Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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28 APRIL 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2025 S P R I N G F O O T B A L L O V E R V I E W BY TYLER HORKA N otre Dame lost its running backs coach of three seasons, Deland McCullough, to the NFL. But that's all the Fighting Irish lost out of that room, minus Penn State transfer Devyn Ford. Everyone else is back, and the Irish pulled off a heist of a highly respected position coach from that very same school, Ja'Juan Seider, to replace McCullough. It all equates to what could the best running back situation in college football in 2025. Junior JEREMIYAH LOVE might not win the Heisman Trophy or even the Doak Walker Award, but he very well might be the most talented tailback in the country. He can jump over you. He can run through you. He can run by you. Sometimes, all on the same carry. He's the type of player that makes you choose Notre Dame if you're playing the College Foot- ball 25 video game just so you can control him. "He can pretty much do it all," Seider said. T h e f i rs t p l aye r wh o comes off the sideline to re- place him? Senior Jadarian Price, who came close to av- eraging the same number of yards per carry as Love in 2024. Love averaged 6.9. Price averaged 6.2. The average length of Price's 7 touch- downs during his redshirt sophomore season? Thirty-five yards. "He's an explosive kid," Seider said. "Any time the ball is in his hands, he can take it the distance." Behind the top two on the depth chart is a rising sophomore in An- eyas Williams who certainly did not look like a true freshman last season. Williams' yards per carry average of 6.4 was right in the middle of those of his two teammates. He's also argu- ably the most trusted pass blocker of the bunch; he's the guy who was on the field for most of Notre Dame's third downs during its College Football Playoff run. "You really watch him play in the game, and the way he attacks blocking, he's got elite ball skills," Seider said. That's only half of it. Notre Dame has three other scholarship backs in case anything happens to the top three. Mc- Cullough left the cupboard stocked for Seider. And Seider intends on making the most of it. RUNNING BACKS PERSONNEL UPDATE Position Coach: Ja'Juan Seider (first season) Returning Starter: Jr. Jeremiyah Love (17 career starts) Departing Starters: None Projected New Starters: None Top Reserves: Sr. Jadarian Price, Sr. Gi'Bran Payne, So. Aneyas Williams and So. Kedren Young Newcomer: Fr. Nolan James Jr. POSITION BATTLE TO WATCH WHO'S NO. 4? Jeremiyah Love, Jadarian Price, Aneyas Williams. That trio is penned in atop the depth chart. Who's right behind them, though? Is it Gi'Bran Payne, who owned the RB3 role two seasons ago before injuring his knee in the 2024 Blue-Gold Game? Is it Kedren Young, a sophomore who might be as talented a runner as his classmate, Williams? Does true freshman Nolan James Jr. make a rapid and immediate rise? The battle for the fourth spot in the hierarchy is as fascinating as one gets that far down the depth chart at any position. NUMBERS TO KNOW 5.6 Yards per carry average for Notre Dame in 2024, the seventh-best team average in the FBS. Even then-freshman Kedren Young, the fourth guy in line, helped that average with a personal mark of 5.5. 14 Games with a rushing touchdown for Jer- emiyah Love last season. The only two in which he did not were the Sugar Bowl versus Georgia and the national championship game against Ohio State. 30.9 Broken plus missed tackles per attempt rate in 2024 for Love, the ninth-best percentage in the country accord- ing to Sports Info Solutions. The make-you-miss factor is real with Love. ALL EYES ON … SOPHOMORE ANEYAS WILLIAMS All eyes are on Jer- emiyah Love, obviously, and Jadarian Price, too, for that matter. But don't forget about the third guy in the peck- ing order. New Notre Dame running backs coach Ja'Juan Seider certainly hasn't. He went into great detail recalling the catch Williams had down the sideline in the Orange Bowl. Williams is a playmaker, a luxury for the Irish to have in RB3. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER