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Quarterback Riley Leonard transferred to Notre Dame from Duke for the 2024 season.
The Irish, who lost to Ohio State in the 2022 and 2023 seasons, get a third crack at the Buckeyes during the 2025 College Football Playoff National Championship game.
Can Leonard, who wasn’t quarterbacking Notre Dame in ‘22 or ’23, be the difference in Round 3?
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Riley Leonard wasn’t there when it all went down.
The last-second loss to Ohio State where Notre Dame squandered a four-point lead in the final seconds, had just 10 players on the field on the Buckeyes’ game-winning score and watched as OSU head coach Ryan Day called out former Irish coach Lou Holtz postgame.
Leonard might’ve watched it back in Durham, North Carolina, as he was quarterbacking Duke at the time. but he’s been made well aware. Irish head coach Marcus Freeman has put that game on televisions around the Irish Athletic Facility.
“He’s playing it around the facility,” Leonard said Wednesday. “We understand the pain.”
Leonard might understand the pain, but now he has a chance to help absolve it.
The one common denominator between the Irish teams that lost to Ohio State in the past two seasons was quarterback play. It wasn’t Leonard then. but it’s Leonard now.
With one more stellar performance, he can lift Notre Dame over Ohio State and deliver the Irish to promised land.
“We expected this,” Leonard said. “I think people get surprised when everything they don’t expect happens in their lives, but when you expect it to happen, it’s just like, yeah, we believed this for a long time.”
Expecting a national title game berth may have been tough when the Irish lost to Northern Illinois. Leonard said at that point, the team wasn’t even thinking playoffs. But, Leonard is a reason why Notre Dame made it to this point.
The Irish have a running game with three…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/why-riley-leonard-chance-difference-230652708.html
Author : WFLD
Publish date : 2025-01-16 23:06:00
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