Status update on two key players for Notre Dame, Penn State ahead of Orange Bowl

Both the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Penn State Nittany Lions entered Thursday’s Orange Bowl matchup — which is doubling as a College Football Playoff semifinal — with injury questions concerning a key player.

Notre Dame entered the day with better clarity about its situation with running back Jeremiyah Love than Penn State did about edge rusher Abdul Carter, but it appears to be good news for both heading into kickoff.

Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said Love, who has been dealing with a right knee injury during the season that he reaggravated last week during the Sugar Bowl “had a great week of practice. We have to be smart in terms of how much we’re asking him to do in practice. We’ve got to get him ready for the game. But he’s confident.”

Love, a sophomore, leads the Fighting Irish with 1,076 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns entering the Orange Bowl. Love had a brace on his knee during Notre Dame’s final round of pregame warmups.

“Nobody feels 100 percent,” Freeman said, “but J Love will be good to go.”

Penn State coach James Franklin, meanwhile, on Wednesday said the Nittany Lions “anticipate” Carter playing and that he was “doing everything he possibly can to play” leading up to the game as he deals with a shoulder injury sustained during the Fiesta Bowl.

Carter was a full participant during pregame warmups, and ESPN reported that he will be available on a limited basis.

Carter, a junior, was a unanimous All-American this season. He has recorded 21.5 tackles for loss and 11 sacks to go along with two forced fumbles and three pass breakups leading into the Orange Bowl.

“His approach has been awesome,” Franklin said Wednesday.

Should every team be in a conference?

As the college football season expands for the schools that make the 12-team playoff field, with schools potentially playing as many as 17 games in a season, Franklin made his case on Wednesday for there to uniformity as the sport works through its latest round of changes.

“I think it should be consistent across college football,” Franklin said. “This is no knock on coach [Freeman] or Notre Dame, but I think everybody should be in a conference. I think everybody should play a conference championship game or no one should play a conference championship game. I think everybody should play the same number of conference games.”

Because Penn State played in the Big Ten Championship Game, it has played one more game than Notre Dame — Thursday is the Nittany Lions’ 16th game and the Fighting Irish’s 15th.

Freeman said Notre Dame being an independent and not tied down to a conference helps the Fighting Irish sell themselves as “global in terms of a national program, in terms of how we play and the audience we play in front of.”

“We view being independent as a positive thing,” Freeman said, “and we sell it to our recruits and our players as a positive thing.

One of the main downsides, as shown in the current format of the 12-team College Football Playoff: Only conference champions are able to secure a top-four seed and thus a first-round bye in the playoff field. Notre Dame does not have that opportunity since it is not in a conference.

Freeman’s spin on that?

“We know we can’t play in a championship game and we can’t have a first-round bye,” he said, “but we continue to use not playing Week 13 as our bye, and that’s the way we view it.”

Freeman a coach of the year finalist

Freeman on Wednesday was named as one of eight finalists for the Bear Bryant Coach of the Year Award.

The others: South Carolina’s Shane Beamer, Indiana’s Curt Cignetti, Boise State’s Spencer Danielson, Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham, SMU’s Rhett Lashlee, Army’s Jeff Monken and Texas’ Steve Sarkisian.