The Notre Dame and USC rivalry is off the schedule, and there has been plenty of blame from both sides about it. Now, Arizona Cardinals rookie running back Jeremiyah Love has offered a far more brutal truth: USC simply ran away.
Jeremiyah Love Gets Brutally Honest About the Notre Dame-USC Rivalry
Love, appearing on the “St. Brown Podcast,” didn’t hold back when evaluating the Trojans’ departure from Notre Dame’s schedule. He believes the Trojans couldn’t handle the physical reality of playing the Fighting Irish.
“I ain’t lie to you, bro,” Love said. “SC, they don’t want to play ball no more, bro. Them boys don’t be coming to compete when they play at Notre Dame. They don’t play no more… They lay down, bro. The last two years I played them, bro, they ain’t been up for the job. And both years we played them, ran all over.”
During his final two seasons in South Bend, Notre Dame’s rushing attack utterly dismantled the Trojans’ defense. In 2024, the Irish physically broke USC in a 49-35 win at the LA Memorial Coliseum. They followed it up in October 2025 with a commanding 34-24 victory, a game where Love routinely gashed the Trojans to secure the Jeweled Shillelagh for the final time.
Diving deep into the last encounter, the hosts pointed out that USC ran two safeties the whole game and didn’t respect the running game. To which Love replied, “That’s why I went for 220 (yards)… I went for 220.”
The reality of the cancellation presents a stark contrast to Love’s locker-room view, revealing a bitter administrative blame game. With USC facing a daunting nine-game Big Ten slate and Notre Dame finalizing a replacement two-year series with BYU, both head coaches have framed the breakup differently.
USC head coach Lincoln Riley has consistently deflected blame toward South Bend, claiming the Trojans offered viable alternatives that were flatly rejected. From Riley’s perspective, the school tried to accommodate the rivalry but encountered inflexible scheduling.
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman, however, made it clear that the Irish were not willing to compromise the integrity of their season just to accommodate the Trojans’ new Big Ten lifestyle. Freeman revealed that USC wanted to radically alter the tradition by shifting the late-season matchup to the very beginning of the calendar.
While there is some hope for the rivalry’s revival amid talks of College Football Playoff expansion to 24, the earliest realistic return isn’t projected until at least 2030. For now, the iconic trophy remains locked in a case. And as Jeremiyah Love heads to Arizona to begin his NFL career, he is leaving college football with a parting shot that will burn in Los Angeles for years.
Currently, PFSN’s CFB Playoff Meter gives the Fighting Irish an 82.9% chance to make the College Football Playoff.
Read More: ‘Sick of Being Close’: Insider Warns Lincoln Riley As Pressure Mounts at USC
