SOUTH BEND — Not since Jerome Bettis in 1993 has Notre Dame football produced a running back taken in the first round of the NFL Draft.
With Jeremiyah Love widely projected to go as high as fifth overall on April 23 in Pittsburgh, the Doak Walker Award winner seems determined to help Jadarian Price join him in Round 1.
“Everything you’re going to get in me,” Love said Tuesday, March 24 when asked what an NFL team would be getting in Price. “JD can do as much as me or possibly more. He can do kick return. I can’t do kick return.”
Love smiled.
“Well, I can, but I don’t do it,” he said after cheering on his teammates at Notre Dame’s Pro Day. “But you’re going to get everything you need in a football player, in a running back, in a receiver, in a blocker. JD can do it all.”
Informed later of Love’s effusive praise, Price seemed genuinely touched.
“Those are some good words from Jeremiyah,” he said. “I appreciate him. I love that guy.”
After forming the most dangerous 1-2 backfield punch in recent college history, Love and Price figure to fan out to energize two different NFL franchises. The latest NFL.com mock draft has Price going 58th overall to the San Francisco 49ers, where he would spell star running back Christian McCaffrey.
Notre Dame’s only other first-round running backs since the 1970 merger were Greg Bell (26th overall) to Buffalo in 1984 and Vagas Ferguson (25th overall) to New England in 1980.
Price, who dropped a flat pass from CJ Carr to open Tuesday’s throwing portion but was otherwise airtight, is just as impressed with Love’s overall game.
“A great player,” Price said. “He’s definitely going to go top five. Let’s be real.”
A consensus All-America kick returner who overcame a torn Achilles in 2022, Price was a year ahead of Love in school. Their relationship proved symbiotic rather than toxic.
“Someone who is authentically himself, doesn’t care what other people think about him,” Price said of Love. “You can learn a lot from a person like him. I have, myself, the past three years. He’s also learned from me. That’s a brotherhood that’s going to last forever, and I’m glad I got to play with him.”
Watching Love use his St. Louis savvy to navigate the pressures of NIL and a Heisman Trophy campaign proved beneficial to Price, a soft-spoken product of small-town Denison, Texas.
Thanks to Love, Price said he was reminded many times that “football is a game” and to “just go out there and have fun.”
Easier said than done with national championships and legacies on the line.
“Sometimes I get a little tense and anxious, but he just goes out there to have fun,” Price said. “I realized that’s what I have to do. … I just have to continue what I do. Control the noise and be me.”
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Jadarian Price has a believer in ex-Notre Dame teammate Jeremiyah Love
Reporting by Mike Berardino, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
