Could Jeremiyah Love Win the Heisman? Here's What It Would Take

Love put up 19 touchdowns last year but never made the least bit of a threat at the Heisman Trophy. It would be safe to assume that if the workload were to increase like above suggest it has to, production would to.

Jeanty found the end zone an absurd 30 times last year when he finished runner-up. Jonathan Taylor of Wisconsin found pay dirt 26 times when he finished fifth in Heisman Trophy voting back in 2019, while Christian McCaffrey's lack of touchdowns (13 to Derrick Henry's 28) was a deciding factor in the voting.

If Love is going to make a serious run at ending Notre Dame's Heisman Trophy drought then at least 25 touchdowns is going to be an absolute must.

Jeremiyah Love Heisman Case: 2,250 Total Yards

The biggest gap Jeremiyah Love has to close if he's going to be a true Heisman Trophy contender in 2025 is the total yardage. His 1,362 yards last fall were memorable but considerably off the pace of what true Heisman contending running backs put up.

Jeanty totaled over 2,700 yards last year while Taylor total 2,255 in 2019. Bryce Love of Stanford is the exception, totaling "only" 2,151 total yards while finishing second in 2017's voting.

The hard part of seeing Love get anywhere near these number will be the loaded backfield that he plays in along with the likelyhood that Notre Dame will be winning a good amount of the games handidly and hopefully not be in need of scores late, and instead be able to rest Love for the College Football Playoff.

Jeremiyah Love Heisman Case: Notre Dame Factor

The best thing Love has going for him is that he plays at Notre Dame. This year he'll run behind one of the best offensive lines in college football and more of a threat of a downfield passing game should only help him in the running game.

The whole Notre Dame thing helps Love's case as well. Had Ashton Jeanty been wearing Notre Dame's blue and gold last year instead of Boise State's blue and orange, he almost certainly would have won the Heisman Trophy over Travis Hunter.

Nick Shepkowski's Quick Takeaway:

Big time players make big time plays in big time games and that's something Love certainly did last season. If he can start with a bang as the nation watches Notre Dame's stand alone contest at Miami in Week 1 and then he follows it up with another banger in prime time against Texas A&M, the foundation will be firmly in place for a true campaign to be made the deeper the season goes.

However, with the amount of more touches and likely ware and tear Love would need to have in order to truly contend for the Heisman Trophy, I'm more content on the team glory side of things over the 12 regular season games and being as physically healthy as possible come late-December.

I'd love to see a Notre Dame player win a Heisman Trophy as I was only two when Tim Brown did it, but if I have to potentially sacrafice Marcus Freeman's team glory and chances of a national championship to do so then I'm not half as interested.

I expect Love to put up better numbers than his 2024, but based on these things tend to work I don't have the expectation that Love will be among the finalists for the award when December comes around.