Jadarian Price's snub from Top 10 college football running back list explained by Greg McElroy

There are very few teams with as talented a backfield as Notre Dame. That unit is headlined by Jeremiyah Love, but also features an excellent running back in Jadarian Price.

When Greg McElroy broke down his top-10 running backs on Always College Football, he left Price off the list. However, McElroy is still high on Price. So, he made sure to explain why he left off Price while speaking about his honorable mentions.

“I’m not sure there is a better back in the country that supports my argument that it’s hard to evaluate backs in a running back by committee type of room,” Greg McElroy said. “I’m not sure anyone highlights that better than Jadarian Price. He is our first honorable mention. He is of the University of Notre Dame. When I watch Jadarian Price, I really think that if this guy were the number one back on 92 teams out of the 134, he would be among the best and most productive backs in the country.”

Jadarian Price shares the Notre Dame backfilled with Jeremiyah Love, splitting carries and potentially overshadowing him. In fact, in Greg McElroy’s running back ranking, he had Love as the best running back in the country. Being with that kind of player is going to take away opportunities from another excellent player like Price.

“He is instinctive. He does a really good job of, I think, setting up blocks. I think he’s good enough in the passing game. He works his tail off in protection. He’s not a guy who’s going to get a ridiculous amount of opportunities because of who he shares the backfield with, but he does make guys miss and he does a pretty good job of finding the running lane and hitting the hole,” McElroy said.

“He did not get as many opportunities as Jeremiyah Love. He had just 120 carries, but that’s a tandem that is among the best in the entire country. If Jadarian Price were ever given the opportunities to carry it, I don’t know, 240 times, what would his numbers look like because he went for nearly 750 a year ago? I think this is a young man who’s very, very solid. Very, very strong, and could be one of the best backs in the country if he got a little bit more opportunities.”

Jadarian Price is coming off a season where he rushed for 746 yards on 120 attempts. That’s 6.2 yards per attempt. He also rushed for seven touchdowns. In the passing game, he had four receptions for 10 yards.

Going into the 2025 season, Price knows he’s going to need to be a key piece to the Notre Dame offense if the Irish want to get back to the College Football Playoff and win the national championship this time. That means providing as little of a drop-off in production as possible when he’s featured at running back ahead of Love.