Notre Dame star Jeremiyah Love makes his draft case at NFL Combine
· Yahoo Sports
INDIANAPOLIS — Former Notre Dame football running back Jeremiyah Love was completely at ease in the media portion of this week’s NFL Scouting Combine, cracking jokes and radiating confidence as he continues to climb mock draft boards.
“I’m just being myself,” Love said Friday, Feb. 27 during a 13 ½-minute scrum. “People see that as me being a projected top 10 pick or a projected first-round pick. It really doesn’t matter to me. I’m going to go out there and be myself, no matter where I go.”
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With the NFL Draft still nearly two months away, Love is widely projected to go within the first 10 picks, perhaps as high as No. 5 to the New York Giants.
Pro Football Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis was the last Notre Dame running back to be selected in the first round. He went 10th to the Rams in 1993.
Greg Bell was a late first-round pick (26th overall) of the Buffalo Bills in 1984, and Vagas Ferguson went 25th overall to New England in 1980.
Love is a near-lock to become just the fourth first-round pick out of Notre Dame as a running back since the 1970 merger.
“No matter when my name’s called, I’m going to be Jeremiyah Love,” he said. “It’s a great honor, seeing people recognize me as such. I plan to go out there and prove myself right and prove everybody else right as well.”
After claiming the Doak Walker Award as the nation’s top running back and finishing third in Heisman Trophy voting, Love has become the darling of draftniks everywhere. He reiterated his comprehensive abilities on Friday, noting his running, receiving and blocking skills that have been honed over the past three seasons in South Bend.
“I want to be used as a weapon,” Love said. “So far in my career I’ve been used very well. Coach (Mike) Denbrock at Notre Dame involved me a lot in the passing game, made sure I got the rock in my hands and used me more as a receiver than just a running back.”
While running backs have been devalued for an extended period, with Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson in 2012 the only back to win league MVP in the past 19 seasons, the buzz around Love suggests that may be turning around.
Saquon Barkley’s emergence with the 2024 Super Bowl champion Eagles got things moving in that direction. Love also noted the latest Super Bowl MVP was Seattle running back Kenneth Walker, formerly of Wake Forest and Michigan State.
“Running backs are very valuable,” Love said. “I feel like that’s just being recognized more and more as of today. We had Kenneth Walker in the Super Bowl, MVP. Running backs like him are continuing to pave the way for guys that are just coming into the league or that are already in the league and just making a bigger name for running backs as a whole.”
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: Notre Dame football star Jeremiyah Love not sweating the combine