Freeman Fired Up About Adding QB Riley Leonard To Notre Dame
Marcus Freeman wasn’t concerned with finding a pro-style quarterback or a dual-threat quarterback in the transfer portal.
The Notre Dame head coach wasn’t even concerned with finding a signal-caller who fit the Irish offense.
What he was looking for, he’s convinced he found in Riley Leonard.
“He was the best quarterback that we believed was in the Portal,” Freeman said during his National Signing Day press conference on Wednesday. “To me, you get the best players first and then you say, 'OK, how do we tailor what we do around those guys?' That is so important.
“We were saying, 'OK, as we look to take another quarterback to add to this program, who's the best one that fits this place?' I've always said that, right? 'The best one that fits this place and then how do we tailor what we do offensively around those guys?' I think that's the situation more than anything with Riley.”
Freeman knew plenty about Leonard as a player from facing him earlier this year at Duke.
“He's a complete quarterback,” Freeman said. “Number one, he's competitive. I don't want that to be a word that's just thrown out there lightly. That's something that I have a lot of respect for, how competitive you are. You see it by the way he plays in short-yardage situations, his ability to put his shoulder down and say, 'I'm not going to be denied.'
“But then in the passing game, he can make every single throw. He's accurate, but he also can extend plays with his legs and now he has a true ability to make you respect him by pulling the ball in some of those zone read situations. What it does is puts the defense at conflict.”
As a sophomore in 2022, Leonard rushed for 700 yards and 13 touchdowns. Freeman believes that dual-threat ability will open up the Irish’s offense.
“You're not just saying, 'Hey, we'll react to the quarterback keeping the ball,’” he continued. “You have to have a defender accounting for the quarterback. So what does that do? It opens up things in the pass game because you got an extra defender trying to stop the run with a quarterback. When you have the ability to run the ball as a quarterback, it puts the defense in conflict, in difficult situations.”
While the Irish weren’t overly concerned with the style of quarterback they were bringing in, they were very intentful in the type of person he was.
“He is an unbelievable teammate,” Freeman said. “He's still with his team at Duke. He's going to be with them until they finish their bowl game and he's not even playing right now. and he knows he's not playing. But he wants to be with those guys and finish off the season. That speaks volumes of who he is as a person.
“He makes those guys around him better. Those can be through his actions in terms of leadership, but also through his decision-making. He is a great young person. He is a great young man, great parents, a special football player.”
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