Jeremiyah Love stated he knew the injury was not serious but stayed down to be checked by trainers.
He returned to the game two series later and scored a touchdown before halftime.
The junior running back finished the game with 103 rushing yards on 16 carries.
SOUTH BEND — Jeremiyah Love, Notre Dame football’s leading rusher, spoke at length after Tuesday’s practice about the injury scare he gave Irish nation in the first quarter of the 28-7 win over Boise State.
“Yeah, not really thinking about everybody else,” Love said with a chuckle. “If I’m really down, you’ll know. I’ll just be out there trying to catch breaths whenever I can and that was just one of those moments, really.“
The junior Heisman Trophy candidate tweaked his left knee on a 7-yard run that set up Notre Dame’s first touchdown, but he knew right away he wasn’t in any real danger. Team trainers attended to him on the field and led him directly to the medical tent for further examination, but Love returned to the game two series later.
Late in the first half, he scored from 4 yards out, giving him nine touchdowns from scrimmage on the year.
“I felt something in my knee, but it wasn’t serious enough for me to stop playing,” he said. “In the moment, I just went down, stayed down, (got) checked out and got back in. … I’ll play through anything unless I really blow some s–t up.”
Jeremiyah Love’s approach to in-the-moment scares
Dion Washington, a 6-foot-2, 305-pound defensive lineman for the Broncos, made the tackle on Love with six minutes left in the quarter.
“I got tackled a little weird,” Love said. “The guy landed on my knee. I didn’t feel any pops or anything like that. It just felt weird in the moment, so I kind of just sat there and held my knee. I was a little tired, too, so I stayed down to get a little break.”
When Irish coach Marcus Freeman gave Love a tap on the rump as trainers helped him to his feet, it was a sign to the home crowd that it was time to exhale.
“Immediately I knew nothing was really wrong,” Love said. “It was just, ‘I’m down. All right, I’m going to stay down.’ Went into the tent, had them check it. It did feel a little bit weird, but checked it, ligaments and everything were straight, so went back out there and played.”
Love carried nine more times for 81 yards over the final three periods. He finished with 103 rushing yards on 16 carries, plus one reception for 11 yards.
The catch came after his injury scare.
“Even in practice sometimes, when I fall, people say I fall like I’m messed up,” he said. “But the whole time I just let myself fall. If I’m falling, I’m just going to tumble or whatever I have to do.”
Love suffered a Grade 2 MCL strain in his right knee in last year’s regular-season finale at USC. Three weeks later, he went 98 yards on his first carry in the College Football Playoff opener against Indiana.
Slumping to the ground or leaving the field could be a self-preservation move, Love said.
“Yeah, limit damage, I guess you could say,” he said. “If I feel like something’s going on or something happened in the moment, I’ll just stop and put somebody else in that can go out there 100% and execute the play.
“If it’s pretty much anything that I feel is iffy, I’ll just go down or I’ll come out. But for the most part I pretty much play through everything unless it’s really, really serious.”
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.
Notre Dame football Jeremiyah Love talks injury scare vs. Boise State
