{"id":353534,"date":"2025-12-17T08:52:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T08:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/353534\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T08:52:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T08:52:12","slug":"notre-dame-star-jeremiyah-love-declares-for-2026-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/353534\/","title":{"rendered":"Notre Dame star Jeremiyah Love declares for 2026 NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love has declared for the NFL draft.<\/p>\n<p>Love, 20, made the announcement on Tuesday, days after finishing <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/indiana-star-fernando-mendoza-wins-010611450.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:third in Heisman Trophy voting;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">third in Heisman Trophy voting<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>He thanked his family, teammates and coaches at Notre Dame <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DSWILApjtpp\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:in a post on social media;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">in a post on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaking the decision to attend Notre Dame was easy because of the people,\u201d the junior said. \u201cFrom the amazing football support staff to my fellow students \u2014 I could not have picked a better place for me to grow into the man I am today.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back Jeremiyah Love (4) breaks loose for a touchdown run against the Syracuse Orange during the first half at Notre Dame Stadium. Michael Caterina-Imagn Images\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"639\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/3476ecb867e9e6f4bea9167de5633f29.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back Jeremiyah Love (4) breaks loose for a touchdown run against the Syracuse Orange during the first half at Notre Dame Stadium. Michael Caterina-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is with a wealth of gratitude I will take the many experiences Notre Dame has given me and apply those lessons learned as I move onto the next level. I look forward to representing my family and Notre Dame in the NFL.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Love had a big season for the Fighting Irish as he racked up 1,372 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns, while adding 27 receptions for 280 yards and three receiving scores.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>His 21 all-purpose touchdowns broke the single-season school record set by Jerome Bettis in 1991.<\/p>\n<p>Love was named the winner of the Doak Walker Award \u2014 given to college football\u2019s top running back \u2014 making him the first recipient from Notre Dame.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back Jeremiyah Love speaks to the media during a press conference at the New York Marriott Marquis before the presentation of the Heisman Trophy. Brad Penner-Imagn Images\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"819\" height=\"1023\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/3788d2ec13b428b49c2ebd73a6253747.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back Jeremiyah Love speaks to the media during a press conference at the New York Marriott Marquis before the presentation of the Heisman Trophy. Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>It was his second straight monster year, as he rushed for 1,125 yards and 17 touchdowns during his sophomore season and helped the Fighting Irish reach the national championship game.<\/p>\n<p>Love is now being viewed as the top running back in the 2026 draft class, and some experts have him as a potential top-five pick.<\/p>\n<p>ESPN\u2019s Mel Kiper Jr. projected Love to go No. 3 overall, and The Athletic\u2019s Dane Brugler ranked him as the No. 5 prospect overall recently.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love has declared for the NFL draft. Love, 20, made the announcement on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,133458,593,8443,715,194046,85,33629,194047],"class_list":{"0":"post-353534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-jeremiyah-love","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-notre-dame","13":"tag-notre-dame-fighting-irish","14":"tag-notre-dame-stadium","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-syracuse-orange","17":"tag-the-fighting-irish"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}