Freeman: Star Notre Dame RB ‘good to go’ for Orange Bowl vs. Penn State

Notre Dame appears poised to have its top offensive weapon ready to go for the Orange Bowl against Penn State football. Speaking at a joint press conference on Wednesday morning, the Fighting Irish head coach expressed that sophomore running back Jeremiyah Love is expected to play in Thursday’s College Football Playoff Semifinal.

“J Love – Jeremiyah – has had a great week of practice,” Freeman said. “We have to be smart in terms of how much we’re asking him to do in practice. We’ve got to get him ready for the game.

“But he’s confident. And nobody, I think, feels 100 percent right now. We’re in week, I think, 15 or game 15-16, maybe for you. Nobody feels 100 percent. But J Love will be good to go.”

Love suffered a right leg injury in November’s regular-season finale against USC. He played in the Irish’s first two playoff matchups, but he had his 13-game streak with a rushing touchdown broken in last week’s Sugar Bowl against Georgia.

The former top-100 prospect has 1,076 yards and 16 rushing scores this season. On Sunday, Love was seen going through Notre Dame’s practice with a knee brace.

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“Subtle changes that you can make to your practices or to your lifting schedule that can keep the guys as fresh and healthy as possible,” James Franklin said about managing the length of the season. “I think that’s a really important piece in all of this.

“I think another thing that I would say is how important depth and development in your program is. You’ve got to be willing to play guys, and that’s been something that we’ve done all the way back since my time at Vanderbilt, trying to create depth by playing guys.

“Some assistants on your staff are better at it than others. You talk about it, and some guys won’t rotate them in the way you want, and you’ve got to have tougher.”

Penn State football and Notre Dame kick off from Hard Rock Stadium at 7:30 p.m. The Orange Bowl will be broadcast on ESPN.

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