NEW YORK – Notre Dame football running back Jeremiyah Love, in town as a Heisman Trophy finalist, said he has come to grips with being left out of the College Football Playoff five days earlier.
“It was a sad feeling,” Love said Friday afternoon at a Times Square news conference with his three fellow finalists. “Obviously we weren’t happy about it. Everybody at that time didn’t understand why, but once a few days went by, once some time passed by, we realized that we were only in that position because we put ourselves in that position.”
An 0-2 start, with narrow losses at Miami and at home against Texas A&M, ultimately kept the 11th-ranked Irish from returning to the playoff after losing in last season’s national title game. A 10-game winning streak to close out the year had Notre Dame ranked as high as ninth before the CFP selection committee bounced the Irish for Miami as the final at-large entrant.
“Our season was the way it was,” Love said. “We controlled our own destiny, and at the end of the day we left it up to the committee to decide whether we were going to be in the playoffs or not.
“I’m a big believer in taking control of your own destiny, and the team is as itself. We understand if we took care of business throughout the whole season, there would’ve been no doubt in the College Football Playoff. But we had the season that we had, that we’re not by any means disappointed in.”
Notre Dame won its final 10 games, all must-win endeavors, by an average of 29.7 points. A 34-24 win over USC was the closest any opponent came to the Irish once they went into de facto playoff mode.
“We’re proud of the way we played, we’re proud of the way we ended the season,” Love said. “It just was disappointing that we didn’t get into the playoffs. But we ended the season off how we wanted to end it off a couple days ago. We had a charity (bowling) event that we held, came together as a team.”
While Love, projected as a top-10 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, is almost certainly done with college football after three seasons, he said the overall mindset of the returning team is strong.
“It was disappointing as a team and individually, seeing that we didn’t make the playoffs,” he said, “but we accept it and we’re ready to keep working and get ready for the next opportunity. … We have to get right back to work and get prepared for the next season.”
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.