Why Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman won't goose Jeremiyah Love's Heisman chances
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SOUTH BEND —Statistics alone probably won’t get Jeremiyah Love enough votes to win the Heisman Trophy.
Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman wouldn’t have it any other way, even as the Irish wait patiently for someone to stop a drought that dates back to Tim Brown in 1987.
“I don’t want to make decisions to influence the people that vote for the Heisman,” Freeman said Monday ahead of this week’s test at No. 23 Pittsburgh. “I just want everybody in our program to put all their effort into winning and being the best player they can be.”
No one reflects the Freeman mantra of “team glory” more readily than Love, a junior running back who has accounted for 16 total touchdowns this season for the 10th-ranked Irish (7-2) but who remains 12 rushing yards shy of 1,000 through nine games.
Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty rushed for 2,600 yards and 29 touchdowns for a College Football Playoff qualifier, one that received a bye into the quarterfinals, and yet the Broncos’ running back still finished a close second behind Colorado’s two-way star Travis Hunter in Heisman voting.
Just three running backs have claimed the Heisman in this century: USC’s Reggie Bush (2005), Alabama’s Mark Ingram (2009) and Derrick Henry (2015).
Love’s top rushing output this season was his 228 yards on 24 carries (both career highs) in the Oct. 18 win over USC. His 94-yard touchdown run at Boston College on Nov. 1, which he celebrated with a Heisman pose in the end zone, made him the first player in program history with multiple TD runs of 90-plus yards.
Love’s first such run was a 98-yarder against Indiana in last year’s CFP first-round win.
‘Team glory’ above all for Notre Dame football
While taking care not to diminish “the prestige and what that trophy represents,” Freeman said, the big picture of team-first goals remain foremost at Notre Dame.
“It’s a great award, a huge honor,” Freeman said. “Somebody’s going to win it. But I think Jeremiyah Love will be the first to tell you that winning a game is way more important than that individual award.
“He’s going to do everything in his power to make sure that we’re prepared to win a game, and if the Heisman Trophy comes with it, then great. That’s amazing.”
While quarterbacks such as Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, Alabama’s Ty Simpson and Ohio State’s Julian Sayin are near the top of a wide-open Heisman race, the case for Love might best be built with a reminder of his all-around value and game-breaking abilities.
“He is as special of a football player as I’ve been around,” said Freeman, an Ohio State teammate of 2006 Heisman winner Troy Smith, a quarterback. “Every time (Love) has the ball in his hands, he can make something positive happen. He is as dangerous an offensive weapon probably that I’ve been around.
“That’s the value I see in him for our team is you can put him at wideout, you can motion him from the backfield and throw him the ball, you can hand him the ball and he’s going to make something happen.”
Love also has taken direct snaps out of the Wildcat with middling success. That included a fourth-down run out of punt formation that was stopped cold at Boston College.
Had Love handed the ball to wideout Jordan Faison on the reverse, it appeared Notre Dame would have easily picked up the first down.
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 coach Marcus Freeman talks Heisman and Jeremiyah Love
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