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Jeremiyah Love passes Jerome Bettis, sets Notre Dame single-season TD record

ns_headshot_2024-clearby: Nick Schultz17 hours agoNickSchultz_7

In last week’s blowout win against Syracuse, Jeremiyah Love tied Notre Dame’s single-season touchdown record, joining Jerome Bettis atop the list. Saturday night, he moved into a class of his own.

Love found the end zone on the opening drive against Stanford, punching it in from two yards out. The TD marked his 21st of the season, moving him past “The Bus” for the program’s all-time lead. It’s part of a historic season for the Notre Dame running back, who continues to emerge as a top playmaker for the offense.

Heading into Saturday night’s regular-season finale, Love was putting up monster numbers. Through 11 games, he ran for 1,306 yards and 17 touchdowns while adding 274 receiving yards and three touchdowns in the air. Now, he has 21 total touchdowns to sit alone as Notre Dame’s all-time single-season touchdown leader.

In the process, he’s also putting himself squarely in the Heisman Trophy conversation. He came in at No. 3 in the On3 Heisman Trophy Poll after Week 13, and ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit previously said Love will be on his ballot, as well.

“So for me, I think it’s going to be who has the big windows these last two or three weeks,” Herbstreit continued. “Who has a chance to really kind of have that closing argument?

“Typically, their focus is a lot on the quarterbacks in a lot of the recent years, but I still think Jeremiyah Love at Notre Dame — he’ll be on my ballot. I don’t know if he’s going to be No. 1, 2 or 3, but he’s definitely up in the top three. But in these last two or three weeks, hopefully everybody holds on to their ballot, see who can have that hot hand and then make that vote.”

In addition, Love is opening eyes in NFL Draft circles. New Senior Bowl executive director Drew Fabianich said this week the hype around Love from the league reminds him of a similar situation a decade ago. Fabianich worked for the Dallas Cowboys when Ezekiel Elliott came out of Ohio State and took the league by storm.

“Everybody is talking about Jeremiyah Love,” Fabianich said. “And everybody should be because he’s a top-five pick in my book. There’s not many like him that I’ve seen. Closest I’ve seen and he’s probably a little touch faster — he’s like Zeke Elliott. He’s worthy of that praise. And I haven’t praised anybody like Zeke Elliott since I’ve been out.”