Notre Dame Football Hot Positional Takes: Running Back Edition

Hot dishes out of season

Welcome to Notre Dame fighting the Irish, Positional Hot Shots. We remind all readers that it depends VERY much on you and we strongly encourage you to comment. The idea is to bring your HOT dishes just because it’s out of season. The payoff will take much longer, but these pages will live on forever (big word) so you can tell your friends, family, and strangers that you “called it.” Since this isn’t geared towards specific games, I’ll go position by position with my own takes.

Running back

A key position that will look very different than it did a year ago is the back room. Notre Dame lost Audric Estime to the NFL and Gi’bran Payne to an unfortunate knee injury. Jadarian Price and Jeremiyah Love are the most experienced, while Devyn Ford was recently moved back to RB after a short break for safety reasons. Rounding out the room are talented Freshmen Aneyas Williams and Kedron Young. Overall, this is a very strong group with a diverse skill set, and Coach McCullough will creatively engage the entire group. It’s also worth noting that having an elite rushing quarterback in Riley Leonard will only provide more space for defenders to run.

Warm welcome 1

Both Jadarian Price and Jeremiyah Love are over 1,000 yards across the board

The emphasis here is on universal gardens. It’s no secret that these two dogs are the best dogs on the team, but they have very different playing styles, which will likely result in both of them taking the field at the same time. Denbrock has also shown a tendency for his quarterbacks to move the ball into space (watch LSU for 2 minutes). I expect him to rely heavily on Love in the passing/screen game, while Price will have more effective carries between receptions. Another reason I’m optimistic about these two exceeding 1,000 yards is because they’re both home run hitters. Love is one of the most explosive players on the team, and Price enters this year fully healthy and ready to become a bell cow. Finally, Riley Leonard is a HUGE on-ball threat and will be respected in the zone read concept. This will give the guys more holes and opportunities to take possession of the ball, rather than taking over the zone read from Drew Pyne or Sam Hartman.

Hot take 2

Each Running Back scores 2 or more touchdowns

The loss of Gi’bran Payne opened the door for the two freshmen to play coaching positions throughout the year. The schedule also offers some soft opponents who will certainly provide more touches for these two. Additionally, Payne was a short-yardage defender and a pro at passing… Devyn Ford will likely start in that role early in the year and will likely be rewarded with a few touches near the goal line. Finally, the coaches are hoping for a playoff run this year… they won’t try to run Love and Price into the ground. The offensive staff will also want to get in touch with the youngsters as early as possible, because this could (theoretically) be the longest season in Notre Dame history. Games like Stanford, Army, Navy and NIU should get these guys going, especially in the fourth quarter.

Your Takes: Leave your takes below and I’ll come back to them next offseason (people who play the long game). GO IRISH!