SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Three Irish running backs – junior Jeremiyah Love, junior Jadarian Price and sophomore Aneyas Williams – have been named preseason candidates for the 2025 Doak Walker Award, recognizing college football’s most outstanding running back.
No program has more 2025 Doak Walker Award nominees than Notre Dame’s three. Notre Dame has had one Doak Walker finalist: TB Reggie Brooks (1992).
Love, Price and Williams join the rest of the Irish backs to make up one of the nation’s top running backs rooms entering 2025. The three played key roles in Notre Dame’s 2024 season en route to a National Championship appearance. Notre Dame’s rushing offense ranked No. 4 among the Power 4 in yards per carry (5.66), ranking No. 7 among all FBS teams. The Irish ranked No. 6 among Power 4 teams in rushing offense (210.8). With 45 rushing touchdowns in 2024, the Irish led all Power 4 teams and ranked third among all FBS programs in rushing touchdowns.
Love, Jadarian Price and Riley Leonard each had at least 700 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns in 2024, the only FBS team to have a trio accomplish that feat that season. Notre Dame tied for second at the end of the regular season among all FBS teams in rushes of 50 or more yards with seven (by four players, with seven touchdowns).
Love, already named a Walter Camp Preseason All-American and to the watch lists for the Maxwell Award and Walter Camp Player of the Year, comes off a statement 2024 campaign for Notre Dame. He rushed for a touchdown in each of the first 13 games of 2024 and totaled 17 rushing touchdowns, in addition to two receiving touchdowns. Love posted 1,125 rushing yards in 2024, the 21st time an Irish player has broken the 1,000-yard rushing mark in a season.
He averaged 6.9 yards per carry, which ranked ninth nationally in 2024 among players with 100 or more carries, and he tied for second among all single-season 1,000-yard rushers in ND records (Reggie Brooks, 1992, 8.0 – 1,343; Josh Adams, 2017, 6.9 – 1,430).
Love was the only FBS player to score a rushing touchdown in every regular season game that season. He broke the record for the most consecutive games with a rushing touchdown in Notre Dame history with 13 (passing 11 – Wayne Bullock, 1973-74, 17 total rushing TDs during streak). The 13-consecutive games to start a season is also a program record, besting Autry Denson’s season-opening run of 10 in 1998
Price played in all 16 games for the…