2024 A Season of Learning for Notre Dame QB Riley Leonard

It’s been a year of learning for Riley Leonard.

The 6-foot-4, 216-pounder took a leap of faith and transferred to a new program for his final collegiate season, which meant he had to learn a new offense, new coaches, new teammates, new campus and a new culture. 

In fact, the first eight months Leonard was on campus were all about learning about his new team despite working through two ankle operations that cost him most of spring football. The first step in learning a new team was learning his teammates names, which he had help from his girlfriend and technology. 

“I did it on Quizlet,” stated Leonard. “My girlfriend made a Quizlet for me. It would be their name and a picture of their face and stuff. They thought it was incredible because I’d walk up to the third string long snapper, not that he doesn’t have an important role, I’d just be like, what’s up brother, and I’d say his name. They’d double-take, and it helped out a lot. I feel like that’s just common sense, why not just learn the guys names, they’re your boys.”

Leonard didn’t stop there as knowing his teammates name was step one to his process. Step two was being around his teammates as much as possible in The Gug or outside it.

“When I got here, every chance I got, I didn’t want to go back to my apartment,” explained Leonard. “If somebody was doing something, it didn’t matter who you were, if you were a freshman. If there were three freshmen going out to eat, I’m going with y’all.” 

Then came the highs and lows of the first two weeks of the season. Leonard experienced what it was like being the face of Notre Dame and the perks that come with winning at Texas A&M. Week two and three provided an experience he also won’t forget as Notre Dame Stadium tried to boo him off the field. 

“You don’t really understand the magnitude of this place until you lose,” Leonard said. “I say that all the time. That’s when I really felt like, ‘Oh dang, there’s a lot more magnitude that I hold and weight that I hold when I play the game than I expected.’

“Those boos and stuff early, definitely didn’t like them. I also remind myself, that’s like 10% of the crowd, but when 10% of the crowd is booing it’s enough for me to hear it and get kind of pissed off. I guess it kind of motivated me and kicked me into gear.”

The Alabama native went to work. 

After 12 games, the Notre Dame football program and most fans know Leonard is going to do anything to put his team in a position to win. He’s played hurt and elevated his game all year, which has earned the respect of someone who has been in the program for years. 

And even with the success of the last 10 games, Leonard still is following a strict routine. 

“I’ll say first, whenever all that negativity was coming towards me, my phone was shut off, so I had no idea,” Leonard explained. “I don’t even know now, my phone is still shut off, so I could be the best quarterback or still hated. I don’t even know.

“I think this offense as a whole, it starts with me the quarterback, the captain. If I can respond from adversity, it gives them confidence like, ‘Oh snap, if he can respond from that he can respond from anything.’ Anytime something goes bad in a game, I take a lot of pride in bouncing back because I’ve kind of done that this year.” 

Notre Dame has played with chip on its shoulder since week two and now the Fighting Irish step into a different role as the the team that’s being hunted. Indiana will come into Notre Dame Stadium on Friday as the underdog and a feel good story as the Hoosiers have done the unthinkable this season. 

Leonard and Notre Dame will treat Friday as they have the last 10 games despite every eye in the college football world being on South Bend. 

“Freeman’s big thing is what’s the recipe for success,” Leonard stated. “It’s in the preparation and the work. Do what we’ve been doing for the past 10 weeks. We beat A&M, right? But we still didn’t know exactly what it took to win a football game. We won that game, but it took a loss to kick us into gear.

“Now we’re doing every little thing. They ran that look one time last year, but surely they won’t run that against us. Nah, we’re hitting that. Or its, receivers we’re talking about this play, if he’s playing inside or outside leverage, all these little things that we’ve been doing for so long we have to keep doing and we have been that last couple of weeks.”

The College Football Playoff appears as wide open as ever, which means Notre Dame can make some noise over the next month.

And Notre Dame has the right guy in place to lead the program as Leonard is hungry for his breakout moment. 

“I have more confidence now than I’ve ever had in my career,” said Leonard. “I feel like I’m throwing the ball better now than I have in my career. My body feels good, too. I’m very ready and mentally too, I’m the best.”

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