It’s not every year that we get to review a positional unit and genuinely ask the question: Was this the best running back season in Notre Dame history? We’ll discuss that shortly. It was an awesome year with a Heisman finalist but that doesn’t mean there weren’t some low moments during a frustrating season that ended far, far, far too early.
Wait, Was This the Best?
I went back through the 1960’s and Love/Price are one of only 2 running back duos* to rush for over 2,000 combined yards at Notre Dame. The other duo? You guessed it the 1992 weapons of Jerome Bettis and Reggie Brooks. Here are the rushing comparisons:
Love/Price – 2025
2,043 rushing yards
312 carries
6.54 average
29 touchdowns
Brooks/Bettis – 1992
2,168 rushing yards
321 carries
6.75 average
23 touchdowns
It was a different era and offensive style of play of course. Brooks only caught 1(!!) pass all season (it was a touchdown though) while Bettis contributed 15 catches for 239 yards and 2 scores. The Love/Price duo produced 33 receptions for 367 yards and 5 touchdowns. The 1992 schedule was harder so we’ll ultimately give the edge to Brooks and Bettis. Still, that we’re having this conversation is awesome.
*The Josh Adams and quarterback Brandon Wimbush tandem in 2017 combined for 2,233 yards at 6.43 yards per carry and 23 touchdowns. I think that is the only other duo in school history to eclipse 2,000 yards in a season, although I may be missing one of those 1970’s seasons where the starting tailback was run into the ground and the quarterback chipped in 400 yards or something. In general, carries have been far too spread out at Notre Dame for duos to reach 2,000 yards in one campaign.Â
Lost Love?
With all due respect to Price, the 2026 season will be talked about as the one where Notre Dame has to rebuild without Jeremiyah Love. Looking back, there will be so many great memories. Some of my favorites from 2025 include:
- The one handed reception against Texas A&M
- That ridiculous hard cuts to score against Purdue
- Kicking a Boise State player in the chest
- The broken necklace touchdown against USC
- Talking to the sideline on a long TD against BC
- The not-on-the-ground score against Navy
- “The Spin” against Pitt
Like I said, so many memories.
The game against Miami where Love was limited to a non-blowout season low of 10 carries will live on as a disappointment from the 2025 season in many ways. He gained 33 yards with a long run of 8 yards. Plus, 6 targets in the pass game for 26 yards.
He probably gets the benefit of the doubt because of his explosiveness. Although it’s tough to say “He had 3.68 yards per target why didn’t we use him more!?!?” but that type of poor logic usually passes the test when you’re talking about running the ball with a star tailback.
Snaps
Running backs coach Ju’Juan Seider came to South Bend from Penn State ahead of the 2025 season and focused on getting the ball into the hands of Love and Price as much as possible. Job done!
| PLAYER | SNAPS |
|---|---|
| Jeremiah Love | 448 |
| Jadarian Price | 242 |
| Aneyas Williams | 47 |
| Nolan James | 29 |
| Gi’Bran Payne | 16 |
| Dylan Devezin | 1 |
Rumors that Williams would be disgruntled and leave after this past season were ultimately unfounded but boy did he need to practice patience throughout 2025. He didn’t play at all in the first two key games of the season (to be fair he was nursing an elbow injury, the extent of which we didn’t really learn much about) and went into the finale at Stanford with 20 fewer carries overall than his freshman year.
We also can’t forget that true freshman Kedren Young had zoomed up the depth chart and was reportedly in line for real reps in 2025 before suffering a torn ACL back in August camp. How would the snaps have looked had he stayed healthy?
Grade: A
You could go A+ here and I wouldn’t mind. I was just comparing things to 1992 again. That team tied Michigan early (Big Ten & Rose Bowl champion), lost to a good Stanford team, but finished the year murdering a quality BC squad, winning the famous Snow Bowl against Penn State (with Bettis & Brooks going back-to-back with 4th down and 2-point game winning plays), rushing for 330 yards against USC, and capping things off with the dominant win against A&M in the Cotton Bowl.
The 2025 season had some great moments, amazing running back play, but ultimately will be known in the echoes of history as a season of what might have been.
I seem to remember a Reggie Brooks reception for 2 pts. vs Penn St. in 92′. It ranks with the greatest catches I’ve ever seen an ND player make. Bettis had caught the TD pass.
The same year he scored a TD vs. Mich. while knocked out.
Yup! Crazy how many people are on the field during those tense moments.
man, throw in that caught pass + spin against Arkansas for a TD!
1978 Jerome Heavens and Vagas Ferguson had about 2200 scrimmage yards in 10 and 11 games.
Very underrated duo.
Decent QB on that team.
Also in 1983 Allen Pinkett and Chris Smith had over 2200 scrimmage yards. IIRC Smith moved to defense.
A few things jump out from the 1978 season…
*Joe Montana at 54.2% completions.
*Ferguson and Heavens combined for 389 carries, with only 11 rushing TD’s.
*Just 30 offensive touchdowns in 11 games, 23.5 points per game as a team was slightly above average that season.
Truly a different era!
The numbers Love and Price put up this year are crazy when you consider it’s such a different game than it used to be. Brady Quinn completed 58% of his passes for his CAREER. And that was just 20 years ago.