Notre Dame football's mission to fill the void at RB and reconstruct its backfield

It takes a special type of player to draw comparisons to professional football Hall of Famers, and even more of a sensation to earn praise from those legends themselves. For Notre Dame football, Audric Estimé was that caliber of a running back. Coined as the “Baby Bus,” a nickname endorsed by Fighting Irish great and 2015 NFL Hall of Fame inductee, Jerome “The Bus” Bettis, Estimé’s play style loosely emulates that of his predecessor.

A bruiser, the New York native rushed for 1,341 yards and 18 touchdowns during the 2023-24 season, averaging an NCAA-leading 6.4-yards per carry for tailbacks who touched the ball over 195 times (210).

Estimé’s impact on the Notre Dame football offense is reflected by much more than just sheer production in numbers, however. The team’s 2023 Offensive Player of the Year is more than just a downhill runner, considering his versatility as a pass-catcher aided in opening up the field for quarterback Sam Hartman and company all season long.

The tailback’s usage as an underneath receiver kept opposing defenses honest, oftentimes forcing linebackers and corners to press the line of scrimmage, opening up the middle of the field and the outside hash for receivers to exploit. His vision, aside from his acceleration at the second level, is what made Estimé so dominant above all. In 2023 his home-run ability was sparked by his quick decision-making after reading the leverage of blocks in front of him. Estimé’s body control early in his break between the tackles made him such a threat, and such an exciting player.

The reality of it though, is Estimé’s days in gold have been spent after the Denver Broncos selected him with the 147th pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, so Notre Dame will need to search for production elsewhere.

With the loss of star tackle Joe Alt to the NFL Draft, and the recent, unfortunate news regarding the pectoral tear of expected starting tackle Charles Jagusah, Notre Dame is left with big time question marks up front. To make up for the uncertainty in the trenches, head coach Marcus Freeman will rely on the elusivity of his tailback room in the form of two speedsters: Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price.

Love appeared in all 13 games during his freshman season, but the underclassman was limited, averaging 4.6 touches per game during the regular season. He rushed 15 times during Notre Dame’s bowl game against Oregon State when Estimé opted out to declare for the draft. With an inevitable increase in workload during 2024-25 presumably in view, the Irish faithful can expect production out of Love, but there is one tool of his that trumps the rest: speed. His rare agility makes him tough to bring down in space, and a matchup nightmare for man coverage linebackers in the air attack.

Newly appointed offensive coordinator, Mike Denbrock, will make it a priority to utilize Love on the perimeter and in the screen game, as his shiftiness enables him to break tackles and move the chains. Oh, and he was a Missouri Class 5 state champion as a track runner for Christian Brothers Academy during his high school years. He ran a 100-meter event in 10.76 seconds, so man has real south to north talent.

Notre Dame football on a mission for running back

Entering the upcoming season as a redshirt sophomore after missing the entirety of his freshman season with a ruptured achilles, Price profiles as an intelligent runner with very sound footwork to enable him to bounce off smaller tacklers. His slender frame makes him another option in the pass game for transfer quarterback Riley Leonard in the flats, and his blocking ability makes him an intriguing weapon for this offense. With a trio of touchdowns to his name, and an unforgettable Sun Bowl performance in which he racked up 106 scrimmage yards and a score on 13 touches, Price presents himself as a viable candidate for a heavy workload in 2024 and beyond.

It still is unclear which of the two will earn starter touches, but running backs coach Deland McCullough is excited at the prospect of what this new-look backfield can bring to the Fighting Irish identity in 2024-25. “It is a great situation to be in as a coach because you got two guys who are super, super high level,” McCullough said.

Needless to say, Notre Dame will be a completely different team from a year prior in terms of its make-up and the way they will attack their opposition. Regardless, its success will correlate to the production of its offense, and that battle begins up front, and it begins in the backfield.