Riley Leonard comes to South Bend from Duke, marking yet another ACC QB to Notre Dame, but can he do what Sam Hartman couldn’t?
Notre Dame has seen this before. They’ve went down the rabbit hole. 2023 was supposed to be the year. Notre Dame has been enamored with getting over the edge for years now, as with any college football team– but in years past, it felt like they had all the pieces. Yet, they were so far from where they wanted to end up. Why fix something that isn’t broken? But why does Notre Dame keep coming back to the same formula that broke them in the first place?
The offseason prior to 2023, the Fighting Irish managed to lure former Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman in the transfer portal. Hartman fought to get the Fighting Irish to ten wins along with three losses– including one in the Sun Bowl where Hartman opted out choosing to prepare for the 2024 NFL Draft. It seems like the Fighting Irish can’t stay away from ACC quarterbacks– this time selecting the allure and quarterback play of Duke’s Riley Leonard whose 9-4 and 8-5 seasons in 2022 and 2023 respectively were the best years that the Blue Devils had since 2018 and back-to-back since 2014.
Leonard’s success in what was a stacked ACC conference led Notre Dame to draw the fourth-year to South Bend as a senior transfer. Notre Dame has tried and tried to finally get over the hump– the Fighting Irish have been anything but abysmal in the past seven years, racking up a total win-loss record of 73-17 while only having two playoff appearances with no wins. To add fuel to the fire, Notre Dame has been blown out both of those games losing by an average of 22 points.
Some will remember the days of Brian Kelly’s abrupt departure in 2021 to LSU, ushering in a new era of Marcus Freeman. Freeman immediately took to the transfer portal in 2022, signing former Wake Forest Demon Deacon Sam Hartman to finally get over what felt like the unsurmountable.
While Hartman was efficient, he wasn’t the brag-and-bluster superstar Notre Dame wanted to be. He seemed to struggle in the big games, losing a huge one to Ohio State where he threw for only one touchdown and 178 yards in a brutal early-season 17-14 loss. Then, Notre Dame couldn’t win over Louisville, the eventual ACC runner-up and failed to top Clemson in another loss that essentially ended Notre Dame’s shot of making a New Years’ Six Bowl. In all eventualities– Notre Dame figured out a system that was mediocre at best.
Now, having duplicated their process from a mere year ago, Notre Dame and Leonard will try to pave a new path for a Fighting Irish team that might have all the pieces it needs. Sure, Leonard has had a slow start to spring camp– attributed to the tightrope surgery Leonard had to rehab an injured ankle from a gruesome injury suffered last year that caused him to miss an extended period of time.
Leonard has had to sit out nearly all of spring ball so far after the ankle needed more repair than originally believed. So, Notre Dame will most probably go into fall of 2024 with pinholes for eyes. Is the team flying blind? Perhaps to an extent– but the team understands what they got in Leonard. That doesn’t take away from the fact that Leonard will not get any live reps against Notre Dame’s defense or any meaningful reps in practice until his ankle fully heals and is in pads for fall camp.
The margin of error for Notre Dame is razor-thin, with the team in the dark about Leonard’s true capacity and potential until it’s time to fire up the engines. Either way, the fate of the team lies on Leonard. The team made the active decision to understand that the same methodology that brought Hartman to South Bend is the same one that will finally pull the Fighting Irish over the hump.
Marcus Freeman chose to not rest on his laurels after last year’s Sun Bowl loss.
“As far as my mindset, I would have liked to have maybe been able to enter the NFL Draft after last season,” Leonard said. “But I’m here, and I need to approach this season like an NFL quarterback. So all the intangible things when it comes to playing the game, like how to handle yourself before the game, how to prepare. And then the tangible things on the field — obviously pocket awareness, arm strength — I know all my weaknesses, and I think those are pretty loud and clear.”
“Whenever they were recruiting me, I was like, ‘Who’s coming back on defense?’ Because I played around and they were the most high-flying, they were flying around all game,” Leonard said on Notre Dame’s returning players. “Really, really incredible players. So whenever I heard guys like Rylie Mills coming back, Howard Cross.”
Not much has changed since last season other than the departure of Hartman to the NFL Draft. The window for Notre Dame is still wide open even as teams around them continue to churn and grow bigger in potential. Alabama’s time is all but over, give Kalen DeBoer a year or two to get things settled. The Clemson dynasty with Dabo Swinney has hit a dead end, Michigan loses JJ McCarthy and a chunk of their coaching staff, and Washington’s staff needs a reset after DeBoer’s departure.
This leaves a perfect window of opportunity for Leonard with exceptional quarterback play to swoop in and take Notre Dame deeper than they’ve ever been. In 2023, with a shortened season due to Leonard’s injury, he threw for 1,102 yards through seven games along with three touchdowns and a 116.0 rating according to Sports Reference. With his abridged season, PFF ranked Leonard as the 100th passer in college football last season with a 77.5 overall rating along with 65.0 on the passing aspect.
Hartman was only marginally better at 85th, earning a 78.6 overall with a 78.9 on his passing game. Leonard must be at least better in big games than Hartman. The Sideline Catch rated three games from Notre Dame’s 2023 season as “big games”: Ohio State, Louisville, and Clemson. Hartman earned a 65.6, 45.3, and a 30.1 respectively. Hartman couldn’t step up when the lights were bright.
Leonard didn’t perform too much better against good teams either, faring nearly the same fate as Hartman. Versus Florida State and Louisville, Leonard was graded a 59.4 and 56.4– playing average at best. It is now up to Leonard in a new system and new program to change the fate of the program for the better– something his predecessor couldn’t do.
“With Riley going out, he’s still getting us better, we’re getting him better so I feel like it’s all the same, just one less person taking reps,” redshirt freshman quarterback Kenny Minchey said.
