Jeremiyah Love shares the main motivational tool Marcus Freeman is using with Notre Dame

Notre Dame has been fighting for its College Football Playoff life all season long after losing two games right off the bat against Miami and Texas A&M. Since then, the Irish's margin for error has been extremely thin, as another loss would dash away any hope of making it back to the playoff and hopefully, back to the National Championship game.

When Jeremiyah Love joined Pat McAfee on "The Pat McAfee Show" this week, the star running back shared a lot about Notre Dame's season. He shared about how much his quarterback CJ Carr has improved, and how the Irish's mindset has been different this season vs. last season.

Love also shared about what Marcus Freeman is using as his main motivator for his team, especially when it comes to getting back to the College Football Playoffs.

Marcus Freeman uses early season losses to keep his team motivated to get to the CFP

The first two games on Notre Dame's schedule were certainly their toughest for the 2025 season, but no one expected them to lose both of them. The most anyone expected was that the Fighting Irish would drop maybe one, or win both, but certainly not lose both.

It turns out, though, that those two losses could have been a blessing for the Fighting Irish. It has forced this team to have to play at a top level, and right now, they are looking like one of the scariest teams in college football.

Head coach Marcus Freeman has used those losses as the biggest motivator for this team to keep the College Football Playoff dream alive.

"Coach Freeman reminds us every week about the pain of losing those two games early in the season," Love said.

Notre Dame's margin of error has been so thin that it has forced this team, the defense in particular, to be at the top of its game. Chris Ash's defense looked abysmal at the start of the season, but they have since picked it up and really become a unit that is hard to get past.