One of the few bright spots for Notre Dame Football in the month of December has been Jeremiyah Love. The junior running back is well on his way to becoming a unanimous All-American and is in New York to be part of the Heisman Trophy ceremony. On Friday, he became the first Notre Dame running back to ever win the Doak Walker Award.
Jeremiyah Love Wins 2025 Doak Walker Award
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Junior running back Jeremiyah Love has been named the winner of the 2025 Doak Walker Award, given to the top running back in college football.
Love is
Notre Dame’s first-ever winner of the Doak Walker Award. He was the second finalist in program history, joining TB Reggie Brooks (1992). Love is also a national finalist for the Heisman Trophy, the Walter Camp Player of the Year and the Maxwell Award. He was the 2025 recipient of the Disney Spirit Award, honoring the most inspirational figure in college football.
This season, Love posted 199 rushes for 1,372 yards and 18 touchdowns, adding 27 receptions for 280 yards and three touchdowns. He averaged 6.9 yards per rush on the season. Even more impressive, he did it all while sharing a backfield with fellow running back Jadarian Price, who himself totaled 113 rushes for 674 yards and 11 touchdowns.
Six FBS players rushed for 1,300 yards during the 2025 regular season. Love is the only player on that list who shares the backfield with another running back who has also rushed for at least 600 yards this season.
He was the only player in the nation to rank in the top three in scoring, total touchdowns and yards from scrimmage to conclude the regular season.
Love was the only player in the country to both own more than 1,100 rushing yards on the season and average 6.6 or more yards per carry.
At the end of the regular season, Love continued to rank as one of the most outstanding players in college football, ranking second nationally in scoring (10.5), second in total points (126), second in total touchdowns (21) third in rushing touchdowns (18), fourth in rushing yards (1,372), fifth in rushing yards per game (114.3), fifth in yards per carry (6.89) and fifth in all-purpose yards (137.67).
Love posted eight carries for 171 yards and three touchdowns in the 70-7 win over Syracuse, averaging 21.4 yards per carry. He is just the third player since 1996 to have 170 or more rushing yards and three touchdowns on eight carries or less (Clyde Edwards-Helaire, 11/23/19 vs. Arkansas and Desmond Ridder, 10/24/20 vs. SMU).
In Notre Dame’s 49-20 win over Stanford, Love rushed for a touchdown on Notre Dame’s opening drive, making him Notre Dame’s single-season leader in total touchdowns (21), surpassing the legendary Jerome Bettis’ 20 in 1991. The rushing touchdown was also Love’s 18th of the season on the ground, tying Audric Estimé (2023) for most rushing touchdowns in a single season in Notre Dame history. He is the first player in program history to have multiple seasons with 17 or more rushing touchdowns.
This season, Love was named the Associated Press National Player of the Week and the Doak Walker National Running Back of the Week for his impressive performance against No. 20 USC. Love racked up 228 rushing yards on 24 carries to average 9.5 yards per carry in a 34-24 win over USC in the Jeweled Shillelagh rivalry contest. The 228 rushing yards Love put up against USC are the most for a Notre Dame player in a single game in Notre Dame Stadium’s 513-game history.
Love became the first player in program history to collect two 90-yard rushing touchdowns in a career with a 98-yard effort against Indiana in the College Football Playoff in 2024 and a 94-yard score at Boston College in 2025.
