Jeremiyah Love blasts 'scared' ADs planning to boycott Notre Dame

Since Notre Dame was left out of the College Football Playoff and then backed out of the Pop-Tarts Bowl, there have been an awful lot of takes about how the Fighting Irish should be "punished." Among those takes was a report alleging that some Power 4 athletic directors might "boycott" Marcus Freeman's squad and refuse to schedule them.

More than that, Yahoo! Sports insider Dan Wolken claimed that teams that had already scheduled the Irish would back out of the agreement. He pointed to the potential death of the USC rivalry. He then claimed that Texas might find a way to get out of its home-and-home with Notre Dame in 2028 and 2029.

Until a school cancels one of these series, it's impossible to know if Wolken's report is accurate. But Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love wants everyone to know that he's got a message for any AD that might decide to do what Wolken described.

How Notre Dame is reframing the scheduling backlash narrative

"They're scared to play us. They don't want to play Notre Dame because we're Notre Dame. You’re leaving us out of your schedule, it’s not a good look. Why not play us? That’s how I think about it," Love said Friday when asked about the threat of avoiding Notre Dame in the future, according to Mike Berardino of NDInsider.com.

Love comments are more than just bluster. It's a chess move from the Heisman finalist and Doak Walker Award winner.

Before any athletic directors decide to force-feed the Fighting Irish their "medicine," Love has already fired a shot across the bow. He's shifted the narrative; should anyone follow through.

Love has put it in everyone's mind that if anyone cancels a series with Notre Dame, it's not about teaching the Irish a lesson. Instead, there's already an argument out there that it's about being scared to play ND. And in the court of public opinion, it's the argument that might make schools like USC or Texas rethink their actions.