Duke Gets Commitment From QB Riley Leonard
Duke got a commitment from 2021 quarterback Riley Leonard, when the passer from Fairhope, Alabama announced his intentions on Twitter.
Leonard becomes the tenth commitment in Duke’s 2021 class and the second quarterback, joining three-star Jordan Moore, who committed five weeks earlier.
Leonard is a 6-foot-4, 190-pounder who is rated a three-star by Rivals. He’s the No. 32 prospect in the state of Alabama. 247Sports has not rated Leonard yet. He picked up offers from Syracuse, Nebraska and Vanderbilt in May, in addition to the Blue Devils.
He had more than 1,200 passing yards last season on 59 percent passing accuracy. He also ran for nearly 500 yards and eight touchdowns.
He is also a promising basketball prospect who averaged nearly 21 points, 8.5 rebounds two blocks and two steals per game last season. Leonard had picked up mid-major offers to play that sport in college from UAB, Missouri State and North Alabama, among others.
Leonard had been torn between playing basketball or football in college but the sudden rush of offers from Power Five schools seems to have helped tip the scales.
“It’s pretty random,” Leonard told AL.com last week of his sudden flurry of offers. “As soon as one happened, it’s kind of been a snowball effect. Those schools had been in touch with me for a while. They wanted me to go to camp, but obviously I couldn’t because of the pandemic. So, they took a chance and offered, and I’m just really thankful and blessed for the opportunities.”
“Riley is a real easy kid to sell,” Tim Carter, his coach at Fairhope, told AL.com. “He’s athletic, he’s intelligent, he’s competitive and he has the size requirements that they look for at that level. He’s not just tall. He can run and jump. All of those factors are what you look for in a quarterback.”
