SOUTH BEND — Now what?
A fair question of the Notre Dame football offense as it moves off last season’s running back production of NFL first-round draft picks Jeremiyah Love (199 carries, 1,372 rush yards, 18 touchdowns, 6.9 yards per carry) and Jadarian Price (113-674-11, 6.0).
Noie: Notre Dame linebacker's road to return from injury is a familiar path
Noie: Defensive line may separate Notre Dame football from the pack
What will that group look like in 2026 without Love and Price? How do you lose those carries and those yards — and all those touchdowns — and pick up where the Irish left off? Replacing one would be a task. Replacing both? Yikes. You don’t lose two pros and keep doing what the Irish have done. Or do you?
Offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock believes Notre Dame can. That Notre Dame doesn’t have Love and Price doesn’t mean Notre Dame will stray from what it has been under fifth-year head coach Marcus Freeman. CJ Carr or no CJ Carr, Notre Dame will run the ball.
Notre Dame ranked 12th nationally in total offense in 2025 (458.5 ypg.) and second in scoring (41.8). It rushed for at least 175 yards in five of the last six games, including two games over 300 — USC (308) and Syracuse (329). Don’t expect those numbers to slide in 2026 because the running backs are a bit green.
“The core fundamentals of who we’re going to be are going to be exactly the same,” Denbock said early in recently concluded fall camp. “We’re built around the run game. That’s Notre Dame football. That’s my philosophy. That’s Coach Freeman’s philosophy.
“That’s who we are.”
Skepticism lingered early in August. Could that be who Notre Dame could again be this season? Without Love? Without Price? The deeper the Irish worked through fall camp (Wisconsin prep started this week), the more you figured they would be fine with veteran Aneyas Williams as RB1. He looked the part in almost every media viewing day.
“(He) has really put himself in position,” Denbrock said, “to be a dude.”