(Photo Courtesy of the College Football Playoff)

“I’m good. I’m 100 percent. I’m ready to go.”

Those words straight from the mouth of Notre Dame superstar and running back Jeremiyah Love who declared himself “100 percent” for Monday night’s national championship game against Ohio State.

Love, who has been battling a knee injury, worked out without a brace during the portion of practice that was open to the media Saturday in Atlanta.

“I’m feeling a whole lot better than I was last game,” Love explains. “Been in the training room with my trainers, Rob [Hunt], [Mike] Bean, Courtney [McNamara], Joe [Zimmerman]. They’ve been doing a great job and helping me prepare. Mentally I’m feeling great. Got a lot of confidence in myself. Got a lot of confidence in my knee. I’m just ready to go. I’m ready to ball out and ready to go win it all with this team.”

Love was banged up in the regular season finale against USC. He got back up to speed for the first playoff game against Indiana, scoring on a 98 yard touchdown run. He also rested a ton in that game in part because he was also battling the flu. He re-injured his knee in the Sugar Bowl win over Georgia on January 2nd. With just seven days between the Sugar Bowl and the Orange Bowl, fans weren’t sure what to expect from him against Penn State. He rushed for just 10 yards in the first half.

“It took me a little minute to warm up, to build up more confidence in my knee,” Love says. “Going into the game, I didn’t really feel at my optimal level how I wanted to feel, but as I started to play and get more loose, everything started to loosen up.”

Love then came alive in the 2nd half and lifted Notre Dame to victory with a physical and punishing 2nd, 3rd and 4th effort on a 2 yard touchdown run.

“My mental started to get better,” Love said. “I really say it all clicked for me during the second half of the game. As soon as we came out, we started running the ball. I love physicality. Once I start getting physical, it all just clicked, and the hurdling came, then the touchdown came, just the executing on all three phases came from all my teammates and myself. It was just all a mental thing. Just making sure or believing in myself, believing in my knee, believing all the work that I put in off the field to get right. As far as this week, I’m 100 percent. I’m ready to go. Being warmed up, I’m 100 percent from the start. I’m ready to go out there and compete with my teammates. Shoot, everybody is. Everybody’s ready to compete, execute.”

Love said any soreness he felt after the Orange Bowl game was the same as the soreness you’d feel after any game in the physical sport that is football. He says there was nothing beyond that.

Love spent a countless amount of time during Saturday’s Media Day pledging his gratitude to the Notre Dame football training staff as he was asked about his journey through this knee injury.

“They obviously fitted me for the brace, and I did lots of treatment with Rob, Joe, Courtney,” he continued. “They helped me feel ready mentally and getting ready physically. But Bean got me the brace, and Rob also helped with it a little bit too. They just did the best that they could and poured a lot into me and just made sure that I was cool and felt comfortable with wearing a brace. It was going to be a mental thing because physically they prepared, they got me right, and it was just me mentally making sure that I believed in myself, believed that my knee is strong and all that.”

In the end, Love has elected to play without the brace during games because he feels it limits him. Even while battling the injury, Love has continued to make spectacular plays whether it was the 98 yard touchdown against Indiana, the 2-yard touchdown against Penn State or all the hurdles in between.

Just as many counted out how effective Love could be over the past few games, now many are counting out the Irish from having a shot to win the national championship as eight point underdogs against Ohio State.

“We’re aware of it, but we don’t really care,” Love says. “We’re used to being the underdogs. It’s great. A lot of people aren’t expecting a lot out of us, but we’ve been at this point the whole season. After our loss against NIU, we’ve basically been playing a championship game every week since then. So we’re used to the feeling. We don’t really care. We’re going to go out and play our game, execute the way we need to, and play with each other, play with love.”

Notre Dame faces Ohio State Monday night at 7:30pm in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. It will be broadcast on ESPN.