Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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6 NOV. 8, 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY ERIC HANSEN W hen Dane Brugler turns on the tape of a Notre Dame football game from this season — any game — he tries his best not to pay attention to the players who are not NFL Draft- eligible in the spring of 2026. But sometimes the draft analyst for The Athletic simply can't help himself. On the Irish roster, redshirt fresh- man quarterback CJ Carr and sopho- more cornerback Leonard Moore top the list of pleasant distractions on a team with one surefire first-rounder in this draft cycle, junior running back Jeremiyah Love. On his current trajec- tory, in fact, Love likely would end up a top-10 pick, per Brugler, when the three-day, seven-round draft unfolds April 23-25 in Pittsburgh. "NFL teams want to get more explo- sive," Brugler told Blue & Gold's Eric Hansen and Tyler James on a recent edition of the "Third & Gold Pod- cast." "They want guys that are going to be on the field that affect the scoreboard. Jeremiyah Love does that, and he does it in so many dif- ferent ways. "He reminds me of [Buffalo Bills run- ning back] James Cook, except with a lead foot on the accelerator. He can smash that thing and go. And he has the unique ability to stay afloat with his run balance. Even though he's not the biggest guy — I don't think he has a traditional running back build. "He is able to bounce off contact, spin off contact, catch his balance in a very unique way that I think really separates him. It makes him special. But then just the way that he can accelerate — the ex- plosiveness — it makes him a threat ev- ery time he touches the ball. And that is something defenses have to account for." As far as Carr and Moore go, Brugler said Moore would be the No. 1 cornerback prospect in the 2026 draft if he were eligi- ble. The earliest draft cycle he or Carr could declare as early entries would be the 2027 draft. Carr has up to three years of college eligibility after this one, and Moore two. "There's only so much brain space up here," Brugler said. "And so, I try to focus on only the guys that are draft- eligible. But Leonard Moore makes that hard,. He is as impressive a corner as there is in the country." Carr, meanwhile, is one of two young quarterbacks he ends up taking notes on. The other is Ohio State sophomore Julian Sayin, the nation's leader in pass efficiency going into Week 10. Carr is ninth, and on a trajectory to break Bob Williams' and Jimmy Clausen's school record for a single season. "Just the composure," Brugler said of what impresses him most about Carr. "Sometimes, he will live dangerously. But I think that the toughest part of playing quarterback is bouncing back from mistakes and having that mental toughness. And this guy's got that — just his competitive juices that he plays with. "It's something that some guys will develop better over time. But I think that the best ones are either you have it or you don't. He seems to have it. And when you have that mental toughness, the mistakes don't bother you, where they're going to linger from play to play. "From the Miami game all the way to now, almost two months into the season, he has gotten better and bet- ter and better. The odds of you win- ning games are going to go up when you have a quarterback like CJ Carr. And so I'm really excited for the summer when I can really dive into him." As far as the Irish players Brugler is sup- posed to pay attention to — and does — junior wide receiver Jaden Greathouse was his No. 2 Irish draft pros- pect this summer, but Greathouse had missed four of the Irish' first eight games going into and had limited production in the four games in which he did play. So, now it's Love's tag-teammate at running back, redshirt junior Jadarian Price. And Love and Price could very well be the top two running backs selected in the draft, Brugler said, if both come out. "We know he'd be starting at almost any other program, or at least 90 to 95 percent of other programs," Brugler said. "And he'd be your feature back. He's going to be a guy that's maybe in the Heisman conversation somewhere else. But playing behind Jeremiyah Love, the production's not going to be on that type of level. But he's still play- ing at a high enough level that scouts are taking notice." ✦ UNDER THE DOME PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Draft expert Dane Brugler tabs Jeremiyah Love as Notre Dame's next star back, while two underclassmen already have NFL scouts buzzing Brugler said Notre Dame sophomore cornerback Leonard Moore would be the No. 1 cornerback prospect in the 2026 NFL Draft if he were eligible. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER