SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love appreciates hearing his name in the Heisman Trophy conversation.
He's just focused on bigger goals such as helping the ninth-ranked Fighting Irish stay in position for a second straight playoff berth and winning the school's first national championship since 1988.
“I try to keep everything just straight as possible,” he said. “I definitely see stuff, and it’s good to see. That’s also a tribute — the buzz — to us doing good as a program in general, because at end of the day, this is a team sport, and the performances are not really just because of me. It's because the whole team is playing complementary football. So it’s great to see, but we have to finish the rest of the season.”
Love certainly has done his part to help Notre Dame (8-2, No. 9 CFP) rebound from two straight losses to start the season by winning eight straight to put the Irish back in the postseason debate.
He ranks third in the Football Bowl Subdivision with 113.5 yards rushing per game, 17 total touchdowns and 1,409 scrimmage yards — the only player to appear in the top three of each category. He's also the first player in Notre Dame’s storied history to produce multiple TD runs of 90 or more yards, a 98-yarder against Indiana in the first round of last year's playoffs and a 94-yarder against Boston College earlier this season.
But Love's impact goes far beyond numbers.
He's padded his Heisman resume with a series of highlights displaying an uncanny ability to maintain his balance while hurdling defenders, spinning out of tackles or rolling off opponents. He's also managed to team up with Jadarian Price to create one of this season's top running back duos, a combination that has helped first-time starter CJ Carr emerge as one of the nation's best young quarterbacks.
Coach Marcus Freeman thinks Love has improved as both a receiver and pass blocker, making him a more complete running back.
“He’s as special of a football player as I’ve been around,” Freeman said. “Every time he has the ball in his hands, he can make something positive happen. He is as dangerous of an offensive weapon that I’ve probably been around.”
The question is how special do the Heisman voters think Love is?
In a sport increasingly dominated by high scores and aerial attacks, Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza and Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin remain the betting favorites ahead of the Dec. 13 trophy presentation in New York.
The last two running backs to win the Heisman both played at Alabama, Derrick Henry in 2015 and Mark Ingram II in 2009. The last one before that was Reggie Bush of Southern California in 2005. The most recent of Notre Dame's seven Heisman winners was receiver Tim Brown in 1987 and only Irish running back has captured college football's most prestigious award — Johnny Lattner in 1953.
“I’m the type of guy that wants to break off a touchdown run every single play,” Love said. “So if I’m to consistently get one, two to three-yard gains, it’s just not what I want. But I have made myself OK with getting the hard yards and waiting for that one opportunity to hurt the defense by breaking off a long run.”
It's also unclear how much longer he'll be doing that for the Irish, considering he's widely regarded as a top-five talent in the upcoming NFL draft.
Love still has some unfinished business to take care of first. Wins over struggling Syracuse (3-7) on Saturday and at Stanford to finish the season may be enough to earn one of the coveted 12 playoff spots and give Notre Dame an opportunity to play its way back to the national championship game — and this time win it — regardless of what happens in New York.
“I think Jeremiyah Love would be the first to tell you that winning a game is way more important than that individual award,” Freeman added. “He’s going to do everything in his power to make sure we prepare to win a game, and if the Heisman Trophy comes with it, then great. That’s amazing.”
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Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love (4) gets past Pittsburgh defensive back Kavir Bains (23) en route to a 65-yard touchdown run during the first half of an NCAA college football game in Pittsburgh, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love (4) gets past Pittsburgh linebacker Kyle Louis (9) en route to a 65-yard touchdown run during the first half of an NCAA college football game in Pittsburgh, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran hit a tanker off the coast of Qatar and Kuwait International Airport early Wednesday as Tehran remained unrelenting in its attacks on its Gulf Arab neighbors, while acknowledging for the first time that Washington had been in direct contact about a possible ceasefire.
Israel sounded warnings of incoming fire from both Yemen and Iran, while launching its own attacks in Lebanon that killed at least five people.
An airstrike on Tehran appeared to have hit the former U.S. Embassy compound, which has been controlled by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard since the 1979 hostage crisis. Witnesses said buildings outside the massive compound had their windows blown out and that it appears the strike happened inside the walled facility.
With no sign of the war abating and more than 3,000 lives already lost, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested it could be over within two weeks even as he moved to bring thousands more troops to the region.
Trump has been under growing pressure to end the war as Iran’s grip on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and its attacks on regional energy infrastructure have sent gas prices skyrocketing to their highest level since 2022 and caused broad stock market fluctuations.
Iran throttled ship traffic through the strait, which leads from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, after it was attacked by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28. In peacetime, a fifth of the world’s oil transits the strait and the spot price of Brent crude, the international standard, is up more than 40% since the start of the war, trading at more than $104 a barrel.
The U.S. has presented Iran with a 15-point plan aimed at bringing about a ceasefire, which includes a demand for the strait to be reopened. Iran’s own five-point response includes it retaining sovereignty over the waterway, and Trump on Tuesday suggested that the war could be brought to an end even with Iran still controlling the strait.
The U.S. “will not have anything to do with” what happens in the Strait of Hormuz, instead telling reporters that the responsibility for keeping the vital waterway open would belong with countries that rely on it.
“That’s not for us. That’ll be for France. That’ll be for whoever’s using the strait,” Trump said.
It was not clear why Trump brought up France, since Europe receives very little oil shipped through the strait, with most going to Asian countries. The president plans a prime-time address on Wednesday.
Trump, who has vacillated between insisting there is progress in diplomatic talks with Iran and threatening to widen the war, added that the U.S. is “finishing the job” in Iran and predicted it will be “maybe two weeks, maybe a couple of days longer to do the job.”
Trump has warned that if a ceasefire is not reached “shortly,” and if the strait is not reopened, the U.S. would broaden its offensive, including by attacking the Kharg Island oil export hub and possibly desalination plants.
Thousands of Marines and paratroopers have been ordered to the region in possible preparation for an assault in Kharg, though to reach the island by ship would mean transiting the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, which Iran has threatened to mine.
In an interview with pan-Arab broadcaster Al Jazeera, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi acknowledged receiving direct messages from U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff. He insisted, however, that there were no direct negotiations and said Iran has no faith that talks with the U.S. could yield any results, saying “the trust level is at zero.”
He warned against any attempt to launch a ground offensive, saying “we are waiting for them.”
“We know very well how to defend ourselves,” Araghchi said.
Early Wednesday a tanker off the coast of Qatar was hit with a projectile, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. The crew was reportedly unharmed. A fully-loaded Kuwaiti oil tanker came under attack off Dubai the day before, one of more than 20 ships attacked by Iran during the war.
Bahrain sounded two alerts for incoming missiles, and said an Iranian attack had caused a fire at a business facility.
In Kuwait, the state-run KUNA news agency said a drone had hit a fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport, sparking a “large fire” that crews were working to control.
Two drones were also intercepted in Saudi Arabia, which has come under repeated Iranian attack, and air raid sirens sounded in Israel though there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
In Iran, Israel said it had hit a plant producing fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, to allegedly be used in a chemical weapons program. Iran acknowledged the strike on Tofigh Daru factory, but insisted it only supplied “hospital drugs” used for medical purposes.
The strike happened Tuesday, both the Israelis and the Iranians said.
Hospitals extensively use fentanyl to treat severe pain. But a small amount of the drug can be fatal.
Both Israel and the United States have alleged in recent years that Iran was experimenting with fentanyl in munitions.
In Beirut, at least five people were killed in an Israeli strike on a Beirut neighborhood. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said another 21 people were wounded.
Israel invaded southern Lebanon after the Iran-linked Hezbollah militant group began launching missiles into northern Israel days after the outbreak of the wider war. Many Lebanese fear another prolonged military occupation.
More than 1,200 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 1 million displaced, according to authorities. Ten Israeli soldiers have also died there.
In Iran, authorities say more than 1,900 people have been killed, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel.
Since the Iran war began, 13 U.S. service members have been killed and 348 wounded, six seriously, according to U.S. Central Command.
More than two dozen people have died in Gulf states and the occupied West Bank.
Rising reported from Bangkok. AP writer Giovanna Dell’Orto in Miami, Florida contributed to this report.
Firefighters and rescue workers work at the site of Israeli airstrikes, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A firefighter extinguishes a car at the site of Israeli airstrikes, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Israel's rescue teams and residents take shelter as sirens sounds next to a site struck by an Iranian missile in Bnei Brak, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A police vehicle is seen through a shattered windshield at the site of an Israeli strike in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Two men ride scooters past charred debris at the site of an Israeli strike in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
