The Irish are charging toward a new era with heart-stopping momentum. After a near-miss in the national championship game in Atlanta, Notre Dame has demonstrated that they are among the best in the elite. Led by Marcus Freeman in his fourth season as coach and loaded with talented youth like quarterback CJ Carr, hopes are through the roof. The schedule fills the season with marquee games, including three primetime home games against USC, Texas A&M, and Navy—each an opportunity to highlight Notre Dame’s revival on the national stage.

But at the forefront of Notre Dame’s rising momentum is a player who has already excited fans and pundits. Jeremiyah Love. If Notre Dame can get its recruiting efforts going and turn promise into results on the field, Love is one of those players who can help make it happen now. Last season, Love was a sheer force for the Irish, taking the ball 163 times for a total of 1,125 yards and scoring 17 touchdowns, averaging a healthy 6.9 yards per run. He wasn’t merely a workhorse; he was a game-breaker, initiating long drives such as a 98-yard touchdown sprint that charged up the crowd and established the tone for Notre Dame’s offense.

Tom Fornelli, from CBS Sports, defends Love’s newfound hype on the 16th June episode of the Cover 3 Podcast. “I think Love could be the guy on that offense that is the true superstar that moves the needle that garners attention and gets everybody going, so I love Jeremiyah Love and I love Jeremiyah Love for Heisman at 50 to 1.” Fornelli goes in with a bold comparison: he regards Jeremiyah Love as today’s Reggie Bush, the USC legend who lit up college football back in the early-2000s with his speed, versatility, and playmaking skill.

Tom builds on that, “I think Jeremiyah Love kind of has that Reggie Bush kind of excitement factor going where he’s not going to be the workhorse in that Notre Dame offense so that will hurt him but Reggie Bush wasn’t the workhorse in the USC offense too they also had LenDale White on those teams and that didn’t stop Reggie Bush from winning the Heisman because he had all the spectacular highlight plays on a very good team.” LenDale White, a tough, physical back, often pounded out hard yards, while Bush played 14 games during his three-year collegiate career, and he wasn’t even the featured ball runner much of the time. Bush was the star, however, because he could do things with the ball that no one else could do.

In 2005, he paced the country in all-purpose yards per game with 222.3. That’s what gets you a Heisman Trophy, even if you are not the “feature back.” Love will not receive 25 carries per game at Notre Dame, but he doesn’t have to. His big-play ability and explosiveness are the things that make him special. The Trojans and Irish have one of the greatest rivalries in college football, and each time these two teams face each other, there is an opportunity for a player to leave his name in the history books. For Notre Dame students, watching a player like Love recreate that Reggie Bush magic is exhilarating and a bit ironic. It’s rather obvious that Fornelli is greatly in love with Love, to quote Patterson, “I appreciate that you are back there for your guy, who you said you would have taken ahead of Ashton Jeanty if he were in the NFL draft You have declared your adoration for Jeremiyah Love for a long time.” 

Throughout the show, Fornelli’s enthusiasm is infectious. He’s been singing Love’s praises for a while now, and he’s not shy about it. He’s gone on record saying if Love and Jeanty were both available in the NFL Draft, he’d pick Love “every single time.” That’s a bold statement. Love’s not a one-trick pony; he can break tackles, run through defenders, and take a mundane run to a highlight-reel score. Fornelli concludes that he can’t wait to see what Love does next, and that fans need to strap in, because ‘this kid is going to be a star.’

Sons of NFL legends in gold helmets

If Jeremiah Love is the type of player who can turn a Notre Dame game into a spectacle and get Irish fans to think anything is possible, then head coach Marcus Freeman is the man making it all happen behind the scenes—and his recruiting style is stealthily constructing something special at South Bend. Freeman has targeted a discreet but effective recruiting trend: going after tradition, legacy players, and the sons of NFL icons. It’s a plan that’s less about signing the next superstar, but about creating a pipeline of players who already possess football in their DNA. As Ryan Clark stated when his son, safety Jordan Clark, signed with Notre Dame, “This is the school that all of our dads grew up watching. This place is the mecca of college football.”

The ethos was on full display at last summer’s Irish invasion camp. The event featured a who’s who of legacy prospects, such as Xander Edwards, a standout running back and son of former Irish fullback Marc Edwards. Xander’s already making waves as a 2028 prospect and will soon receive an offer from Notre Dame.

And there’s James Halter, an offensive lineman who played alongside Edwards in the 90s with his father. Freeman is looking for players who know what it’s like to don the gold helmet. Kaydon Finley, the son of Super Bowl champion tight end Jermichael Finley, is another. He’s a highly rated wide receiver who’s received offers from Texas, Oklahoma, and Notre Dame—and is also very much thinking about South Bend as his new home.