Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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52 FEBRUARY 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED little bit," Love said. "I don't know what happened that play, but I just felt like the Hulk or something." Oh, did he scream. He flexed and pumped his fists, too. Love certainly earned the right after that play. Running left, the sophomore running back darted around one tackling attempt behind the line of scrimmage. He regained his balance and made a beeline toward the end zone, but redshirt junior Penn State safety Zakee Wheatley stood him up. Love kept his feet churning, though. He kept them churning as a second Nit- tany Lion dove at his legs and projected top-five draft pick Abdul Carter made a fly-by attempt all the while Wheatley continued to hang on for dear life. As he slowly fell toward the turf, Love in- explicably lunged past the goal line and dragged multiple defenders with him. "It was just expressing the dominance I just asserted over their team," Love said. "That's what was going through my head, just expressing my dominance." Love, if you couldn't tell, is a mad- man. He needed every ounce of his on- field psychopathy to gut out 51 yards on 12 touches in Notre Dame's Orange Bowl win. The St. Louis product played through a knee injury, which he re-ag- gravated one week prior in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia. Love wore a brace, but he was not lim- ited. The plan was for him to play and do whatever the coaching staff asked him to do. If he felt like he couldn't execute an assignment, he would have spoken up. But he never did. "I kind of just came out and said, 'F*** it,' and went out there and played," Love said. "Whatever happens, happens." It never looked like Love's injury was PENN STATE VS. NOTRE DAME QUARTER-BY-QUARTER COMPARISON Penn State 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Total Time of Possession 9:56 7:17 4:05 8:44 17:13 12:49 30:02 Third-Down Conversions 1-5 1-2 0-2 1-2 2-7 1-4 3-11 Fourth-Down Conversions 1-1 1-1 0-0 0-0 2-2 0-0 2-2 Average Field Position PSU-23 PSU-10 PSU-18 PSU-30 PSU-19 PSU-26 PSU-24 Notre Dame 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Final Time of Possession 5:04 7:43 10:55 6:16 12:47 17:11 29:58 Third-Down Conversions 1-3 4-5 2-3 4-6 5-8 6-9 11-17 Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 Average Field Position ND-23 ND-25 ND-27 ND-31 ND-23 ND-29 ND-28 PLAY CHART (NO. OF PLAYS) Yards PSU ND Nega ve 3 8 0-5 36 41 6-9 14 12 10-19 7 9 20-29 5 0 30-39 0 2 40-49 0 0 50 or more 0 1 RED ZONE EFFICIENCY (INSIDE 20-YARD LINE) No Poss. TD FG Score Penn State 4 3 1 0 Notre Dame 3 2 1 0 BIG PLAYS (25 YARDS OR MORE) Notre Dame • 3-7 ND25 Leonard pass to Evans for 32 yards to the PSU43 • 1-10 ND45 Leonard pass to Williams for 36 yards to PSU19 • 2-8 ND46 Leonard pass to Greathouse for 54 yards and a touchdown Penn State • 1-10 PSU25 Allar pass to Warren for 27 yards to ND48 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES • The temperature at kickoff in Miami Gar- dens, Fla., was 56 degrees — the second-cold- est Orange Bowl on record. The coldest was the matchup between Iowa and Georgia Tech in the 2010 Orange Bowl, which had a kickoff temperature of 49 degrees. • Notre Dame improved to 10-9-1 against Penn State, including 2-0 in bowl matchups. In addition to the Irish's 27-24 victory in this year's Orange Bowl at Miami Gardens, Fla., they also knocked off the Nittany Lions 20-9 in the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla., on Dec. 27, 1976. • The Irish are also now 3-3 in the Orange Bowl, 1-2 in Hard Rock Stadium and 13-17-0 all time in the month of January. • Graduate student safety Xavier Watts started his 32nd consecutive game, the sec- ond-most for an Irish safety in program his- tory (Jalen Elliott, 39 from 2017-19) and the 15th-most for any defensive player in Notre Dame history. • Freshman left tackle Anthonie Knapp ex- tended his program record for starts by a true freshman to 15 games. • With his 2-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter, Jeremiyah Love has now re- corded a rushing score in 14 of 15 games this season, the most games with a touchdown run in a single season in program history. • Freshman running back Aneyas Williams set career highs for receptions (5) and receiv- ing yards (66) in a game. Although not 100 percent healthy, Love was able to power into the end zone — dragging multiple Penn State defenders with him — for an incredible 2-yard touchdown run that put the Irish up 17-10 early in the fourth quarter. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER