More All-American honors come in for Notre Dame football players, and “unanimous” is in the air.
The third All-American team that counts toward the “consensus” and “unanimous” selections just came out on Tuesday with the release of the AFCA All-American Team. Both Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love and cornerback Leonard Moore were honored with first team selections on the AFCA team, to go along with their first team selections on the AP and Walter Camp teams.
So — both Leonard Moore and Jeremiyah Love are now Consensus All-Americans, as we await for the last two teams of the indicators, the Sporting News and the FWAA. Notre Dame has the most consensus All-Americans with 113 now, with the Ohio State Buckeyes trailing them with 98. If Moore and Love become Unanaimous All-Americans it would give Notre Dame 41 unanimous selections which would tie them with Alabama for the all-time lead (Ohio State is currently tied with Notre Dame at 38).
Love, Moore, Schrauth Selected as 2025 AFCA All-Americans
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Junior running back Jeremiyah Love and sophomore cornerback Leonard Moore have been named 2025 AFCA First-Team All-Americans, while junior offensive lineman Billy Schrauth was named to the 2025 AFCA All-America Second Team. The AFCA All-America team is one of the five All-America honors that contribute towards consensus and unanimous All-America status.
The AFCA selection marks Love’s and Moore’s third first-team All-America selections thus far from those five teams. Love, the winner of the Doak Walker Award for the best running back in college football and the recipient of the 2025 Disney Spirit Award for the most inspirational figure in college football, was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy, the Walter Camp Player of the Year and the Maxwell Award. Moore was a finalist for the Nagurski Trophy and the Paycom Jim Thorpe Award.
Jeremiyah Love
This season, Love posted 199 rushes for 1,372 yards and 18 touchdowns, adding 27 receptions for 280 yards and three touchdowns. He averaged 6.9 yards per rush on the season. Even more impressive, he did it all while sharing a backfield with fellow running back Jadarian Price, who himself totaled 113 rushes for 674 yards and 11 touchdowns.
Six FBS players rushed for 1,300 yards during the 2025 regular season. Love is the only player on that list who shares the backfield with another running back who has also rushed for at least 600 yards this season.
He was the only player in the nation to rank in the top three in scoring, total touchdowns and yards from scrimmage to conclude the regular season.
Love was the only player in the country to both own more than 1,100 rushing yards on the season and average 6.6 or more yards per carry.
At the end of the regular season, Love continued to rank as one of the most outstanding players in college football, ranking second nationally in scoring (10.5), second in total points (126), second in total touchdowns (21) third in rushing touchdowns (18), fourth in rushing yards (1,372), fifth in rushing yards per game (114.3), fifth in yards per carry (6.89) and fifth in all-purpose yards (137.67).
Love posted eight carries for 171 yards and three touchdowns in the 70-7 win over Syracuse, averaging 21.4 yards per carry. He is just the third player since 1996 to have 170 or more rushing yards and three touchdowns on eight carries or less (Clyde Edwards-Helaire, 11/23/19 vs. Arkansas and Desmond Ridder, 10/24/20 vs. SMU).
In Notre Dame’s 49-20 win over Stanford, Love rushed for a touchdown on Notre Dame’s opening drive, making him Notre Dame’s single-season leader in total touchdowns (21), surpassing the legendary Jerome Bettis’ 20 in 1991. The rushing touchdown was also Love’s 18th of the season on the ground, tying Audric Estimé (2023) for most rushing touchdowns in a single season in Notre Dame history. He is the first player in program history to have multiple seasons with 17 or more rushing touchdowns.
This season, Love was named the Associated Press National Player of the Week and the Doak Walker National Running Back of the Week for his impressive performance against No. 20 USC. Love racked up 228 rushing yards on 24 carries to average 9.5 yards per carry in a 34-24 win over USC in the Jeweled Shillelagh rivalry contest. The 228 rushing yards Love put up against USC are the most for a Notre Dame player in a single game in Notre Dame Stadium’s 513-game history.
Love became the first player in program history to collect two 90-yard rushing touchdowns in a career with a 98-yard effort against Indiana in the College Football Playoff in 2024 and a 94-yard score at Boston College in 2025.
Leonard Moore
Moore, also a semifinalist for the Bednarik Award and the Lott IMPACT Trophy, ended the regular season with five total interceptions through 10 games played, ranking second in the country in interceptions per game (0.5). He also ranked third nationally in total interceptions (5) and eighth nationally in passes defended per game (1.2).
He was first among all starting Power 4 cornerbacks in coverage grade (92.6) and first in defensive grade (92.0) according to Pro Football Focus. Because of his lockdown abilities, Moore was only targeted by opposing quarterbacks on 12.06 percent of coverage snaps in which he was on the field. For every reception he allowed this season, he posted 15.31 coverage snaps.
At the midway point of the 2025 season, Moore had already made a statement, earning seven midseason first-team All-America honors, including by The Associated Press, The Sporting News, CBS Sports, The Athletic, Sports Illustrated, Pro Football Focus and Athlon Sports.
In just 10 games played this season, Moore has posted five interceptions, including a 46-yard pick six. He has posted 12 total passes defended, 31 tackles, seven pass breakups and a forced fumble. With Moore’s help, at the end of the regular season, Notre Dame led the nation in interceptions (tied – 21 total INTs), and ranked fourth in turnover margin (1.08), ninth in team sacks (2.92), 11th in rushing defense (99.3), 13th in scoring defense (17.6) and 13th in team passing efficiency defense (108.80).
Moore’s fourth interception of the season came on a 46-yard pick six in Notre Dame’s 70-7 win over Syracuse. Moore’s touchdown, the first of his career, put the Irish up 21-0 before the offense even had a chance to take the field.
Two of Moore’s interceptions came in the same game vs. Boise State, a career-best performance. For his performance that week, he was named the Walter Camp FBS Defensive Player of the Week and the Paycom Jim Thorpe Award Defensive Back of the Week. He became the first Notre Dame player to have multiple interceptions in the same game since 2023 (Xavier Watts).
The 2024 FWAA Freshman Defensive Player of the Year, Moore entered the 2025 season with several accolades, as he was named to the Preseason All-America First Team lists by Walter Camp, The Sporting News, the Associated Press, The Athletic, ESPN, CBS Sports, Athlon Sports and Phil Steele. He was been named to watch lists for the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, Paycom Jim Thorpe Award, Chuck Bednarik Award and Lott IMPACT Trophy.
Billy Schrauth
A 2025 team captain, Schrauth was one of the most dominant offensive linemen in the country this season, even while just playing in seven games this season before being sidelined by an injury.
Schrauth and the offensive line helped pave the way for one of the most explosive offenses in the country. In 2025, Notre Dame’s offensive line was a cohesive, productive unit. The Irish finished the regular season ranked fifth nationally in scoring offense (41.8), fifth in team passing efficiency (168.61), 10th in passing yards per completion (14.11), 17th in passes had intercepted (6), 18th in total offense (458.5), 18th in third down conversion percentage (0.481), 18th in rushing offense (203.4) and 20th in completion percentage (0.672).
The line blocked for Love in his Heisman-finalist and Doak Walker-winning season, as well as fellow running back Jadarian Price, who rushed 113 times for 674 yards and 11 touchdowns, with six receptions for 87 yards and two touchdowns. Schrauth and the offensive line protected freshman quarterback CJ Carr effectively, allowing him to rank fifth nationally in passing efficiency (168.1), sixth in yards per pass attempt (9.35) and sixth in passing yards per completion (14.06) at the end of the regular season.
Schrauth’s game of the season came in the 34-24 win over No. 20 USC, imposing his will as he and the Irish line paved the way for 306 Notre Dame rushing yards on the evening, against a defense that entered the game allowing just 108.5 rushing yards per game.
Notre Dame’s season-high 306 rushing yards were the most USC has given up in a game all season to that point. The Irish had 182 of those in the first half, which were 11 more rushing yards than USC had given up in a game all season.
The Irish far and away outpaced the average production allowed by USC’s defense this season. With 442 total yards of offense on the evening, Notre Dame totaled nearly 90 yards over USC’s total defense average entering the evening. Even more notably, Notre Dame’s 306 rushing yards is nearly 200 yards over USC’s average rushing defense entering the game (108.5).
Category: General Sports
