SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Jeremiyah Love sounded more like someone who should have been in bed than someone who just played a crucial role in Notre Dame’s first College Football Playoff victory.

The seventh-seeded Irish’s leading running back won 27-17 against 10th-seeded Indiana on Friday after suffering a right knee injury that cut short his regular-season finale at USC. He also battled an illness that his father later described on social media as including flu-like symptoms.

But as Indiana’s defense discovered, Love is hard to beat. The dynamic star at the center of Notre Dame’s offense gave the Irish a spark with a 98-yard touchdown run less than five minutes into the game. It provided the first goal of the night for both teams, sent the home crowd at Notre Dame Stadium into a frenzy and gave the Irish (12-1) a lead they never relinquished.

“The opportunity to come into this game and do what I need to do for this team was special,” Love said. “I want to do everything I can for my brothers to help this team be successful.”

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Love took a handoff from Notre Dame’s own end zone after safety Xavier Watts intercepted a pass from Kurtis Rourke near the goal line. He found some daylight on the left side of Notre Dame’s offensive line, with left tackle Anthonie Knapp winning at the point of attack and tight ends Eli Raridon and Cooper Flanagan throwing out defenders to create more space. Indiana linebacker Aiden Fisher made a diving attempt to stop Love from getting through the hole, but it hardly fazed Love.

After breaking the opening, Love turned it into a race down the left sideline, and he doesn’t lose many of those. Although cornerback D’Angelo Ponds began to gain ground on Love as he neared Indiana’s end zone, Love was confident he could make it. Love, who wore a knee brace in practice this week but chose not to wear it in the game, said he was out of breath and gassed at the end of the run.

“I looked up the video board,” Love said. “He had no intention of catching me. I slowed down. I slowed down. I knew I would score.”

Love’s touchdown was the first in the 12-team College Football Playoff era and will be hard to beat in terms of distance on this and many other stages. He broke the College Football Playoff record for longest streak Ezekiel Elliott‘s 85-yard run in a CFP semifinal win over Alabama on January 1, 2015. Love was even there Josh Adams to break the Notre Dame program record for longest rush.

“We know he’s not 100%,” the Notre Dame head coach said Marcus Freeman. “We’re just going to continue to get him healthy. But he showed what he can do in this game. Once he breaks through the third level, it’s hard to catch Jeremiyah Love.”

Irish quarterback Riley Leonard walked into the postgame interview room wearing a T-shirt with a Jeremiyah Love cartoon on it, as if Love were a superhero. The way he blew up the Irish with such a seismic run was bloody heroic.

“Yeah, once he closes the gap, it’s like you go to the sideline and he’s gone,” Leonard said. “We’ve seen it time and time again, but once he gets to secondary school, he’s uncatchable.”

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Love, who had one carry for a loss of one yard before his touchdown run, struggled to break free most of the game. Love finished the game with eight carries for 108 yards and two catches for 18 yards. Notre Dame leaned on fellow running backs Jadarian Price (11 runs for 32 yards) and Leonard (11 runs for 30 yards and a touchdown), which meant a heavier workload than Love.

Indiana’s run defense, which finished the regular season ranked No. 1 in the FBS by allowing just 70.8 yards per game, proved to be quite stingy outside of the long Love run. And yet, Notre Dame’s 35 carries for 193 yards amassed far exceeded Notre Dame’s maximum allowed the previous season: 137 yards against Charlotte on Sept. 21. Notre Dame’s rushing total was so far outside the Indiana norm that it increased IU’s average rushing yards allowed by nearly 10 yards, to 80.2.

“He’s the engine that’s moving this thing in a really positive direction,” Notre Dame’s offensive coordinator said Mike Denbrock. “Every week he seems to find a way to make an explosive play, get over someone and run for 98 yards. What do you want? It’s kind of the dealer’s decision and I’m honored to have him with me.”

Indiana has learned the hard way how quickly love can pack a punch in the gut. On one night, Love may not have been at his best, but he still made the opponent sick.

“I made a simple kind of gapping-out call,” Indiana’s defensive coordinator said Bryant Haines. “I thought about being even more aggressive. I spoke to Aiden Fisher; If you want to attack them, maybe we can get two points here? No, let’s make a nice conservative call.

“You pass a little bit wrong and that thing rips you up in the air for 98 yards and six scores. The margin for error against elite teams is so low.”

Notre Dame will get another chance to prove its elite status when it takes on second-seeded Georgia (11-2), the SEC champions, for the CFP on Jan. 1 (8:45 p.m. EST) in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. Quarterfinals face ESPN). There may still be doubters in the new year, but one thing is certain: Jeremiyah Love is elite.

“I mean, he’s just a crazy athlete,” Leonard said on a night when he broke the Notre Dame record for rushing touchdowns in a season with 15. “Like I said, if we didn’t have a rushing quarterback, how many more. “Touchdowns would this guy have? And he would participate in conversations across the country.

“Of course I think people are starting to realize how special he is.”

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