Both the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Colorado Buffaloes welcome a top ten running back to their rosters ahead of the college football season. Jeremiah Love heads to Notre Dame as a top five running back in this year’s class, while Dylan Edwards chose Colorado and Coach Prime over a host of other options.
Both are expected to see the field this year, but how much playing time will each of them get and what do we need to know about these young running backs? Let’s take a look at how quickly they might make an impact on the college football scene, as well as opportunities for reps as a freshman running back in the 2023-2024 CFB season.
If you’re a college fantasy football player, keep an eye on these two guys as early as this season.
Jeremiyah Love – Running Back, Notre Dame
Jeremiyah Love is a consensus four star recruit out of Saint Louis, Missouri, who played his high school ball at the Christian Brothers College. He was highly productive as a senior in high school, totaling 1,291 rushing yards and 22 touchdowns while adding 371 receiving yards and five more scores in the pass game.
Love led Christian Brothers to back to back state titles with two highly productive seasons at running back. He’s an Under Armour All American who also competed as a sprinter in track and field, winning a state title with a 100m time of 10.76 seconds.
Notre Dame fans are very excited about his signing, looking set to be one of the most explosive freshman talents in the class and a guy who can make an immediate impact for the Irish.
Dylan Edwards – Running Back, Colorado
The recruiting power of Deion Sanders showed up immediately when he took the job earlier this year. Since then Coach Prime has recruited multiple four star recruits including Dylan Edwards, who was highly recruited across the country.
Edwards played high school football for the Derby Panthers in Kansas. He had over 600 carries in his high school career, posting 6,426 rushing yards and 95 touchdowns, yes 95. In the 36 high school games he played, he had 100+ rushing yards in 32 of them.
The talented back had seven receiving touchdowns in his high school career, three return touchdowns and arrived at Colorado with 7,944 all-purpose yards and a total of 108 touchdowns.
Edwards chose Colorado over Notre Dame, Oklahoma and Kansas State, and is one of the biggest names in Coach Prime’s freshman class this coming season.
2023-2024 CFB Season Opportunity
Jeremiyah Love
Notre Dame’s run game last season was via committee. Three backs all had 100+ carries with the max being Logan Diggs with 165, closely followed by Audric Estime with 156.
Diggs transferred to LSU leaving Estine to be the lead back this season at Notre Dame, but behind him there are plenty of carries up for grabs. Diggs vacated over 160 carries from last season, and former running back Chris Tyree has been converted to a slot receiver for the Irish, leaving another 100 carries on the table.
The Irish have two redshirt freshmen from last season on the roster in both Jadarian Price and Gi’Bran Payne, as well as senior transfer Devyn Ford, so it’s not a clear path for Jeremiyah Love, but certainly a group he can compete with.
Notre Dame fans were excited about Jadarian Price in particular last season, but a torn achilles in the summer cost him his freshman season. He’s been cleared and will likely be RB2 this season at the very least, leaving some of those reps available in the three spot for the likes of Jeremiyah Love.
Dylan Edwards
Colorado has a completely new roster this season. There are 50 transfers on the roster, a completely new group of receivers, new quarterback and a new running back room.
That means nobody’s place is guaranteed, and while Coach Prime has brought some high level talent with him from Jackson State, nothing appears to be set yet amongst the running backs.
Edwards competition at the position will be transfers Alton McCaskill and Kavosiey Smoke, with the former most likely to challenge for the lead spot.
McCaskill was with the Houston Cougars for the past two seasons and had a breakout year as a freshman in 2021, falling just shy of 1,000 yards rushing with 16 touchdowns. He’s an explosive back with plenty to offer but had to sit out the entire 2022 season due to injury.
Kavosiey Smoke on the other hand is now a college football veteran who has spent the last five seasons at Kentucky. He’s only gone over 100 carries once in those five years and his career high rushing is 615 yards back in 2019.
Edwards should be a top two back and should get into the lineup ahead of Smoke even as a freshman. He has a lot to offer as a receiving back which will appeal to Coach Prime’s offense, and should see significant game time as a result.
Pro’s and Con’s for playing time
Jeremiyah Love
Jeremiyah Love’s speed and versatility could get him on the field as a freshman. There’s a reason he’s a top five recruit in this year’s class, and the Notre Dame running back certainly has the frame to compete early at the college level.
Love arrived on campus at six foot and 190 pounds and the Irish could look to the likes of Love himself and Gi’Bran Payne for some explosiveness this season. In the 2022-2023 campaign Notre Dame struggled to break for big runs, recording zero rushes for over 40 yards throughout the entire season.
This year the group looks a lot stronger and if Price is healthy coming back from the achilles they have certainly upgraded at the position this year. While it might not be a major role, Love’s traits and skills certainly offer something the Irish didn’t have last year.
Dylan Edwards
Everybody is new with that group. It’s an ideal scenario for a young back like Dylan Edwards because he won’t go in behind a guy who had 200+ carries for the Buffs last season.
It’s a new coaching staff, new offense and an entirely new roster. Everybody will earn their place and from what we’ve seen with Coach Prime’s coaching methods he’ll play the guys who deserve the reps the most.
Edwards’ balance jumps out on tape. He can change direction with ease, something multiple times in a single run, and once he puts a foot in the ground and takes off he’s got breakaway speed too. He absorbs contact well and that balance pops up again there when he’s taking hits. There’s a low center of gravity to his game and that seems to really help him ground himself during his runs.
I’d expect to see plenty of McCaskill. He was certainly a hot prospect in his freshman year in Houston and his experience might make him RB1 over Edwards. While that might be true, I’d be very surprised if the freshman wasn’t RB2 this season at the very least.
My concern is general volume for the running backs. Coach Prime didn’t run the football a whole bunch at Jackson State, but that might be because he didn’t really need to.
Last season the two primary backs only scraped over 100 carries a piece and the rushing leader had 463 yards. Those numbers aren’t going to cut it in the PAC 12, so hopefully for the sake of Edwards development we see a little more focus on the run game this coming season in Boulder.
Why draft him in CFB fantasy leagues?
Jeremiyah Love
The Fighting Irish scheme under new offensive coordinator Gerad Parker will likely maintain a run-pass pro style approach. Whether they continue to use their running backs with a committee approach will be revealed during the season, but Parker was hired from within and I doubt he plans to change up that system all that much.
If anything, with the group the Irish now have, their run game could become more significant over the next couple of years which is a great reason to add Jeremiyah Love to your CFB fantasy roster.
You would have to imagine that if Audric Estime has a good year this year he will declare for the draft and forgo his senior season, vacating the number one running back spot for the Irish going into next season.
While that could spring a big opportunity for Jeremiyah Love, the only concern is the ceiling for the amount of work he might get while splitting carries with both Jadarian Prince and Gi’Bran Payne. Both redshirted last year so have years of eligibility left on their tickets, and that could cap Love for the foreseeable.
Dylan Edwards
The Colorado running back has raw talent, work ethic and a presence in the pass game. While the lack of volume for the running backs at Jackson State last season is a slight concern, you could argue that the counter is Edwards’ production as a receiving back.
At five foot eight and 160 pounds he comes in a little undersized, but will get in the weight room at Colorado and add some size before the season.
If you’re playing in a college football devy league, the appeal of having a guy that should be on the field at a high clip for the next three or more seasons is heavy. I could have Edwards in my lineup this season as a freshman and feel good about it, and he’s not getting as much love as he should be right now because there are just so many questions about the Deion Sanders experiment in Colorado.
Stock radar as an NFL prospect
Jeremiyah Love 7%
Jeremiyah Love’s speed and dynamic run ability paired with his contributions as a pass catcher make him the ideal prototype for the modern day NFL. These days NFL teams are typically looking for a guy who can stay on the field and be effective both on the ground and as a passing option, so being able to do that at a high level coming straight out of high school is a big win for Love.
As he develops in college, if he continues on that current trajectory as an offensive weapon he could be a very popular young man by the time he reaches the NFL draft.
Dylan Edwards 4%
Dylan Edwards is going to need to continue to prove his capabilities both as a runner and a pass catcher if he wants to develop into a pro ready running back. He will always have the question mark around his size especially when it comes to the NFL draft. Five foot eight is on the shorter side for an NFL running back.
Austin Ekeler is one of the league’s shorter backs and he’s five foot ten. Maybe Edwards grows a couple of inches in college, we will see.
Outside of his height he’s a lot of fun to watch. He’s got great balance, change of direction and a sense for finding a lane to break out into open space. Instinctually he looks great, and that should help him grow in the college game.