Jeremiyah Love is not shy, nor does he seem worried about providing bulletin board material for the Longhorns.

Ahead of the Cotton Bowl, the standout Notre Dame running back said the Irish are hoping that Ohio State beats Texas to advance to the College Football Playoff National Championship. After beating Penn State on Thursday night, Notre Dame awaits the winner.

“We want to play Ohio State. We lost to them last year in a game we should have won,” Love told On3’s Andy Staples. “I feel like Ohio State is better than Texas. I want to play the best and win.”

Early on during the 2023 season, Ohio State defeated Notre Dame 17-14 in South Bend thanks to a 1-yard touchdown run from Chip Trayanum with 1 second remaining in the game.

The Buckeyes drove 65 yards in 85 seconds to secure the walk-off win that evening. Ohio State quarterback Kyle McCord had a 23-yard completion on third-and-10 early in the drive, a fourth-and-7 conversion, and a third-and-19 conversion to set up Trayanum’s score in the closing seconds.

If Ohio State does advance to the national title game, many of the same faces will take the field again for the 2 teams. TreVeyon Henderson had 104 yards on 14 carries for the Buckeyes that day. Emeka Egbuka caught 7 balls for 96 yards. Mitchell Evans and Jaden Greathouse combined for 9 receptions for 115 yards while Love ran 8 times for 57 yards.

Notre Dame had a chance late in the fourth quarter to run out the clock and kill the game, and it opened the drive with promise, but a 5-yard loss from Sam Hartman and an incompletion with 2:28 to play derailed things and forced a punt from the Notre Dame 27.

The Irish defense couldn’t get off the field on the ensuing possession and Ohio State coach Ryan Day got his chance to clap back at Lou Holtz. It’s unclear if Holtz has a preference on Notre Dame’s title game opponent.

According to the lookahead lines posted by FanDuel, Notre Dame would be a 3.5-point underdog against Texas in the national title. It would be a 9.5-point underdog against the Buckeyes.