One year ago at this time, running backs Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price were exploding out of Notre Dame backfields on a regular basis.
Love was the alpha in the Fighting Irish offense, but Price was no slouch.
Love rushed for 1,372 yards on 199 carries, averaging 6.9 yards per attempt, and scored 18 touchdowns in 2025. Price had 674 yards, averaging 6.0 yards per carry, and 11 touchdowns. That’s a total of 2,046 yards on 312 attempts and 29 touchdowns.
In receiving, Love had 27 receptions for 280 yards and three touchdowns, averaging 10.4 yards per catch, while Price averaged 14.5 yards on six catches, scoring twice.
Of their time together, Love said this week, “Me and JD; we just fed off of each other. If I made a good play, JD would come in
and make a good play. And then that made me want to go make a good play. It just kind of went back-to-back-to-back like that, and that played out for three years and led to the circumstances that I'm in right now, the circumstances that JD is in right now.
“We made each other better, and it was healthy competition, and that's what made us two great backs.”
They both were selected in the first round of April’s draft with Love going third overall to the Cardinals and Price to the Seahawks with the final choice of the night.
Now, they will be on opposing sidelines when the Seahawks visit Arizona on Sunday.
Both were affected by injuries during training camp and their debut games were similar. Love rushed for 41 yards on 11 carries, while scoring a touchdown and having a long of 18. He added two receptions for nine yards. Price was 10-52 with a long of 13 and also had two catches, but for six yards.
Offensive snaps were 32 for Love (43 percent) and 24 for Price (48 percent).
“It'll be different,” Love said. “It'll be weird. I played with JD for my three years at Notre Dame. He was my teammate, so it's not going to be my teammate this upcoming game. He’s still my brother at the end of the day, but we’re preparing to go to war. So, it's going to be him against my D and my offense against his D. So, we'll see how it pans out.
“But, I'm honestly excited to see him. I haven't talked to JD in a little minute. So, it'll be good being able to compete against him and then after the game, just talking to him, see how he's doing.”
Price said, "It'll be special. We even talked about it, how we want to maybe swap jerseys or something if we can. Because it'll be a very special moment, and I know that a lot of Notre Dame fans and Notre Dame people look forward to that moment. We'll definitely get a picture."
Seahawks offensive coordinator Brian Fleury said of Price’s play-time in Week 1, "We were very deliberate about the reps that he was going to get, and how he was going to be used. He didn't play in the preseason. It was the very first NFL game; huge stage. We wanted to be cautious in terms of his workload. He earned more reps moving forward, and we'll continue to bring him along and develop him the right way."
On the other side, Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur wouldn’t necessarily commit to a larger role for Love this week in conjunction with Tyler Allgeier.
“I wouldn’t say an expanded role or anything like that,” LaFleur said when asked Friday. “His role is gonna be what it was. We’re gonna have, I’m trying to word this the right way, they’re gonna rotate. They are. This is a long season. I always talk about being where our feet are; only one game matters. But it is our responsibility and my responsibility to notice that with certain position groups that take a little bit of a beating. I have no idea how many carries he’s getting it. I know roughly how many plays he’s gonna get, but you never know. Theres a flow to it.”
LaFleur then riffed about the NBA’s Golden State Warriors and said, “I’m sure (head coach) Steve Kerr didn’t want to keep Steph Curry in there for 48 minutes in a regular-season game, but sometimes Steph Curry hits 13 threes. You’re not gonna take the hot hand out. Sometimes that happens with backs.
“Sometimes you give a back the ball and it just works. It might not even be a very good play. Play design might not even be blocked very well. But they’re just kinda of in the flow of it and the line feels that too. Again, we’ll keep the hot hand in there, whoever that may be.”
For his part, Love hopes that hot hand is his and there are more opportunities this week after his first real game. Asked what he learned, Love said, “I would say it was pretty fast for me because I was out for a little minute and just getting back in the swing of things. But it’s slowed down and practiced way more. This is my second week back, practicing fully and just being able to prepare how I want to prepare. So, it slowed down a ton and I'm going to be extra prepared going into this game. But my first game, it was pretty fast. It was a challenge for sure, but I'm overly prepared for my next opportunity.”
Finally, he admitted being asked by teammates about Price’s weaknesses and said simply, “J don't have many weaknesses. I tell them if you can get him, you got to get him while he's first getting the ball. Once he gets the ball, he gets rolling and it's hard to stop him.”
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This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Cardinals vs. Seahawks: 2 'brothers' compete in Week 2
