to run through arm tackles, that speed backs don’t always have. He has a decent amount of wiggle for his size; he’s not Kyren but then nobody is, and he collected his own fair share of ankles on this reel. His work as a receiver here is fairly minimal, but in what we have he looks comfortable and catches the ball cleanly. I just keep coming back to how he cuts upfield; he has good vision and a good sense of timing on when to cut, which is hard to learn, and his cuts are sharp and decisive. You can go a long way (literally) running like that.
Impact
The Irish backfield will be an interesting place next year. Will Chris Tyree return for a senior season, or will he eschew another year in blue and gold in favor of pro dreams or a larger share of work elsewhere? How will the workload be distributed between Tyree (if he returns), Logan Diggs, Audric Estime, Gi’Bran Payne, and (presumably) a fully rehabbed JD Price, who likely would have stolen from carries from Tyree and Diggs this year? How do Love and fellow ’23 commit Jayden Limar figure into all of that? (If you’re wondering why we didn’t mention Dylan Edwards, another ’23 commit, it’s that we strongly suspect he’ll land in the slot once he gets on campus.) Would Notre Dame really carry seven scholarship running backs next season? If not, who is the odd man out and how does that come to pass? Our short answer at this point is very simple: Who knows?
OK, we know, can’t answer a question with a question. But really, who knows? Beyond ’23 it’s even harder to handicap, but we feel pretty confident that with his skillset Love will be able to force his way onto the field sooner rather than later. By all accounts he has plus ability as a receiver too, which should earn him some reps in the slot at the next level – reportedly the Notre Dame staff sold him on the idea of filling a Deebo Samuel role. Which, you know, sounds OK, if you’re into that sort of thing…
Welcome to the Irish family, Jeremiyah!
Love this pick up.
Watching Tennessee and Alabama right now and the speed that they can put on the field is a level above what we have, especially at the skill positions. With the exception of Tyree and Styles we just don’t have the quality of athlete the elite teams possess.
They have probably like 4 to 6 guys of that quality and of course we have known this problem for several years, I’m just being reminded of it again as I watch football this afternoon.
Awesome pickup!
Selfishly I’d love tyree to stay, hes still a baller, but realistically, it may be in his best interest to go pro, in no small part due to the shelf life of RBs. He has all the makings of a great gadget RB-slot WR type. Regardless, this pickup helps beef up with more ballers. Super exciting!
Welcome to this disaster, Mr. Love. Good luck. I hope winning isn’t something you were looking forward to.
He made lots of nice cuts. He got caught from behind a few times so not a burner. Adequate speed.
Can we make sure Love doesn’t visit for anymore games this year? Our record isn’t great with him on campus.
Around the 4:10 mark on the highlight video, he runs out of bounds. The interesting thing to me is the way he cuts back once out of bounds when he is coming back to the huddle. Almost like he still has an innate sense of where the defender is behind him, even though they are two or three yards out. Even if he doesn’t have elite speed, that kind of spatial awareness can lead to really big things.