AUSTIN, Texas — Peter Taaffe saw it early. Little Michael Taaffe, in the second grade, had a look in his eye in his first Pop Warner football practices in the West Lake Hills area of Austin.

Michael was competing against third- and fourth-graders and was already exceedingly competitive — the result of being the youngest of four siblings all involved in youth sports. At the end of practice, when the coaches made the kids run wind sprints and most just wanted to get them over with to go home, Peter noticed his son would shift gears.

“Michael had this look on his face and he was not going to lose. He was going to be first, and his life depended on it,” Peter said, laughing. “I thought, this guy’s wired a little bit differently than everyone else.”

Steve Sarkisian heard about it early. When the Texas coach arrived in Austin in 2021, he admits he didn’t really know freshman Michael Taaffe. Before Sarkisian arrived in Austin, he hadn’t recruited Taaffe at Alabama, as he had some other stars on his current Longhorns team.

But then again, not many the coaches did. Taaffe was a non-scholarship walk-on who endured grueling tryouts just to make it this far. But there was a common thread in the early returns from Sarkisian’s first summer, when he was getting to know his team before coaches could watch player-run workouts.

“Every player would come back, and I’d say, ‘Hey, how’d it go? How was 7-on-7?'” Sarkisian said. “They always would bring up Michael Taaffe. ‘Taaffe got another interception today. Taaffe did this, did that.’ And I’m like, who? I knew him … but I didn’t really know him.”

Sarkisian knows him now, as does the rest of the country. This season, the 6-foot, 195-pound junior defensive back started all 14 games for the Longhorns and was named a second-team All-America by the Associated Press after ranking second on the team with 63 tackles (5.5 for loss) with two interceptions. Taaffe has broken up seven passes, and has two sacks, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. And he has helped Texas — ranked 116th in pass defense last season — turn its secondary into a strength, ranking second nationally in passing yards allowed at 156.9 while allowing just 13.3 points per game.

Taaffe has been a vocal leader, earning a spot on the team’s leadership council before he ever played a game in college. He has been a Texas evangelist, including being the host for Arch Manning‘s recruiting visit, selling him on what it means to be a Longhorn.

“I tried to give him my two cents of why he should come to Texas,” Taaffe said.

“I kept getting in his ear a little bit, and I think the coaches noticed that, so they put me with him…. It was a lot of one-on-one talk, about how are we going to get there?” Taaffe said last year of the visit. “Just me and him, how are we going to bring Texas football to where it needs to be?”

Taaffe has been a big-play star, including grabbing an interception that set up Texas’ touchdown in the 17-7 rivalry-renewing win over Texas A&M that earned the Horns a spot in the SEC championship game and kept their playoff hopes alive.

And he’s been a steadying force, even for corner Jahdae Barron, who won the Thorpe Award as the best defensive back in college football. Barron credits Taaffe with leading the charge — and keeping him in line, joking that he makes Taaffe mad every day in practice.

“Taaffe, he just keeps everybody going, no matter the adversity that we face,” Barron said. “He’s always there just harping on everybody, just making sure we’re staying engaged and mentally focused. That dude is amazing…. He loves us unconditionally, no matter the mistakes we make, no matter if we get on his nerves.”

And Texas will need Taaffe’s versatility Jan. 1 in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals at the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl (1 p.m. ET, ESPN) against Arizona State and its dynamic running back Cam Skattebo, the first FBS player with 1,500 rush yards and 500 receiving yards in a season since 2016.

ON SATURDAY NIGHT, Michael Taaffe sealed Texas’ first-round 38-24 win against Clemson, which was led by old friend and former Austin Westlake teammate Cade Klubnik. With 1:17 left in the fourth quarter and Clemson facing fourth-and-6 on the Texas 26, Taaffe put a big hit on Tigers receiver T.J. Moore, forcing an incompletion and essentially ending the game. He immediately ran to celebrate with Bevo.

It was a moment that Taaffe dreamed of as a kid, when he hoped to become the fifth generation of his family to attend Texas. His grandfather, Eddie Johnson, was an All-American swimmer for the Longhorns in 1957 and made sure Michael was steeped in Longhorn lore.

“He took the family to every game,” Michael’s dad, Peter, said. “We got there two hours before, weren’t allowed to leave during halftime so they could watch the band. Growing up in Texas, that’s just what you study, American history and Texas history. And then for us, you also studied, by proxy, Texas football history.”

Michael grew up watching players like Justin Tucker and Sam Ehlinger star for both his high school and for Texas, hoping to follow that path. He helped lead Westlake to Class 6A state championships in his junior and senior seasons, and had two interceptions of Southlake’s Quinn Ewers (his current teammate and quarterback) in the state title game after the 2020 season.

But Taaffe didn’t have an easy road to high school success. Westlake is a powerhouse, the kind of place where every kid ran competitive wind sprints at the end of second-grade football practice. He was on the lower-level B teams in eighth and ninth grade, then the next year, was on the sophomore team, considered the B team of the junior varsity, according to his high school coach, Todd Dodge.

Between his sophomore and junior years, he grew to about six feet tall and became a starter on varsity. In his final two seasons, he was the defensive MVP of Westlake’s state championship victories: once as a corner and once as a safety.

“I would venture to say that’s the first time that’s ever happened in 6A football history,” Dodge said.

Dodge said Taaffe was “our Travis Hunter,” because he needed him to also play wide receiver once the 2020 playoff run started. Taaffe’s 47-yard catch from Klubnik in the state semifinals set up the winning score against Galena Park North Shore, the No. 4 team in USA Today’s national rankings. Taaffe finished the season with 60 tackles, 5 interceptions, 18 catches for 297 yards with 3 touchdowns, and 19 punt returns for 365 yards.

But his senior year was 2020, and he couldn’t make any college visits because of the pandemic. All he could show coaches was game footage, so he was up against a lack of interest.

“Not only am I an overlooked white defensive back that’s small, but also it was during COVID and I couldn’t show my ability at camps,” he told former Longhorn stars Alex Okafor, Derrick Johnson and Jeremy Hills on the 3rd & Longhorn podcast.

But he did have interest from Ivy League schools, and FCS teams. Finally, in November, he got an FBS offer from Rice, and he committed. Around that same time, Texas had a bye week, and the Taaffe and Ehlinger families, who were close friends, spent the weekend together.

“Why aren’t you trying to go to Texas?” Sam Ehlinger, then the Longhorns’ starting quarterback, asked Taaffe, who said he didn’t even think it was an option.

“You absolutely have the ability, you’ve just got to let them know you want it,” Ehlinger responded.

Weeks later, after his second straight MVP performance in the state championship, he got a call from Texas. It wasn’t a scholarship offer, but a door was opened for a preferred walk-on spot, which doesn’t guarantee anything other than the coaches admitting they know your name. Taaffe bypassed a scholarship from Rice to bet on himself.

For Dodge, Taaffe’s journey is one he’ll use in coaching forever.

“He’s the perfect story,” Dodge said. “When you’re a high school football coach and you’re running a program that starts when they’re in the seventh grade and parents get bent out of shape when their kid’s on the B team when they’re in seventh, eighth or ninth grade, you put a good ol’ story like Michael Taaffe in your pocket and you throw that out there…. I mean if there’s anybody that ever earned themselves a scholarship and deserves one, it’s Michael Taaffe.”

Taaffe was a semifinalist for this year’s Burlsworth Trophy, given to the best player nationally that began his career as a walk-on, which was won by Oregon’s Bryce Boettcher.

Marty Burlsworth, the older brother of the late Brandon Burlsworth, the All-America Arkansas offensive lineman who is the namesake of the award, said Taaffe’s story is even more important this year with the debate around the future of walk-ons in college football.

As part of the House v. NCAA antitrust settlement that brings revenue sharing to college football players, there could be a hard cap on roster sizes, which does not exist now, leading to uncertainty about how many spots there will be for non-scholarship players in the future. The average college football roster currently is limited to 85 scholarships, but most teams have 125 or more players. New restrictions will cap every team’s roster at 105, meaning most teams will have to make cuts. Guess who will be the first to go?

“Walk-ons will always be fan favorites because fans know the struggle, and they love and respect that,” Marty Burlsworth said. “With rosters being so fluid, your walk-ons, for the most part, are the anchor of your team. They’re the fabric of college football. For these guys to be able to have the opportunity to pursue a football career at their dream university is everything. College football needs to keep that.”

IN MARCH 2021, Jackson Coker, one of Taaffe’s best friends and a Westlake team captain who took him under his wing, died in a car accident on the way to a morning workout. In May of that year, another of Taaffe’s best friends, Jake Ehlinger, Sam’s brother and a fellow Texas walk-on, died of an accidental drug overdose when someone gave him a Xanax laced with fentanyl.

The Longhorns went 5-7, and Taaffe never saw the field. He admits it was a difficult year, because aside from the personal struggles, he was making plays in practice but couldn’t improve his spot on the depth chart as scholarship players with stars beside their names in recruiting rankings would get the benefit of the doubt.

But he was where he wanted to be, which made a huge difference. His “why” was always to return Texas to excellence, to be a part of the same type of teams he watched in the stands as a child. And he wanted to honor his friends while doing it. Taaffe wears 16 as a tribute to Coker, and he wore a pocket square with Jake Ehlinger’s No. 48 on it as he walked into Kyle Field when the Longhorns played the Aggies.

In 2022, Taaffe played in 13 games and started against Kansas. The Longhorns improved to 8-5, and shortly before the Alamo Bowl, Sarkisian ended a team meeting by matter-of-factly saying, “One last thing: Michael Taaffe, you’re on scholarship.” The room erupted.

🚨 Scholarship Alert 🚨

Congrats Michael Taaffe, you’re now on scholarship! 🤘 @MichaelTaaffe4 pic.twitter.com/y2MEV3xcRI

— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) December 17, 2022

Last season, he was honorable mention All-Big 12, starting nine games, playing in 14, and helping Texas win a Big 12 championship — its first conference title since 2009 — and make the College Football Playoff. This year, he’s an All-American trying to lead the Longhorns back to a national championship.

“[It’s] crazy to think that I did envision this. I wanted to play for the University of Texas, not just to suit out,” Taaffe said earlier this season. “Texas had their struggles when we grew up and we watched Texas, but I also grew up watching ’09, the national championship [game] against Alabama, watching the ’08 team and how they had all their success, and Colt McCoy. I always envisioned when I came here to play here that that was the goal. That wasn’t just something that would be cool. That was the goal and that was what you worked for.”

Taaffe said he is not sure if he’ll return to school or give the NFL a shot after the season. He said he didn’t come to Texas for any reason other than to try to win a national championship. He’ll decide his future after that.

First, he’ll have to help the Horns get past Arizona State, and he’ll be one of the focal points in stopping Skattebo, who is second nationally in forced broken tackles with 102 and has 1,023 yards after contact this season. He’s also averaging 43 yards per game receiving from Sam Leavitt, and 55% of his receptions have resulted in first downs.

But Sarkisian has confidence in Taaffe, no matter how he got to this point. Texas is a recruiting powerhouse with an NIL budget that rivals all but a handful of teams nationally. The Longhorns can reload with transfers, such as when they added Clemson transfer Andrew Mukuba alongside Taaffe. But Sarkisian can’t get Taaffe out of the lineup. And he doesn’t want to.

“He is a critical component of our defense when he’s on the field,” Sarkisian said. “We play better defense from a communication standpoint, an ability to be on the same accord with the other DBs, with the linebackers, his playmaking ability, his preparation mentally, the physicality that he’s been playing with.”

Sarkisian won’t call Taaffe an overachiever. “We achieve whatever we do,” he said. But he also said Taaffe has been a living example for his team of what can happen when you get an opportunity and you maximize it.

For his Taaffe’s dad, though, all the attention and accolades aside, he just sees his son still running against the wind.

“He just has to win,” Peter Taaffe said. “Like I said, his life depends on it.”

The average time for a shift in ice hockey is between 30 and 45 seconds. It begins when a player steps over the bench and takes the ice, charging up and down the rink at full speed. They throw their body at the puck, opponents and the boards, giving everything they have. When the shift ends, the player returns to the bench, dripping with sweat and exhausted, chest heaving as their lungs work overtime.

An average fan watching a hockey game takes between six and 10 breaths during the length of a hockey shift. A player, however, probably takes closer to 12 to 14 breaths per shift. While nobody in the arena is counting their breaths, there’s no one more attuned to the power of breath than Gunnar Esiason.

Gunnar Esiason isn’t like most hockey players — his ability to complete a shift often depended on how his cystic fibrosis was affecting him that day. Throughout his journey with CF, hockey became a lifeline during some of his darkest moments.

“In some ways, to me there was like some … normalcy that was driven into my life, despite everything I had to manage,” Gunnar told ESPN. “Hockey gave me that opportunity, right? When I was at my sickest, it was sort of like the release from CF.”

Gunnar, son of former Cincinnati Bengals quarterback and broadcasting legend Boomer Esiason, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at 25 months old. His story is chronicled in the latest E60 film, “Second Wind,” which airs on Dec. 24 at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Cystic fibrosis, or CF, is a genetic disorder that causes the body to produce a thick mucus that can plug up the pancreas and lungs, making it extremely difficult to breathe. There are also digestive complications that accompany the diagnosis. Around 40,000 people in the United States and 100,000 people worldwide suffer from the disorder. At the time of Gunnar’s diagnosis, CF patients typically died before reaching adulthood.

There is no cure for cystic fibrosis, but the condition can be treated with daily medications and therapy.

“As I got older, [hockey] was actually kind of like the barometer of my health,” Gunnar said. “I could tell that I was feeling well when I was able to enjoy playing.”

Coming from a notable sports family, Gunnar’s passion and participation were encouraged from an early age — chronic condition be damned.

“My parents were very deliberate in encouraging me to have whatever life I wanted to have,” Gunnar recalled. “When I was playing youth hockey, my dad would be the dad banging on the glass while I was out there on the ice. I remember just having so much fun and thinking, okay, it was worth it.”

During the majority of Gunnar’s hockey career, he was only able to manage shorter shifts than the rest of his teammates, and he would frequently cough and spit up mucus onto the ice. But despite the highs and lows, hockey was always there for him.

“I think the way to look at it … he was able to play hockey, and so it was just kind of like small victories, you know, so he had a great hockey season, it was healthy for him to be out there skating,” said Gunnar’s mother, Cheryl.

While Boomer and Cheryl were exploring treatments for Gunnar’s disorder, Boomer would also take him to New York Rangers games, including playoff games and a Stanley Cup Final during the Rangers’ legendary 1994 run.

“ I just wanted to make sure that he had a fulfilling life, given the fact that we were told that it was going to be somewhat condensed when he was born,” Boomer said.

Outside of his skills on the ice, Gunnar followed his famous dad’s footsteps and joined his high school football team. But despite Gunnar’s passion, Boomer saw something that his son didn’t.

“He knew I was a much better hockey player, so he very candidly told me, ‘You’re not a really good football player,'” Gunnar shared. “Let’s think about hockey season in three or four months, and then let’s think about college in 12 months.”

The hockey passion in the Esiason clan doesn’t stop with Gunnar. His sister, Sydney, is married to NHL player Matt Martin, who’s currently rostered with the crosstown rival New York Islanders.

No matter whom the Esiasons are cheering for, the family has always rooted for Gunnar in his fight with cystic fibrosis. But the trajectory of his battle with CF was never a straight line. While sports remained an important aspect of Gunnar’s life, CF caused him to miss his senior year of high school football.

Gunnar managed to play hockey during college, but his health took a downturn in his early 20s. He took solace in coaching high school hockey at Friends Academy in Locust Valley, New York, where he attended high school, making sure he set goals for himself.

“I wanted to grow participation in the team. I wanted to retain players all through all four years of high school. … So I developed those metrics for myself, and I put every ounce of remaining health that I had into making that vision happen. … And I think that’s how I coped with my CF for a long time.”

As with every phase of Gunnar’s life, hockey played an early role in his relationship with his wife, Darcy.

“Gunnar and I met in 2015, and our first date was a Ranger game,” Darcy told ESPN. “And I grew up in New York, and I played hockey as a kid and was a Ranger fan, so of course, I said yes.” Gunnar even proposed to Darcy while ice skating.

After a few particularly nasty years battling CF, Gunnar entered into a clinical trial in 2018 for a drug called Trikafta, which had received funding from the Boomer Esiason Foundation. Gunnar noticed a change in his breathing and respiratory system overnight but didn’t realize the full impact until he was playing in a recreational hockey game with his dad. In his first shift back on the ice, Gunnar skated for nearly two minutes with ease.

“Everyone was like, what the heck is going on with Gunnar?” he said. “I didn’t cough a single time the entire game. I didn’t spit anything out. I just kept going on the ice for these marathon shifts over and over and over again. Someone like finally built up the courage to ask … ‘what is going on with you?'”

Gunnar said that after the game, he and his dad shared a moment, knowing that Trikafta was really working and that Gunnar’s life had changed forever. In 2019, Trikafta was approved by the FDA, and it has been effective for about 90% of CF patients. The drug has also increased patients’ life expectancy to the mid-70s.

Trikafta has opened up a world of possibilities for Gunnar, who described a conversation he shared with his wife while stuck in traffic on a road trip.

“It was almost like a, ‘What do you wanna be when you grow up?’ question. And it brought back so many different memories from, you know, being a high school football player and then being a high school ice hockey player, and thinking that, maybe being a high school ice hockey coach is my career … Suddenly, my mind turned into a blank whiteboard, and it occurred to me that I could do whatever I wanted.”

Now, Darcy says Gunnar is passing on his love of hockey to his children, Kaspar and Mieke, without the intrusion of cystic fibrosis. “There are CF parents older than us who have kids, have had to bear witness to a little bit more of the struggle. But we’re just so lucky that our kids for now don’t have to see that, that piece of CF, and Daddy’s just Daddy, who will play hockey in the driveway for hours and play the monkey game and throw them over his shoulder and things like that …”

Something as simple as playing hockey in the driveway, or as complicated as having a family, once seemed impossible for Gunnar. But now, he and his dad Boomer can share in the joys — and pains — of parenting and grandparenting.

 ”It’s been awesome for me, but I think it’s been even more special to see how my dad looks at my son when we play. I think for him, this is my opinion … he must feel like … there’s a little boy in his life now who has a body that works and gets to use it as he wants, without anything holding him back. And it’s like, you can see the twinkle in his eye in some ways.”

Gunnar is still playing recreational hockey, coaching a high school team, rooting for the Rangers, and taking on life with the passion and resilience that’s always carried him. What’s next? Coaching his kids, someday.

“Gunnar’s always the dad who’s down to do everything, and he can’t wait to coach,” Darcy says. “I don’t know if there’s anyone else who’s more excited for a 5:00 a.m. mites hockey practice on a Saturday than Gunnar.”

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — When Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love stepped to the podium late Friday night, he could barely speak.

“I probably sound pretty terrible,” Love said.

After weeks of working his way back from a knee injury sustained in the Fighting Irish’s regular-season finale at USC, Love was hit with flu-like symptoms before a College Football Playoff first-round matchup against visiting Indiana. He spent the days before kickoff working with the athletic training staff and staying as hydrated as possible, even on a frigid game night. Notre Dame running backs coach Deland McCullough didn’t know if Love could impact the game the longer it went on.

Turns out, he needed just one touch.

Despite a voice reduced to a whisper, Love delivered the first earsplitting play of the 12-team College Football Playoff era, a 98-yard touchdown run barely four minutes in that propelled No. 7 seed Notre Dame to its first-ever CFP win. He recorded the longest play in CFP history — by 13 yards — as well as the longest by an FBS player this season, registered the longest play Indiana had ever allowed and tied Fighting Irish running back Josh Adams (2015) for the longest rush in team history.

The run also added to a growing library of highlights for Love, whose hurdles, jukes and blistering speed have made him the main attraction on a Notre Dame team that will face No. 2 seed Georgia in the Allstate Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1 (8:45 p.m. ET, ESPN) for the CFP quarterfinals.

Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock called Love the “engine that kind of sparks this thing.” When quarterback Riley Leonard took the podium Friday, he wore a Jeremiyah Love T-shirt.

“I’ve always been a playmaker,” Love told ESPN on Monday. “My first-ever touch in football, when I was like 6 or 5, I scored a touchdown. My team has always relied on me to make big plays and make spectacular plays.

“I’ve always been the one.”

His combustible skill has been there from the start, but at Notre Dame, a quiet kid has found his voice — even speaking to “College GameDay” from the field before Friday’s game. The 6-foot, 210-pound Love also has built up his body and mind to become a more complete running back.

Can the speedy sophomore from St. Louis carry Notre Dame to its first national title since 1988?

From their seats in the parents’ section at Notre Dame Stadium on Friday, L’Tyona and Jason Love sensed their son was about to do something special.

“I’m usually able to call it,” L’Tyona said. “I’m like, ‘What if he went all the way?'”

“We’re used to seeing him do magnificent and crazy stuff,” Jason added. “We just hold our breath.”

Notre Dame had taken over at its own 2-yard line following a chaotic start to the game that included interceptions by each team. Love took the ball and raced through a hole cleared by linemen Billy Schrauth and Anthonie Knapp and tight end Cooper Flanagan.

In an instant, he zoomed past Indiana’s All-Big Ten cornerback D’Angelo Ponds. The Hoosiers’ other cornerback, Jamari Sharpe, took a poor angle toward Love, crossing in front of Ponds. But it didn’t matter. When Love gets into the open field, that’s a wrap.

“We have a saying: No cut’s the best cut,” McCullough said. “In that case, based on where the read went, no cut was the best cut. As soon as he got vertical on the sideline, he wasn’t going to get caught.”

Love’s own motto might be: No touch like the first one.

His first carry in peewee football went for a 90-yard touchdown.

After being slowed by a groin injury in the summer before his junior year at St. Louis’ Christian Brothers College High School, Love wasn’t expected to play in the opener against area powerhouse East St. Louis. On a sweltering night, Love told coach Scott Pingel, “Put me in.” The back’s first carry came on an outside counter play to the sideline. He slipped away from one defender and juked two others for a long touchdown.

“It was electric,” Jason Love said. “He sucked the air out of the whole stadium.”

Love’s run against East St. Louis stands out for Pingel, as do the five touchdowns (three rushing, two receiving) he had in the state championship at the University of Missouri’s Faurot Field. But Pingel also remembers a short gain by Love in the state semifinal when both opposing defensive tackles went unblocked.

“His ability to do things in small spaces, you have to slow the tape down to say, ‘Wow that’s amazing,'” Pingel said. “As a coach, I love his 3-yard runs. He always falls forward.”

Love uses different ways to get by defenders, including going over them. At New York’s Yankee Stadium on Nov. 23, he caught a short pass from Leonard and hurdled Army’s Donavon Platt for a 6-yard touchdown.

A week later, at USC, Love caught another short pass from Leonard then skied over USC’s Kamari Ramsey for a nice gain up the sideline. Even on a going-nowhere run against Indiana, Love stiff-armed a defender then tried the hurdle before being dropped for a loss.

“I have a lot of confidence to just try things out or do things that I want on the field,” Love said. “Last game, I wanted to hurdle somebody, so I was like, ‘F— it, let me try to hurdle,’ even though there were people behind him. Me playing with that freeness to be able do whatever I want to do has allowed me to make more explosive plays happen when the right look is there.”

Love has a track background. He won a state high school 100-meter title with a time of 10.76 seconds. But he never ran hurdles.

In high school football, hurdling is penalized.

“It resembles a hurdle, but I see long jumping,” James Gillespie, who coached Love in track at Christian Brothers, said of Love’s football aerials. “Especially the one he did against USC, if you look at that, he’s jumping off the left foot, which is what he did for us. I thought, ‘Long jump.’ The step, the cycle, hitch and a half, yeah, definitely.”

Love long jumped more than 21 feet in high school, and Gillespie thinks he could have gotten to 24 or 25. Like many who saw Love develop, Gillespie watched the run against Indiana with excitement but not surprise. As soon as Love turned the corner, Gillespie knew Love was gone, he said, “Unless Deion Sanders came out of retirement.”

Although Love’s recent wizardry has brought a bigger spotlight to his game, his favorite run of the season came late in the season opener at Texas A&M. After the two-minute timeout with the game tied at 13, Love waited for Schrauth and Flanagan to pull, scooted through the hole then shrugged off two defenders for a 21-yard touchdown — the game winner.

“Everything was on the line, really close game, two minutes left,” Love said. “The tight end made an amazing block, offensive line did their job, the receivers did their job. So, that play really was a culmination of teamwork and trusting each other and playing for each other. I was able to make an explosive play because everybody did their job.

“When that happens, great things happen.”

McCullough pinpoints the moment he felt Notre Dame would prevail in a competitive recruitment for Love. He had visited Love’s home in north St. Louis. Before entering Love’s room, McCullough saw shoes placed neatly outside on a mat.

“I said, ‘Hey, do I need to take my shoes off before I come in?'” McCullough said. “He said, ‘Nah, coach, I’m going to let you just go ahead and walk in.’ He took his own shoes off but let me walk in with mine on. I thought, ‘I must be in good shape.'”

The lined-up shoes and overall orderliness are central to Love’s personality. The gloves and towels in his Notre Dame locker are stacked perfectly. And if anyone removes Love’s athletic tape cutter, “You better put it back in the same spot, the same way,” said fellow Fighting Irish running back Aneyas Williams.

Growing up, Love would become upset when L’Tyona (pronounced Latonya) picked out his clothes for school because he wanted them a certain way. The same applied to food.

“Symmetry,” Jason Love said. “It has to be 1, 2, 3. It can’t be 1, 2, 4. It has to be in order.”

Jeremiyah was recruited by all the big-time programs, eventually narrowing his list to Texas A&M, Michigan, Oregon and Notre Dame and ultimately to Texas A&M and Notre Dame. His parents said Notre Dame’s smaller environment, along with Jeremiyah’s connection to McCullough, sealed the deal.

Still, they worried about Jeremiyah sharing a room and adjusting to being away from home.

“He’s so big on his space,” L’Tyona said. “It would interrupt his peace. We were a little worried at first when he got to Notre Dame, but he started to adjust.”

Williams also grew up in Missouri and first met Love at a state track meet. He could barely get a word out of Love. When they reunited at another track meet, Love said a little more.

Soon after Williams got to Notre Dame, though, the two grew closer.

“He was a big teacher for me,” Williams said. “He’s not a big talker, but a big thing for me was just working with him. Every day after practice, it’d be me and him on the Jugs machine, catching balls. There’s a lot about J-Love that you might not get to see, but he has a good personality.”

L’Tyona and Jason, both retired sergeants with the St. Louis Police Department, have seen their son grow at Notre Dame. When Jeremiyah was named offensive player of the year at Notre Dame’s annual Echoes Awards banquet, he delivered a “powerful message,” Williams said.

Before Friday’s game, he joked with the “College GameDay” crew about keeping his shirt on for warmups.

Jeremiyah and Jason are even working on a comic book that will chronicle Jeremiyah’s journey to be called “Jeremonstar” or “Yah Love.”

“He had to come out of his shell,” Jason said. “They always said, ‘Don’t change him. He’ll change the world.'”

Love’s “perfectionist” tendencies, as McCullough calls them, have their benefits on the football field. Highlight plays have always come easily for Love, who could dunk a basketball as an eighth grader and almost always was faster and more athletic than his peers.

But at Notre Dame, he has shown the refined focus to work toward becoming a total running back. He added about 20 pounds of what McCullough calls “physical armor” after his freshman season, when he averaged 5.4 yards per carry behind bruising back Audric Estime. Some college teams wanted Love to play cornerback or wide receiver coming out of high school, and he has improved in the slot, practicing with the receivers at times this spring to better understand coverages. He has tripled his receptions total from last season to 24, which ranks fourth on the team.

Love also has improved in the unflashy areas of his position.

“He’s really good in pass protection already,” McCullough said. “He’s a really good route runner. He’s improved his detail a whole lot as far as his run reads are concerned. He was an 88%, 89% guy in run reads. He’s at a 94%, 95% run read clip now. So, just him embracing all of the small details of being an upper-end player, because we know what his goal is.

“I’ve been there, I coached there, so I know what the NFL is about.”

McCullough, who coached with the Kansas City Chiefs as well as with college programs including USC and Indiana, has seen elements of Love’s game in previous protégés Tevin Coleman and Ronald Jones and even power backs such as Estime and Jordan Howard. The good news for Notre Dame is that it will have at least another full season with Love, who could be a Heisman Trophy contender in 2025 after leading the team with 1,057 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns this season.

But the immediate task is the CFP and a national title. He likely will top the scouting report for Georgia’s defense, which ranks 36th nationally against the run and has allowed a 100-yard rusher in four games this season. The Bulldogs have allowed 170 rushing yards or more five times. And they struggled during a two-week stretch against UMass (226 yards, two touchdowns) and Georgia Tech (260 yards, three touchdowns) before throttling Texas’ ground game for the second time this season in the SEC championship game.

“That was only 60 percent of Jeremiyah Love,” Jason said of his son’s performance against Indiana.

Love should be at or near full strength against Georgia. He’s the only FBS running back with a rushing touchdown in every game this season, also a Notre Dame record. Love has five 100-yard rushing performances and two other outings with more than 90 yards despite never eclipsing 16 carries in a game this fall.

“I play with confidence. I play free,” he said. “I’ve just been blessed with great ability. Whenever I’m able to make an explosive or do anything and help this team get stuff going, man, I just feel great.”