Confidence, Chemistry Growing in Notre Dame Passing Offense
Notre Dame’s offense has shown tremendous growth over the season and yet, the Irish offense still has plenty of room to improve, which is the exciting piece to the puzzle.
Quarterback Riley Leonard has put together a big season as he’s totaled 2,430 total yards and 25 total touchdowns through 10 games.
Perhaps more importantly, Notre Dame’s pass game is starting to develop some confidence regardless of who is in the game.
Jaden Greathouse went down with an injury last Saturday and Jayden Harrison stepped up to have a big game. Leonard knows it starts with him, but his confidence is starting to rub off on his teammates.
Yet, for the Irish to take the next step, they have to clean up the penalties, which plagued them against Virginia.
“I’m just going to go out there and play my game,” Leonard said of his confidence in the passing game. “I don’t think there’s anybody, any team that really intimidates us too much. It’s kinda evident, we just stop ourselves. We left a lot of meat on the bone last game. We had 35 points, but every drive is important. We ended up in third and longs, and it was our fault — it wasn’t like they were just making substantial plays. As long as I recognize what the defense is giving me, I should be able to make a good decision about where the ball should go.”
Notre Dame’s staff and coaching style has also helped Leonard grow this season. The coaching is hard, but at the same time, Mike Denbrock and Gino Guidulgi wanted him to be aggressive and know there will be some bad plays that come with that mentality.
“I think one of the best feelings is throwing a bad ball in practice or an interception in practice trying to be aggressive and you go over to the sideline and you hear in the headset, ‘Good job, way to rip it,’” explained Leonard. “I love that.
“If I’m going to the right place with the ball, and it just ends up not working out, they’re fine with that. If I make a boneheaded decision - throwing a middle read versus Tampa 2, throwing that in there — whether it’s good, it’s bad, or it’s ugly — they’re good with me just ripping it and taking it. So, that gives me a lot of confidence.”
Now, Notre Dame would definitely prefer Leonard not to turn the ball over as he did last Saturday, but it’s also not a concern as he’s thrown just four interceptions on the year.
Leonard knows protecting the ball is priority No. 1, but letting his gunslinger mentality come out more could also be a positive as he’s been hesitant to let the ball fly at times this season.
“I take a lot of pride in protecting the football, but at the same time, you start thinking ‘Ah, I haven’t thrown one in a while, let me get this streak going,’” Leonard said. “Sometimes you need to throw one and get it out of your system. That way, you can just be aggressive.
“I remember throwing it and the next drive is when I ripped that Tampa 2 ball down the middle of the field.”
Notre Dame’s offense as a whole is also starting to see chemistry develop in the passing game. The spring practices Leonard missed were significant in terms of developing rapport in game situations with his receivers.
Late November isn’t a bad time to be rounding into shape as the Irish hope to be playing for two more months.
“I’ve always mentioned that I’ve only been here in this offense since August, so how many post routes to the field have I thrown to this guy,” stated Leonard. “Well, every single week, I’m getting so many more reps with every single receiver, so I feel like every single week we’re just building and building and building in my trust and confidence in these guys.”
Running back Jeremiyah Love has scored in every game, while Leonard has totaled 13 rushing touchdowns on the year, but the receiver room isn’t complaining. In fact, Leonard knows he could be getting a very different mood from his pass catchers, but he’s not and that’s do to the culture in program.
“This is an extremely unselfish group of skill players we have on offense,” explained Leonard. “Obviously, I’ve got a lot of rushing touchdowns, so maybe from a receiving group you might hear a small thing like ‘Ah, here we go again, another rushing touchdown from the quarterback,’ but these guys don’t say a thing. They’re in the endzone celebrating with me. It kind of shows to the integrity of this group. I really like them a lot — they’re awesome.”
Notre Dame will need Leonard and the offense to be extremely efficient this weekend as possessions will be limited against Army. Yet, Leonard doesn’t feel the pressure and he’s ready to play ball regardless of the flow of the game.
“We completely understand that,” said Leonard. “I think teams are averaging eight possessions a game against them. Just like we got eight possessions, they only get eight possessions as well. It is what it is. We expected that to be the case against Navy and it didn’t happen to be. So, if that’s the case, cool, and if it’s not, cool.”
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