Given Notre Dame’s recent national championship appearance, you might have imagined players like Jeremiyah Love had been cashing in big money right from the start. But the former Irish RB admitted that the school “didn’t pay good” when he first arrived in South Bend under Marcus Freeman. 

During Jeremiyah Love’s appearance on St. Brown Podcast, he was hit with an assumption that Notre Dame NIL was probably good money. The three-year Irish star responded otherwise. 

“No, it wasn’t,” he said. “Not my first few years, it wasn’t. My third year, it was good. I was living good.” 

When discussing NIL, people tend to forget that the lucrative endorsement deals usually come after the grind, not before it. Jeremiyah Love’s story completely flips the popular narrative around Notre Dame recruiting. When he showed up in 2023, he wasn’t cashing giant checks. The same player who later became a Heisman finalist and won the Doak Walker Award arrived with almost no NIL opportunities at all. And to think he hit the top tier of the On3 NIL rankings later on and became the No. 3 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.

Jeremiyah Love didn’t become rich the second he signed with Notre Dame. He became valuable after proving himself there. During the same conversation, former Irish star Equanimeous St. Brown nodded toward the same philosophy that separates this independent school from some of the SEC recruiting monsters.

“Notre Dame gets people based off character,” he said. “They want to be there.” 

Notre Dame tries to convince players to buy into development, academics, and long-term branding. Marcus Freeman has mentioned that this isn’t a flashy program but one that prepares young players for life beyond college, too. And Jeremiyah Love is probably the best example of it because he openly admitted he knew almost nothing about the school growing up.

Jeremiyah Love said that during high school, all he really saw was Alabama and Georgia dominating every postseason. He knew it because the Tide had Nick Saban and the Bulldogs had Kirby Smart, both SEC giants.

“I didn’t know nothing about Notre Dame,” he admitted. “I didn’t know nothing about nowhere else. All I knew was Bama and Georgia.”

What makes his Notre Dame decision more interesting is that, according to his father, Jason Love, the family actually turned down seven-figure NIL offers from powerhouse programs like Georgia and Alabama. Some might see that as a foolish choice, but Jeremiyah Love was looking for trust and found it with Marcus Freeman and former RBs coach Deland McCullough.

“Just decided to believe in them and believe in the plan that they have for me,” he admitted. “And then the school of Notre Dame, as I learned more about it, had great academics, great people there, great culture, great tradition. And so, a lot of people that come through Notre Dame end up doing great things in life, whether it’s in football or whether it’s in just real-life things in the business world, wherever it may be.”

On top of all that, the money eventually came anyway. By late 2025, Jeremiyah Love’s NIL valuation climbed to around $1.5 million. He signed major partnerships with brands like Samsung, New Balance, Celsius, Stanley, and Credit Union 1. Before even reaching the NFL, he had already built financial security, which is why he’s calm even after signing a fully guaranteed four-year rookie deal worth over $53 million with the Arizona Cardinals.

“I live in the era of NIL, so I’m pretty well off already,” he told KTVK 3TV. “I really don’t need to touch that money as of right now. I most definitely will not.”

And he’s still giving younger players surprisingly grounded advice through all of it.

Jeremiyah Love gives valuable NIL advice before his draft success

Jeremiyah Love stressed that NIL should follow production, not replace it. According to Love, if deals come too easily, they probably don’t mean much anyway. That mindset feels rare now, especially in a recruiting landscape obsessed with instant rewards.

“Keep the main thing the main thing,” he previously said on On3. “If you’re going out there and performing on the field, all that other stuff will come later. As far as looking back on my journey, I didn’t start off with having some big NIL deals. I started off having none. I came into college not having any deals. But I put my head down, grinded, did the things I had to do on the field, and all that stuff just came naturally. I would say don’t focus on NIL and all the money or whatever. Just don’t focus on it. Focus on football. Because at the end of the day, if you perform on the field, all that other stuff will come.”

And maybe that’s exactly why Marcus Freeman became so convinced Jeremiyah Love was different. Before the 2026 NFL Draft, he went on Colin Cowherd’s show and gave him a glowing endorsement.

“He is a unicorn,” he said. “He is as talented and gifted an athlete as I’ve ever been around, and I think he could be an elite wide receiver, he could be an elite DB. He’s just gifted with a unique skill set, the balance, the ability to jump over you, the ability to run through you.”

That’s development and trust paying off. And for Jeremiyah Love, the school that “didn’t pay good” at first ended up becoming the best decision of his football life.