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Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard (13) reaches out to stiff arm Stanford linebacker Gaethan Bernadel (0) during a NCAA college football game between Notre Dame and Stanford at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, in South Bend.
Notre Dame’s Riley Leonard isn’t really anyone’s image of a quintessential dual-threat quarterback. The senior stands 6’4″, 216 pounds and can absolutely sling the ball from the pocket.
But he will run when he needs to and, lo and behold, he’s been pretty successful at it. Just don’t ask him why. Despite rushing for 831 yards on 149 carries this season (5.6 yards per carry), the Irish star can’t figure out why more defenders aren’t able to tackle him.
“I don’t understand why I’m hard to tackle, honestly,” Leonard said ahead of Thursday’s College Football Playoff semifinal at the Orange Bowl. “I don’t have very good juke moves. I’m very tall. Not intimidating, at least on the field. But guys just miss. I don’t really know why.”
Maybe Leonard is just being modest, maybe he doesn’t want to give opponents any bulletin board material. Either way, he’s been so effective at tucking the ball and taking off that teams know its coming and still can’t bring him down.
Leonard does have long legs that allow him to take some larger strides, but usually a quarterback doesn’t try to downplay a major part of his game.
With the Irish one win away from the national championship game, it’s not like Leonard really needs to know why guys keep missing him. He just needs to keep his legs moving.
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This article originally appeared on For The Win:…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/notre-dames-riley-leonard-doesnt-220507789.html
Author : FTW Outdoors
Publish date : 2025-01-09 22:05:00
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