‘It Was A Great Performance That’s In The Past’

Jeremiyah Love is coming off of a historic performance following the Notre Dame Fighting Irish’s 56-13 win over the Arkansas Razorbacks.

The 20-year-old running back scored four touchdowns (two rushing, two receiving) in the first half alone, becoming the first Irish player to score four touchdowns in one half. It led to Notre Dame scoring 42 points, tied for the third-most in program history.

Love was lined up all over the offense, including as a receiver, showcasing his versatility and solidifying why he may be one of the top running backs taken off board in the NFL draft next year.

“I would say I wasn’t really able to have that performance if it wasn’t for my big guys up front, or the defense doing their job, ” says Love in a one-on-one interview. “Or my quarterback making smart decisions or for the receivers doing things they do on the perimeter to help everybody have success.”

The performance earned Notre Dame their second straight victory after they had dropped their first two games of the season by a combined total of four points in losses to the Miami Hurricanes and Texas A&M Aggies. Notre Dame entered the season No. 6 but had dropped to No. 24 following those defeats.

They’ve since bounced back with big wins over Arkansas and the Purdue Boilermakers. The wins show the resilience of a team that had advanced to the National Championship Game last season.

Love’s numbers so far this season hasn’t been as robust as they were last year, but he’s still producing in a major way. During the 2024 season, Love posted 6.9 yards per carry as Notre Dame’s lead back. So far this season, he’s averaged 5.2 yards per carry. However, he’s posted eight touchdowns through four games, which far outpaces the 19 touchdowns he produced all of last season.

“It was a great performance,” says Love of the four-touchdown game. “I really don’t like to take all the credit for the things that’s done in the game, because at the end of the day, it’s a team sport. I wouldn’t be able to do the things that I do on the field without my coaches and my teammates. Just everybody as an organization in general just doing their part for helping the team out.”

The Irish will look to continue their momentum when they travel back to South Bend to play the Boise State Broncos. Their seven games to close out the season are currently slated against unranked opponents. In other words, the Irish are well-positioned to make a return back to the College Football Playoffs, especially when factoring in that their two losses will have happened at the beginning of the season.

That could be beneficial for the Irish when it comes to the voting committee at the end of the season due to recency bias. It also helps that Notre Dame is coming off of a National Championship Game appearance and were one of the top-ranked teams in the country entering the season. They’re currently ranked No. 21 in the AP and Coach’s Polls.

“It was a great performance that’s in the past,” says Love. “I’m focused on this next week, we got Boise State. I’m focused on getting ready to go off against them and doing whatever I got to do to help my team have success.”

Love stresses that the goal remains to finish the job and win the National Championship this season. The Fighting Irish lost to the Ohio State Buckeyes, 34-23, last season.

He mentions taking everything “one at a time” as the biggest thing he learned during the team’s run to the big game last season.

“I would say a very big lesson that I took from last year was respect your opponent,” says Love. “Also, just take everything one at a time. Don’t focus on the future. Just take everything week by week. Make sure that you’re preparing the right way. Make sure you’re recovering the right way and just doing all the right things in general, so that you can put yourself in the best position possible. But also put your team in the best position possible to achieve success. But last year was a great year. The lessons I took from last year was just grind. The grind is what’s going to get you what you want.”

Jeremiyah Love Talks About His Favorite Samsung Device, The Galaxy Z Fold7

As Love prepares to have another big game against Boise State, he’s partnering with Samsung to join “Team Galaxy” along with Clemson Tigers quarterback Cade Klubnik.

The star running back is a big fan of anime — he mentions Demon Slayer as one of his favorite animes — and uses the Galaxy Z Fold7 to watch his favorite shows and movies. He mentions the Fold7 as probably his favorite Samsung product.

“I just felt like it was the right move being able to partner with somebody as big as Samsung,” says Love. “I feel like our mental — as far as what we value — just everything aligns. Samsung is very unique, they’re themselves, and that connects with myself. I’m myself at all times. I don’t change who I am for pretty much anybody or anything. I feel like Samsung is that way as well. They’re very unique in their space. They’re just providing me with the things that I need to have success on and off the field, surviving with all the tools that I need. Whether it’s anime, the things that I like, or whether it’s football, the tools they provided me with, I’m able to indulge in those things.”

Love explains why the Galaxy X Fold7 is such a valuable device for him.

“I’m able to indulge in those things with my Galaxy X Fold 7,” says Love. “I can fold it, whenever it’s time to watch anime I can have a bigger screen and watch that on. The battery life is excellent. It’s very thin. It’s very easy to carry around.”