Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love announced Tuesday that he intends to forego another season of eligibility and will enter the 2026 NFL Draft.
Love burst onto the college football scene in 2024 with 1,125 yards rushing yards (6.9-yard average) and 17 touchdowns, adding 28 receptions and two receiving TDs in his 16 games. The Irish made it all the way to the national title game with major help from Love, who had a 96-yard TD run in the opening-game win over Indiana.
Entering the 2025 season as one of the premier backs in the country, Love bettered his sophomore year production despite playing in four fewer games, earning a spot as a Heisman Trophy finalist and winning the Doak Walker Award. He ran for 1,372 yards (fourth-best in FBS) and 18 TDs (third-best) in only 12 games, adding 27 receptions and three more scores. That brought his two-year touchdown total to 40 over his final 28 college games, only failing to find the end zone in three of those contests.
Love, listed at 6-foot and 214 pounds, is a big-play threat anywhere on the field. Although he might be a tad impatient at times and be guilty of missing open lanes, his instant acceleration and elusiveness will be highly prized in NFL circles. If anything, his receiving ability was underused in college, and NFL teams envision Love as a "space" player who is likely to catch passes more frequently in the league.
It's arguable that Love is a top-10 overall prospect regardless of position, and possibly even top five in this class once all the dust settles. Running back values in the draft have not returned to the level they were a generation or two ago, however, so it's not guaranteed he'll reach those heights come April.
And yet versatile backs such as Jahmyr Gibbs, Christian McCaffrey, Bijan Robinson, De'Von Achane and others are still highly valued these days, able to stress defenses in multiple ways and allow play-callers to operate with tempo without substituting. That should benefit Love's draft stock significantly, with a team seeking an X-factor likely to give him a high grade.
