SOUTH BEND — For a sophomore running back with just 81 career touches to his name, Jeremiyah Love has been quite the topic in the early stages of preseason camp for Notre Dame football.

Defensive coordinator Al Golden invoked the name of Irish great Ricky Watters, reaching back three-plus decades for an apt comparison for the all-around talents of Love.

“He’s probably going to hate me for saying this, but he reminds me of Ricky,” Golden said of the Irish star from 1987-90. “He runs like Ricky Watters. Maybe he’s faster.”

Golden, not one for hyperbole, fleshed out his scouting report after bringing up 1991 second-round pick who went on to make five Pro Bowls in 10 NFL seasons.

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“Just strong and runs through (tacklers),” Golden said of Love. “High knee kick. Good acceleration. … Just a violent runner. And if you’re out of place, he’s going to get to the next level.”

Offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock, in his third tour of duty at Notre Dame and fresh off a two-year stint at LSU, seems impressed as well.

“You watch him on the field, he’s just different,” Denbrock said. “He’s explosive. He’s got that ability to hit a home run every time he touches the ball. We want to be an offensive unit that’s built on explosive plays. Him touching the ball the way he needs to touch the ball is going to be a big piece of that.”

Deland McCullough, Notre Dame’s associate head coach and running backs guru, has another stacked position group, one that includes third-year man Jadarian Price, Penn State grad transfer Devyn Ford and a pair of promising freshmen in Aneyas Williams and Kedren Young.

Love, however, seems ready to conquer all.

“I see a guy who can do a little bit of everything at a very high level,” McCullough said. “I have a lot of respect for the way Jeremiyah has prepared himself and got his body ready and put on a lot of weight — good weight — and his approach to football has always been high.”

After dropping below 190 pounds by the end of his freshman year, Love now packs 210 pounds of lean muscle on his 6-foot frame. Watters played at 6-1 and 217 pounds in the pros.

Love, who’s 2023 output included a pair of punt returns and a long run on a fake punt at Duke, spent several practice periods in the spring working with the slot receivers.

“The experience he had last year has really taken him far,” McCullough said. “He’s setting the tone not only with how he plays, but the details and the fundamentals and the technique he’s applying to his play. Everybody can see that.”

Jeremiyah Love ready to shoot his shot for Notre Dame football

These raves from three of the most experienced assistant coaches on the current Notre Dame staff came on the heels of the last public comment Irish coach Marcus Freeman delivered on the opening day of fall camp.

“Man, you have to find ways to get Jeremiyah Love the ball,” Freeman said on July 31. “We have a creative offensive coordinator and a creative offense that will do that. We’ll game-plan specifically how we get the ball into his hands.”

Pause. Smile.

“But, I mean, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist,” Freeman said, “to know in our offense you have to find ways to get Jeremiyah Love the ball.”

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When Love sat with the local media on Aug. 2, he pleaded ignorance about Freeman’s intergalactically classic compliment.

“Shoot, that’s great, hearing that from the head coach,” Love said upon hearing the paraphrased version.

No matter how hard Love tried to play down the attention and share the spotlight with his fellow backs, his inner confidence kept forcing its way to the surface.

The benefit of his offseason work in the weight room?

“I probably got faster,” he said. “I wouldn’t say I lost any speed. Most definitely got stronger. I’m smarter. And shoot, the weight only helps break tackles.”

Pause. Smile.

“Big, fast, strong guy,” he said. “Nobody wants to tackle that.”

To build on his already reliable hands as a pass catcher, he’s been taking extra reps with The Seeker, the robot quarterback, since his arrival from St. Louis 14 months ago. Love had eight receptions for 77 yards as a freshman, capping that with a 13-yard scoring grab in the Sun Bowl win over Oregon State.

“When I’m back at home, I train at receiver, just trying to improve my game in that area,” he said. “Running back, I think it just comes naturally to me. I haven’t really had to work exceptionally hard on my running back skills; it’s just all natural. I’m just talented in that area.”

Nick Saban had a vision for Jeremiyah Love

This isn’t the first time, of course, that Love has seen his talents launch the most accomplished of football coaches on poetic flights of fancy.

One thinks back to late June of 2022 and the recap Love offered after adding Nick Saban’s Alabama to a list of completed official visits that included Notre Dame, Oregon, Michigan and Texas A&M. The Aggies, as fate would have it, will get the first look this year at Love, albeit with a new coaching staff.

“Coach Saban assured me that I will get playing time when they feel that I’m ready,” Love told 247Sports.com at the time. “But he also said that he knows that I have what it takes to be a superstar at

Alabama because he knows how it looks and, apparently, I have the skillset to be the man. I believe him.”

Saban’s plan, according to Love, was to “use me all over the field, mainly in space. I will line up as a running back and wide receiver. I can do both and special teams.”

Now a rookie analyst for ESPN after retiring from coaching with seven national championships, including six at Alabama, Saban never got to prove if his vision for Love would bear fruit in Tuscaloosa. Instead, it’s Freeman and the Irish coaching staff that gets to scheme up a breakaway blueprint for a top-100 recruit just now coming into his own.

“Shoot, I mean, the sky’s the limit,” McCullough said. “Whatever you see guys doing to get special guys the ball, that’s on the menu. That menu is vast.”

And yet, as McCullough has shown at every stop of his career, including two Super Bowl trips out of three years (2018-20) with the Kansas City Chiefs, Love won’t have to go it alone.

“You don’t want diminishing returns,” McCullough said. “We’re still within the structure where everybody in that room knows a bunch of guys are going to play. This isn’t like when a guy was in high school and you’re going to have all these touches. It’s about maximizing those opportunities, and those guys get that.”

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That message resonated with Jason and Ltyona Love as their son navigated a process that led to his nonbinding commitment to Notre Dame in mid-October 2022.

“That’s part of the recruiting pitch,” McCullough said. “I specifically remember — I’m going to put it right out there — Jeremiyah’s Love’s mom saying, not that that controls what we do, but she said, ‘I don’t want to see my son have 50 touches a game.’ “

Love averaged 6.2 touches as a freshman, but no one should be surprised to see that number triple this fall now that Audric Estime is in the NFL and Denbrock is calling the plays.

“We all understand the impact that (Love) can have on the game, and it doesn’t require that much,” McCullough said. “The beautiful part is having the other guys too. We have a bunch of other guys. Everybody is going to get what we want to get out of them. Mainly, we want to make sure this team is in the best position possible.”

The football star who rarely watches football

From Love’s perspective, there’s no downside to displaying his skills in many different facets.

“It just makes me more versatile,” he said. “Give me the ball in the backfield. You can put me out in space. Shoot, I want to do punt returns. You can put me at kick returner, too. That just adds more value to me as a player.”

Now and in the future.

“Shoot, if you’re looking at the long run, looking at maybe going into the NFL,” he said, “that boosts your draft stock as well. The more I can do, the better.”

In the next breath, however, Love readily admits he hasn’t made much headway in convincing special teams coordinator Marty Biagi to let him return kicks and punts. One thing at a time, right?

“I’m going to focus on running back, and then all the other stuff comes later,” Love said. “Once I solidify my role as the No. 1 or that lead person in the offense, I think I can then start to transition to learning other stuff. Because I want to be the lead guy — I want to be. I think I’ve grown a lot.”

Admittedly not much of a football watcher — “I probably need to start watching it,” he joked — Love takes pride in being one of one.

“I don’t model my game after anybody,” he said. “I just play football. It’s just really all me out there.”

Every juke, every jump, every thump, every burst. That’s the essential J-Love.

“My confidence is always through the roof,” he said. “When I’m out in space, I know I can probably break the defender down and make something happen. … When I have the ball in my hands, I’m most likely going to do something with it.”

Pause. Smile.

“It’s not just me,” he said. “Everybody’s out there doing their thing and creating some explosive plays. But, you know, I am me.”

Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame football sophomore Jeremiyah Love drawing raves