Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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14 NOV. 23, 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY TYLER HORKA E very Sunday, Notre Dame running backs coach Deland McCullough puts out a social media post that begins with "Stable Talk" — com- plete with a thoroughbred horse emoji. And every Sunday, he's got a lot to follow it up with. Enough to reach the maximum character limit, and then some. This Notre Dame running backs group gives its position coach a lot to boast about, like a billionaire racehorse owner with several steeds he knows he can count on every time he treks to the track. The difference is, not any one of the Fighting Irish's tailbacks can be likened to Secretariat or American Pharoah in name recognition this year. Sophomore Jeremiyah Love led all of them in rush- ing yards per game through nine games, and he had only 64.8. For reference, Au- dric Estimé averaged 100.1 at the same point in the 2023 season. Estimé was a bell cow. Love is one of many mustangs. That's also the difference, one Notre Dame coaches are very proud of — including the one at the very top. "Coach McCullough does a great job of getting those guys in that room to buy in," head coach Marcus Freeman said. "There is not just one guy. We need the entire unit." Through Week 11, four of Notre Dame's tailbacks were averaging more than 5.0 yards per carry. Junior Jadarian Price led Notre Dame in that category at 7.3. The two freshmen, Aneyas Williams and Kedren Young, were sitting at 5.6 and 5.5, respectively. They're fully bought into the idea of "The Stable" as well. "Honestly, it's an honor to be a part of the group," Williams said. "We don't look too much into the stats. … Being a part of the group, the guys I get to learn from, it's no secret that I'm behind two draft picks, so just knowing that and being able to perform and contribute with this group is something to hang your hat on." AN EXTRA HORSE Notre Dame wouldn't have been sit- ting at No. 13 nationally in rushing yards per game with 214.78 through Week 11 counting only the contributions from running backs. No, that number — one that's as high as it's been in South Bend since Notre Dame averaged 269.31 yards on the ground in 2017 — has been made possible by one of the best rushing quarterbacks in all of college football, senior Riley Leonard. "We've all seen the plays he can make," Price said. "He turns something that looks like a negative 15-yard play into a positive 4-yard gain, which is the hidden yards in the game of football. And that's what we need." Leonard's rushing yards per-game average of 67.67 through nine games ranked ninth among all FBS quarter- backs. He's got as well trained of a nose for the end zone as anyone on the Irish roster, too, with 13 rushing touchdowns in those nine games. That was three better than Love through Week 11, even though Love was one of just five FBS players to have scored a touchdown in every game he appeared in to that point. The most rushing scores in a single season by a Notre Dame quarterback going into 2024 was 14, a record set by Brandon Wimbush in 2017. All-time marks aren't high on the list of pre- season goals in August, but once they come into clearer focus in November it's pretty easy to appreciate all that was done to get to that point. It has become much easier for everybody to appreciate just how productive Leon- THE STABLE THE STABLE Notre Dame's elite 2024 rushing attack has many moving parts