Jeremiyah Love, Jadarian Price updates: Marcus Freeman reveals health of Notre Dame RBs entering Sugar Bowl

Going into the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff against Georgia, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman knows that he’s going to need to rely on his rushing attack. To do that, he’ll also need his top running backs to be healthy.

Luckily, as Freeman shared ahead of the Sugar Bowl, which is hosting the Playoff quarterfinal, both running backs Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price are coming into this next round of the Playoff healthy.

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“Both of them are healthy,” Marcus Freeman said. “J-Love was a little banged up last week after the USC game, but he’s going to be as healthy as he can be for this opportunity tomorrow.”

Love initially got banged up against USC but was able to play in the first round. That included a highlight real performance where he scored a touchdown running the length of the field. Jadarian Price has also been key for the Irish this season, staying relatively healthy since the Spring.

“It’s something we’ve done in my three years as a head coach, with Coach [Deland] McCullough being our running backs coach, is that we pride ourselves on being able to rotate running backs and sell it in a way in recruiting and to your current players of we’re going to get you enough film to get you prepared for the next level,” Freeman said. “But we’re also going to make sure you’re healthy. We don’t want you to use every rep you have in your body in college. And so, they buy in to that. They’ve done a great job within the roles that have been determined for them. Aneyas Williams is another guy that’s really stepped up as a freshman this year.”

Those two running backs, Love and Price, have been a tandem that Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame have relied on and rotated heavily. Together, they combined for 1,740 rushing yards and 23 touchdowns on the ground. That’s gone alongside 751 rushing yards and 15 rushing touchdowns from quarterback Riley Leonard. Those numbers have helped the Irish rank 11th in rushing offense nationally, averaging 222.38 yards per game on the ground. Their 42 rushing touchdowns were tied for third in that stat.

In many ways, Freeman does see some similarities between that approach from Notre Dame and Georgia’s offensive attack.

“It’s very similar to what you see Georgia does. They have multiple running backs that can hurt you in different ways,” Freeman said. “And I think as you continue to progress in college football, that’s what you’re going to have to see, because you can’t — the days of playing just one running back, I don’t think that’s going to really happen at too many places for multiple reasons.”

Notre Dame and Georgia will kickoff at 8:45 p.m. EST at the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day.