More often than not, it’s not hard to see potential blue-chip running back prospects a year out. Does Notre Dame’s Jeremiyah Love have what it takes to be the blue-chip RB of the 2026 NFL Draft cycle, and the NFL‘s next young star ball carrier?
In 2023, it was Bijan Robinson and Jahmyr Gibbs. In 2024, it was Ashton Jeanty. And if the film holds true and he carries on his current trajectory, Love indeed has a chance to join his predecessors as a surefire first-round pick and RB1 favorite.
Jeremiyah Love Next in Line of Blue-Chip RB Prospects
When a prospect is talented enough, dominant high school production is a key indicator. That was the case for Love, who quickly distinguished himself at the varsity level, playing for Christian Brothers College High School in St. Louis, Missouri.
As a junior, Love nearly broke the 1,000-yard barrier and scored 14 touchdowns, helping lead Christian Brothers to a MSHSAA Class 6A State Championship.
As a senior, Love averaged almost 10 yards per carry, amassing 1,291 yards and 22 touchdowns on the ground, while also catching 13 passes for 370 yards and five scores.
In a 317-yard, five-TD state championship showing, Love again led his team to ultimate glory, and was named MaxPreps Missouri High School Football Player of the Year as a result. It comes as no surprise that he was a consensus top-100 recruit with 33 FBS offers.
Love ultimately chose to sign with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and in South Bend, he’s picked up where he left off as a championship driver.
As a true freshman, Love flashed promise, registering 385 yards at a healthy 5.4 yards per carry average on 71 attempts. And in 2024, when Audric Estimé left for the NFL, Love became the unquestioned lead back for Marcus Freeman’s squad.
While there were many mouths to feed in Notre Dame’s running offense with Riley Leonard and Jadarian Price, and though he played through a knee injury late in the season, Love still put up massive numbers as a sophomore, among them 163 carries for 1,125 yards and 17 scores.
Love averaged almost seven yards per carry and a TD run on more than 10% of his attempts, and was a primary force in bringing the Fighting Irish to a national championship showdown against the Ohio State Buckeyes. Notre Dame may have lost, but Love won national acclaim as a college football star and a rising NFL Draft prospect.
Love’s Deep Dive: How Does the Notre Dame RB Win?
The first thing you need to know about Love is that his athleticism is as dynamic as it gets. In short areas, he’s a high-energy mover who can oscillate his tempo and use his quickness to supplement cuts and explode upfield.
And once he has space, Love’s speed can seal the deal.
Will be diving heavily into RBs next week. Here’s a little preview, with a popular run from Notre Dame’s Jeremiyah Love.
This one advertises his breakaway speed, but his “toggle and throttle” style behind the line is deadly. Forces defenders to pause, and then he’s already gone. pic.twitter.com/dedXFkzDWf
— Ian Cummings (@IC_Draft) June 11, 2025
Love’s “toggle and throttle” playstyle can keep defenders guessing, and his home-run hitting speed and burst ensure that defenses pay for even the slightest misstep. He’s explosive, energized, and just pure speed, to one of the highest degrees.
Physically and mentally, Love has “it.” He’s an intelligent and instinctive runner (we’ll get to more of that shortly), but he also has a tantalizing temperament. Or perhaps more accurately, a temper.
The play below is just one example of many on Love’s tape — of him playing bigger and far more physical than his lean 6’0″, 212-pound frame would suggest. Through arm tackles, he can routinely recollect his feet and find his stride, and he can deliver punishing, forward-driving stiff-arms sourced from pure aggression.
Listed at 6’0″, 212 pounds, Jeremiyah Love isn’t built like a brawler. He’s more of a lean long-strider, but he plays above his weight class with his physicality.
Recollects his feet through arm tackles, and can deliver brutal stiff-arms that make you perk up in your seat. pic.twitter.com/y0PNvnZOeI
— Ian Cummings (@IC_Draft) June 13, 2025
This tenacity is near-constant on Love’s tape, too. He’s a pure sicko as a runner, with a relentless physical edge and unquenchable want as a finisher. He’s a tone-setter at the point in pass protection, and he’ll even look to blast through and bury defenders as a lead blocker.
Ideally, Love won’t be utilized as a lead blocker as much in the NFL. Yet, the important thing to note is that he was more than willing to be a team player in 2024, relishing the chance to impose his will on defenders in space.
Love has elite competitive energy and toughness, and he doesn’t have an off switch. We’ve addressed that he’s an instant accelerator and a constant competitor. Now it’s time to dive into the ways he weaponizes those intrinsic qualities with his intelligence and spatial instincts as a runner.
Love’s film clearly shows initial gap vision and a keen understanding of how to control multiple levels of defense. Running backs have to be reactive in their line of work, but proactivity is just as important — which Love is very aware of.
Even on smaller runs, Love understands the importance of efficiency and angle manipulation. Watch how he presses laterally just a bit out of the draw exchange. It’s a little detail, but Love pressing causes the linebacker to drift from the A-gap to the B-gap, clearing the way for him to get skinny and gash upfield.
Absolutely love (pun unintended but accepted) how Jeremiyah Love presses laterally just a *little* bit out of this draw exchange to bait the LB into drifting behind the B-gap.
The moment the A-gap is clear, he gets skinny, rockets ahead, and finishes with physicality. pic.twitter.com/or8U5gt4DV
— Ian Cummings (@IC_Draft) June 13, 2025
Just as exciting on Love’s tape is that, along with his vision, spatial IQ, and manipulative tendencies, he understands (at a situational level) when to be patient and decisive. He can also alternate between those modes quickly within a single rep.
The play below is a stellar example of this. It’s an inside zone run where the 3-tech defender stacks the left guard, occluding the A-gap and obstructing Love’s path forward. An RB with no answers would panic or hesitate. Instead, Love adapts.
He halts in his tracks and resets his feet off the exchange. It’s a move that looks akin to indecision, but in reality, Love’s “hesi” move baits the penetrating 3-tech into aligning farther into the A-gap.
The move artificially seals off the 3-tech from the B-gap, and as soon as Love sets this in motion, he explodes through the gap for a chunk gain, finishing the run with his trademark combative zeal.
This is a really fun rep from Jeremiyah Love. You see his mix of patience and decisiveness, weaponized by his suddenness and burst.
But more important is his little “hesi” move, which baits the frontside 3-tech into selling out for the B-gap. Clears the A-gap for a chunk gain. pic.twitter.com/RVefvHjBQh
— Ian Cummings (@IC_Draft) June 13, 2025
All of Love’s surface-level qualities — hyper-elite explosiveness and energy — are present on this run. But what’s arguably just as dangerous is his rapid angle processing skills, heat-of-the-moment adaptability, control, and capitalization over spacing.
Routinely, while some running backs can get spooked by cluttered gaps and congested areas, Love doesn’t. A play’s moving pieces warrant a unique response each time, and Love understands that with a maturity and an ingrained instinct that few can match.
Even on simple press-and-go runs, Love displays this awareness. He can play patient, with fast and controlled feet, pressing close behind the line, and then attack space the mere millisecond he’s funneled defenders to where he wants them.
Press-and-go PERFECTION from Jeremiyah Love here pic.twitter.com/kjgZfH9sZR
— Ian Cummings (@IC_Draft) June 13, 2025
As is the case with every prospect, Love isn’t perfect. At just 212 pounds, he doesn’t quite have the mass to fully indulge his physicality as a road-grader. He can get stalled by solo tacklers at times, and his leggy, occasionally upright style also lends poorly to sustained power drive.
Additionally, Love is relatively unproven as a receiving threat. Though the Notre Dame offense was hamstrung by inconsistent QB play in 2024, Love only logged 28 catches for 237 yards and two scores.
The volume and efficiency aren’t there as much as you’d like for an RB prospect of Love’s caliber, but the high-end flashes are there. His long touchdown reception against Louisville is one of the best examples from 2024.
Jeremiyah Love isn’t a high-volume receiver (28-237-2 in ’24), but separation upside is there, and the current vision is clear: Get him the ball in space. This play shows that.
Love the cut back infield around the 20. Showcases his peripheral vision and ‘go for broke’ mentality. pic.twitter.com/BoNhqAuvqn
— Ian Cummings (@IC_Draft) June 16, 2025
Here, so many of his best traits are distilled into the pass-catching phase, with the seam-ripping explosion and speed in space as a RAC threat. He shows his peripheral vision as he cuts back infield and swims and pries past closing defenders. Love also shows his aggressive, “go for broke” mindset, choosing the higher-risk, higher-reward path for the TD when he has an easy excuse to go out of bounds.
For any other prospect, that risk propensity might yield carelessness and volatility. But Love is already unnaturally disciplined with his decision-making, adversity response, and ball security (zero career fumbles to this point).
Including anyone in the blue-chip prospect discussion is a weighty proposition and is not to be taken lightly. Love is one of the few who deserves to be in the blue-chip prospect discussion entering the year, with the inside track to be 2026’s RB1.