Multiple Notre Dame stars predicted to be Heisman Trophy dark horses heading into 2025 CFB season

Love being mentioned is probably confusing to some, especially coming off of a truly dynamic sophomore season in 2024. The Missouri native managed to rush for 1,125 yards and 17 touchdowns, a stellar average of 6.9 yards per carry. Love also hauled in 28 receptions for 237 yards and two more scores. 

It isn’t confusing that Love is mentioned in the Heisman conversation. It’s the label of being a “dark horse”, and seeing that his odds are pretty low. There’s no questioning that Love is a superstar, but clearly people believe the deck is stacked against him from a production perspective. 

Perhaps the even more interesting part of the post is that redshirt freshman CJ Carr has even better odds than Love. Yes, the Heisman Trophy is an award typically dedicated to quarterbacks, mostly, but Carr hasn’t even won the starting job over Kenny Minchey yet. Besides from that, Carr has also not thrown a single collegiate pass either. 

If Carr does indeed win the job, there is going to be some unrealistic expectations put on him. If he is anywhere near the Heisman conversation this season, that’s a great indicator that Notre Dame had a great season. For the sake of trying to win a national championship, let’s hope he does play to that level. 

If the passing game does take a step forward, the Fighting Irish offense is going to be tremendous. We know the running game is going to be awesome behind Love and company. Balance is how the product becomes even better.