Riley Leonard Expects Notre Dame's 'Edge' to Travel to USC
Riley Leonard has played in big games before.
Duke-North Carolina might not have the national appeal on the gridiron, but it means much to those on Tobacco Road.
The Alabama native is also well-educated in college football, so there isn’t much Leonard’s teammates or coaches needed to stay when the calendar flipped to USC week.
"I felt it a little bit,” Leonard said of feeling the intensity of the rivalry. “It's not something Coach Freeman has to go into the meeting room and remind us of. We all knew as soon as Army ended what was at stake and what was coming next. It's kind of just said and done. And yeah, being at Duke and being able to experience the UNC rivalry there, there are a lot of parallels."
Then there is the other elephant in the room. The College Football Playoff. Notre Dame enters the weekend as the No. 5 ranked team in the county and would be the No. 7 seed if the playoffs started today.
With a win, Notre Dame almost certainly hosts a home playoff game, and if the Irish lose, well, it’s not likely the program will experience the first 12-team playoff.
Yet, Leonard isn’t worried about the noise or the immense pressure to win one of the nation’s most intense rivalries with the playoffs on the line.
"Honestly, it's really not that hard,” Leonard explained. “I like to think my whole life has been kind of quiet off the field. I don't really drink or smoke or any of that. I got a girlfriend I've been dating for seven years. My lifestyle is very simple. If you look at my phone, my mom gives me texts. My dad's going to text me. My high school coach is going to text me. Girlfriend is going to text me. That's all.
“My day-to-day basis is really easy to control and I stay off social media as well. It's honestly easy for me. I always tell people, I don't know if I've told y'all, I found out where we're ranked when I go to class on Monday and they're talking about it in class. And I'm like, 'All right. Cool.' I couldn't really care less about any of it. It's pretty easy for me, honestly."
Offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock and head coach Marcus Freeman have also made sure to keep life light with QB1 since he arrived on campus. Leonard meets 1-on-1 with both during the week and the conversations can go anywhere, but at the end of the day, a relationship of trust is being formed despite claims of Denbrock having a rocky relationship with his quarterback based off a sideline interaction.
“I love how our relationship has continued to evolve,” Denbrock said. “We have our own little meeting time where we get together every week and spend time together. I think I've said this before, but sometimes it's about football and about the game plan and sometimes it's just about what's going on in your life and how are things back at home with your family and all that kind of stuff.
“I think it's allowed me to understand him better and maybe him to understand me a little bit better and not take it so hard when I'm gnawing on him.”
What’s it going to take to leave The Coliseum with a win? It starts with doing exactly what the Irish have done during the nine-game winning streak.
“it all starts with the turnover margin,” stated Leonard. “I don't know what we are. I don't look at that stuff, but I know we've done a great job. We're in the positives every single game in the turnover margin. Great job protecting the ball and the defense is just playing great. I think the field positioning with those guys, we're starting to win that battle a little bit. That's really helped us a lot."
It’s a simple goal, yet it’s much easier said than done. Notre Dame will enter the week No. 2 in the country in turnover margin at +16. Leonard and the Irish offense have turned the ball over just 10 times this year, so good habits have been formed and, most importantly, executed.
Limiting turnovers is exactly what Notre Dame had to do following the week two loss to Northern Illinois where Leonard threw two of his four interceptions on the year.
That game has shaped Notre Dame’s season, but at the same time, that game is well in the past as the Irish offense sits at No. 6 in the country in scoring at 39.0 points per game.
“When your back's against the wall, you don't really have an option but to put your best foot forward and prepare like this is your last game ever,” Leonard explained. “Every single game that I go into, a little bit of me is scared to death. Honestly, I don't know what to expect. Anything can happen, any game.
“I have a lot of confidence, but especially early in the week when you don't know the game plan as much and you're kind of just sitting around and you don't know what to expect, I get a little nervous. As the week progresses, I get more and more confident."
What the loss to Northern Illinois created was an edge and a sense of desperation that hasn’t left the program, which Leonard expects to travel with them to USC.
"I think I personally always play my best games when I got that edge,” Leonard stated. “I think whenever you get nonchalant and you do your own thing is when it starts to get scary and you can make mistakes.
“When you're dialed in, and I hate losing, obviously, when you're really scared to lose, you start making better decisions, I feel like."
Saturday will mark the final regular season game and Leonard’s time in college is quickly coming to an end. The senior quarterback could have anywhere between 1-5 games left in his career, but it’s something he hasn’t spent much time thinking about.
"It's just one week after the other,” said Leonard. “I'm not a guy that would want to sit there and be like, "Oh, only got one game left.' There are a lot worse things to be worrying about.
“Hopefully, I'll be playing football for a lot longer than this. I've been able to play so many games in my college career to where it's like, I can't sit and complain and feel sorry for myself because it's my last game or upcoming last game. There are kids who go all four years that deal with injuries or don't get to play at all. So, yeah, I don't really think about that."
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