Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: They obviously fitted me for the breaks, and I did lots of treatment with Rob, Joe, Courtney. They helped me feel ready mentally and getting ready physically. But Beane got me the brace, and Rob also helped with it a little bit too.
They just did the best that they could and poured a lot into me and just made sure that I was cool and felt comfortable with wearing a brace.
It was going to be a mental thing because physically they prepared, they got me right, and it was just me mentally making sure that I believed in myself, believed that my knee is strong and all that.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: They've been doing a great job. Without them, we wouldn't be here. They've been doing an incredible job making sure that we're recovering the right way, making sure that we've got injuries we're coming in getting treatment, working with us, helping us with our mental.
A lot of it is just mental. They do their part. They do a great job at what they do. They help us, put us through exercises, and help us build back the strength or wherever we're hurting.
They're just great. They're great at what they do. Ultimately it's up to us mentally to make sure we're believing in ourselves and believing in the work we put in to get back, but they do a great job -- Courtney, Joe, Rob, Beane, all of them.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: No, I couldn't find the time. I wanted to get up in there because I love that oxygen chamber. It really helps a lot with recovery, but I didn't find any time to get up in there.
Q. Your football game last year. What was that experience like?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: It was fun. That was my first ever college game. I got to go into that game and play -- I think I had like four carries for 40 yards. It was a good start to my college career. My coaches, Coach Deland and everybody made sure I was prepared for that moment, and we went out and handled business.
It was a great time. Ireland was really nice.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: This season I would say, this past game in the Orange Bowl, it was amazing because me and my teammates, me and my brothers, we've been putting in a lot of work training physically and mentally to make sure that we were prepared for that game. The coaches put in a lot of work into our game plans.
Just the culmination of all our efforts, we accomplished something great. That was one of my favorite moments.
Another moment I would say was the Texas A&M win. Big start to the season. Everybody was doubting us. That's what we love. We love when people doubt us. We love being the underdog. That was great being in that first game and you're coming into hostile territory, and then to winning it all, it was amazing.
The crowd was electric. You could barely hear anything in there. Seeing the white towels waving around everywhere, it was a great atmosphere. That was most definitely one of the two.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: My message to the kids is, if you have dreams of playing sports, playing football, playing whatever sport you want to play, just give it your all. Have the utmost confidence in yourself. Most importantly, go out there and have fun.
Just try to spread love and have fun with your friends, respect your opponents always. Just be you. Have confidence in yourself and have fun. Yeah, don't let it get too deep. Just go out there and have fun.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: Some people were like why are you going to Notre Dame? They feel like there were better schools to go to sports-wise, but Notre Dame was just the best fit for me and my family. I love the coaches. I love the people there. They were very welcoming.
Yeah, there was doubt, but it was my decision. It was me and my family's decision. It was the best decision for us. If I could do it again, I'd still pick Notre Dame.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: Not to me, man. I just wanted to go somewhere where I felt like I would be developed right, both on the field and off the field. A National Championship just happened to come with it, and it's great, but ultimately I just wanted to go somewhere that will set me up for future success off the field and then somewhere that can develop me.
They have great people. Just somewhere that I can feel like it's home.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: I'm going to be honest, no. I came here, like I said, just because I thought this would be a home for me. I trusted in my coaches, trusted in the people here. They were very welcoming. They have great academics here. This is a place that can set you up for success off the field.
Man, I've got to speak again, I just love the coaches here. Coach Deland, I've got complete trust in him and his plan for me. All the other running backs do as well.
Yeah, I didn't really think of that as a factor. I just wanted to pick a place that was home, and I just felt this was the right fit.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: No, not at all.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: I feel great. We've got great training staff. So they made sure that I was good physically.
Like I said, going into the last game, it was really just going to be a mental thing. I had to overcome a mental hurdle. During the events of the last game, it happened throughout the game where I started to feel more -- where I started trusting my knee more and just started to play a little bit more free.
It's all because of my training staff. They do a great job of making sure that we're recovering. Like I said, ultimately it's just mental. The opportunity to hurdle somebody just, it was there, it presented itself.
It's like intrusive thoughts. Sometimes they get the best of you, and the moment just happened.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: No, nothing like that. Obviously you're going to be sore after a game, but it was just normal soreness. That run was pretty tough. A lot of people coming at me at once. Yeah, I got to score that touchdown because of the execution of my teammates as well. We all put in work to make things like that happen.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: Yes, I do. I've been doing that ever since I was about 5 or 6.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: It started with my dad. When I first started playing football, he thought that I wasn't very confident in myself and my abilities. His way of helping me build off that confidence in myself was to before every game tell me that I'm the best on the field, I'm the best in the country, I'm the best just in general.
Over time that just helped build up my confidence in me playing a sport. It just became my pregame ritual.
Q. You just talked about the trust that you guys had in him and that he had in you. What made you feel that connection?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: First off, the people that come to Notre Dame, they just aren't anybody. They're the right people with the right values and all that type stuff. So the trust kind of just game as soon as Riley came. I knew he was a great player already.
As we started to practice with each other, that trust obviously was built onto.
I would say everything clicked like right before our first game. I got to practice with Riley every single day nearly. So I already knew what he can do. He knew what I could do. As soon as we were getting ready for the game, everything just kind of clicked. Then in the game, things just clicked together, and stuff just happened.
So, yeah, trust is kind of built as you go. It's earned. Throughout this whole season, Riley's earned our trust, and we've earned his. That's where we are. This team is all about trust, all about brotherhood. We love each other. We play for each other. So everything just keeps getting stacked and keep getting built upon.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: Then after the NIU game, I kind of just like wanted to do it, and once I got my first one, like I was, dang, this is fun. So whenever the opportunity presents itself, I'll probably take it.
Yeah, I just like to show my athleticism and show what I can do, and it's also fun, you know, jumping over people.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: I would say you could say it is. Whenever the opportunity presents itself or whenever a special play is needed, I'll do whatever I have to do, whether it's hurdling, whether that's trucking you or stiff-arming, whatever it may be.
I guess you could call it my signature move. If the opportunity presents itself on Monday, I might, but it all depends on the situation of the game too. Whatever is needed of me and the team.
Q. Talk about Ohio State's defense, things that are on your mind as you head into Monday night of things you need to do and ways you need to change your game for them?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: I'm just going to focus on doing my job. Whatever the play is called, I'm going to execute the way I've got to. Basically just doing anything to help this team win.
As running backs, that's what we do. That's our job to be just play makers, wherever we're needed. That's just going to be my focus going into the game, just doing whatever I can do to help this team achieve team glory.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: I would say my favorite run is probably the hurdle against USC. I feel like that was just a play that came from everybody just doing their job. It was just a little opening for me to make a play, and it happened.
I also feel like it built up motivation in my team and gave us a little boost to go down and drive down and score a touchdown.
Yeah, I really love the plays where I get to shine because of my teammates. Like when everybody does their job and everybody gets the ball, the opportunity presents itself, I can make something special happen. Yeah, that was my favorite run.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: All-time? I would say Audric Estime. I kind of got my hurdle from him, being under him for a year, getting to see what he did training-wise and helping himself prepare mentally. I would say RJ is probably my favorite of all time just because I've got a relationship with him, and I got to learn from him and kind of incorporate some of his game into my game, the hurdling and stuff like that, but yeah.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: I feel like he's nice. Whenever I play the game, I like to go like everybody out wide and play myself as a receiver because on the game I got like a 96 speed or something like that. So there's not many people in the game that can keep up. I just run like deep crosses, posts, streaks, drag routes, all-that, and stuff like that. So I'm always open.
I feel like I'm pretty good at the game. I wouldn't say I'm a cheat code, but I would say I'm pretty good.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: My favorite NIL purchase? I would say my car. I bought a car over the summer, gave it to my mom, a Porsche. My mom has it now. It's hers now basically. I have another car that I drive.
I ended up giving that car to her. She already has it. I'll get me something else down the line.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: Man, this journey's been great. I've been doing this with these guys since last January, and to put in all that work and build up all that trust and to get to this point, man, it's been great. I wouldn't rather do it with any other group than this group.
Speaking on Coach Free, he's just a really down to earth person. He's really young, so he understands us on a level that other coaches probably wouldn't understand us on. We love him. We respect him. We want to make him look good. He wants to make us look good.
Everyone just loves Coach Free. He's a really cool person. He's a good father, a great coach. And he's gained our respect
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: I'm good. I'm 100 percent. I'm ready to go.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: It's been a challenge, but if it ain't hard, it ain't good. I've been going along with the ride. I feel like God's got me. I believe in Him. So whatever happens happens.
I got my complete trust in this team and complete trust in God to make my life or make me successful pretty much.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: Yes, sir, that's the type of physicality I want to play with every game and going into the championship. This team as a whole, we're a very aggressive group. We want to go out there and dominate, execute our plays, and do whatever we've got to do to get the win.
Yeah, that's the type of physicality that I want to play with, my teammates play with. Man, it's just the result of our coaches doing a great job and coaching us up and telling us to get that extra yard if you can, or if the opportunity presents itself and you've got to score a touchdown, you've got to do it no matter what. If there's three guys on you, four guys, one guy, you've just got to make it happen.
That's a result of our coaching, and we're a dominant group.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: What's a good grip strength? 120? Oh, God. Okay, let me see. 134. Is that pretty good? Strong? Okay, that's good.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: Me and Riley have gotten pretty close throughout this season. He trusts in me, I trust in him to make the right calls. That trust has got us to this point.
Riley has that trust in me. He also has that trust in everyone else on the team, whether it's receivers, other running backs, trusting the defense to get stops, get turnovers.
Man, this is a brotherhood. We love each other. We play for each other. I consider Riley one of my brothers. Yeah, he does what he's got to do on the field. I do what I've got to do, and that trust is going to keep getting built upon leading into this last game, this championship game. Yeah, I love Riley.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: I'm feeling a whole lot better than I was last game. Been in the training room with my trainers, Rob, Beane, Courtney, Joe. They've been doing a great job and helping me prepare. Mentally I'm feeling great. Got a lot of confidence in myself. Got a lot of confidence in my knee.
I'm just ready to go. I'm ready to ball out and ready to go win it all with this team.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: We're aware of it, but we don't really care. We're used to being the underdogs. It's great. A lot of people aren't expecting a lot out of us, but we've been at this point the whole season. After our loss against NIU, we've basically been playing a championship game every week since then. So we're used to the feeling.
We don't really care. We're going to go out and play our game, execute the way we need to, and play with each other, play with love.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: The hurdling came from -- my first hurdle was against NIU, and since then, I just kind of fell in love with hurdling people. Since I've been injured, they have been telling me probably I shouldn't try to hurdle anybody, but whenever the opportunity presents itself, I just can't like resist. So it kind of just happens.
I also got it from a teammate, previous teammate Audric Estime. He hurdled a lot of people. Being under him for one year, I was able to incorporate some of his game into mine, and I just kind of fell in love hurdling people. I kind of do it just to do it to show my athleticism and show people what I got in my tool bag.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: Coach Free, he's a great leader. We respect him on this team. He understands us not only being players, but he understands us off the field as well. So that deepens our connection with him.
Seeing him and this team make it to this point, make it to the National Championship, man, that's a great feeling. Love to see it. But we've got one more game to play, and it will be even greater once we go out and win this all.
Everybody on this team respects Coach Free. We love him. We want to make him look good, and he wants to make us look good. That's all.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: My coach, everybody thought it was a great run, it was a tough run. It was pretty much expected from everyone in the room, so there wasn't too much to it.
Coach gave me my props. My teammates gave me my props. But that's expected from everyone in the room. Everybody is going to go out there and make plays, what they can do and show their skill set. Whenever somebody makes a play, we're going to congratulate them, but it's onto the next play. That play is in the past.
Onto this game Monday, and we've got to make some more plays just like that one.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: Teammates seeing those plays, they set an example for others to show what types of plays need to be made in order to have success. Whenever you get your shot, just sets an example of you've got to do whatever you've got to do to make that play or score a touchdown or get a turn over on defense, it just sets that example, sets the standard.
Everybody on this team can make outstanding plays, can make spectacular plays, and that just happened to be my moment because of the work my teammates put in during that play. I wouldn't have been able to get to the end zone without them. They did their job. They executed well, and I was put in a position to showcase my skills.
If anybody's put in that position, they're going to showcase their skills. They're going to do what they've got to do to get into the end zone or make a turnover or whatever it may be. Those kind of plays just set the example, set the standard for what needs to be done on this team.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: I would say so, yeah. I feel like I can go out there and make moves on anybody, jump over you, whatever it may be, stiff-arm you or whatever. I would say, yeah, I feel like I got some moves or whatever.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: You might. You might. I've been practicing a little bit. I've been practicing a little bit. So if the opportunity presents itself, you might see it, I don't know. I got some bounce, so it will probably be better, I don't know.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: I keep the main thing the main thing. The main thing is to go out there with this team and to execute and to win the game. I love the compliments, but they come and they go. People may love me today. They may hate me tomorrow.
So I really just keep the main thing the main thing. Go out and do what I got to do for this team. Keep building up that trust in my coaches and my teammates and just go out there and execute.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: It means a lot to be here. I never would have thought I would be here, but I'm glad that I am. I'm glad that me and my teammates have put in the work to get here. It's been a long journey with these boys. I consider them all my brothers.
Just being here is great. This is a once in a lifetime thing. Hopefully next year we get here again, but for right now we're in a moment, and I'm loving being here with my teammates. Me and my boys have been grinding. Me and the running backs have been grinding since January.
Just being here is special. We have a chance to do something legendary at this program that hasn't been done in a minute. So I'm looking forward to the opportunity to go out there with my brothers and compete and show the world what we got because we got a lot of doubters out there, but that's what we love. We love to be the underdogs. We love to go out there, show people that it's more to us than you think it is.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: Obviously we've been here before, so it's a familiar feeling. This ain't nothing new to us. We've been here.
But as far as like running against their defense or making plays against their defense, I'm just going to go out there and do what I got to do, execute for this team. If I'm in a position to make a play, I'm going to make that play.
That goes for anybody on this team -- offense, defense, special teams. We're all a team. We're all going to go out there and execute and make plays. We're going to go out there and do what we do, show the world what we got.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: It took me a little minute to warm up, to build up more confidence in my knee. Going into the game, I didn't really feel at my optimal level how I wanted to feel, but as I started to play and get more loose, everything started to loosen up. My mental started to get better.
I really say it all clicked for me during the second half of the game. As soon as we came out, we started running the ball. I love physicality. Once I start getting physical, it all just clicked, and the hurdling came, then the touchdown came, just the executing on all three phases came from all my teammates and myself.
It was just all a mental thing. Just making sure or believing in myself, believing in my knee, believing all the work that I put in off the field to get right. As far as this week, I'm 100 percent. I'm ready to go.
Being warmed up, I'm 100 percent from the start. I'm ready to go out there and compete with my teammates. Shoot, everybody is. Everybody's ready to compete, execute.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: I feel pretty good, I ain't going to lie. I wasn't very sore. I was sore just a little bit because it's a physical sport. As far as my knee, I felt great. I didn't have any soreness. The brace really helped a lot. So shout out to Beane, Rob, Joe, Courtney for getting me right with that.
Yeah, I felt great. Feel even better now.
Q. Has getting that trophy crossed your mind at all?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: No, not yet. Just focusing on the moment, doing what I got to do right now in this moment to make sure I'm prepared to get that outcome. Trying not to envision myself getting that far because everything's all about the moment, doing whatever you can do to win today and be the better person today.
If everything leads up to that outcome, it's going to be great.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: Yeah, I'm going to try to pull some stuff out of my bag, probably not in this game. But as far as the future, most definitely. I've been thinking about trying to do a backwards hurdle, thinking about doing a 360 hurdle, whatever it may be. I've been thinking about it and just trying to add more stuff to my bag.
I really just like going out there and showing my athleticism.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: It's great to see. It's inspiring. Coach Free sets an example for people that look like us and just let them know that you can get to the big stage, you can make it far. It's very inspiring to see. I love to see it. Black boys, black men having success.
Shoot, this game, we win this game, going to be a legend. Coach Free is going to be a legend here. This team is going to be a legend in Notre Dame history.
But as far as Coach Free, it's great to see him at this point. It's just really inspiring for others to see him on the big stage and give them confidence to do what they got to do to get that far as well. It's definitely inspiring to see, and I love to see it.
Q. (No microphone)?
JEREMIYAH LOVE: What makes me me? That's a good question. I would say -- man, that's a good question. How am I supposed to answer that?
Me off the field, I'm a very chill person. I don't like to get into too much. It's kind of like how I was raised. My parents made sure that I was doing the right things, being put into the right things, being put into the best schools. They raised me correctly, made sure I wasn't getting into the bull crap.
Yeah, I'm just a chill person. I love anime. I love being with my friends, just talking, doing funny stuff or whatever it may be. Off the field, I'm just a chill guy, a little chill guy. That's me.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports