Louisville Hoping to Contain Riley Leonard's Legs in Matchup at Notre Dame

The Cardinals have faced a pair of dual threat quarterbacks already, and is hoping to carry the lessons learned from those matchups into South Bend.

Sep 14, 2024; West Lafayette, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish quarterback Riley Leonard (13) runs past Purdue Boilermakers defensive back Dillon Thieneman (31) during the second quarter at Ross-Ade Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images / Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - In every big time college football game, there always a plethora of talking points that come up regarding the matchup. Louisville's ranked showdown at Notre Dame this weekend is certainly no exception.

The matchup between the No. 15/17 Cardinals (3-0, 1-0 ACC) and the No. 16/14 Fighting Irish (3-1) is one of the top games on tap this weekend in college football, and the final outcome has some very early College Football Playoff ramifications tied to it for both sides. For Louisville, it would establish themselves as a CFP dark horse and confirm their status as an ACC contender. Conversely, it would get the Fighting Irish back in the mix for a national title hunt after a disappointing start.

One of the biggest storylines/matchups to watch this weekend in South Bend? How well Louisville can defend Notre Dame dual threat quarterback Riley Leonard.

The former Duke signal caller entered the transfer portal this past offseason after Blue Devils head coach Mike Elko left to take the job at Texas A&M, and so far this season, Leonard has been one of the best running quarterbacks in the FBS. In four games, he has ran for 322 yards and six touchdowns.

Among non-service academy FBS quarterbacks, Leonard's yardage total ranks third behind Washington State's John Mateer and Arkansas' Taylen Green, while his touchdown total is tied with Alabama's Jalen Milroe for the national lead.

"(Leonard) can run the football, he can use his legs to win," head coach Jeff Brohm said. "They have done a good job this year of calling specific quarterback runs and making you defend against an extra blocker, which presents challenges. He still has the ability to throw the ball so I just think it will be another good test for our defense, we’ll have to be really sharp. Not giving up big plays will be big, not giving up big quarterback runs it’s one thing if you two, three, four sometimes five yards but big runs will be a big play. Then you know trying to stop the run, making them throw the ball vertically will be something we have to really concentrate on. They’re well coached and they’ve utilized his talents very well to this point this year.“

On the other side of the line of scrimmage, Louisville has had some trouble when it comes to defending a running quarterback.

In the Cardinals' game against Jacksonville State, Tyler Huff was able to run for 101 yards plus a touchdown. Last week against Georgia Tech, Haynes King compiled a team-best 58 yards and a score of his own on the ground.

"We work hard at it, but I wouldn't say we've been great at it," Brohm said about his team's ability to defend a dual threat QB. "Jacksonville State's quarterback ran for a lot of yards on us. Georgia Tech's quarterback ran for some yards on us. We've got to get better at it.

"The quarterback pulling the ball around the edge, we had plans for it, but it wasn't executed. The quarterback draw, we gave them too much space, and our safeties and linebacker weren't in conjunction together, and he got some big yards. There was just some things we got to do a better job of."

That being said, Louisville has shown that they have the capability of making adjustments on the fly when facing a quarterback who can utilize their legs.

Huff had just five rushes for 35 yards in the second half, which gets adjusted to 20 yards when taking into account his two sacks. King ran eight times for just 31 yards in the second half, with the bulk of this coming on a single 26-yard carry.

"Now, we did hit (King), and there were times that we defended it," Brohm said. "We got some negative plays and some yards for loss, it just wasn't all the time. Now, is it always going to be all the time? No, it's not. But we do want to defend a quarterback run better."

Not to mention that the Cards have had success against Leonard in the past. When he was still at Duke and the Blue Devils came to Louisville last season in Brohm's first year, He went 9-of-23 passing for 121 yards and an interception, while also rushing 10 times for just 13 yards. Louisville won the matchup at L&N Stadium, 23-0.

Being able to bottle up Leonard's ability to run with the ball might be the single-biggest factor behind Louisville's potential to come out of South Bend with a win. That's because while Leonard been a great runner of the football so far this season, he has been severely lacking when it comes to actually throwing it.

In four games, Leonard has completed 63.1 percent of his passes, but thrown for just 587 yards, one touchdown and thrown two interceptions as well. He has also shown almost zero capability and interest in stretching the ball vertically down field as well.

According to Pro Football Focus, of the 45 power conference quarterbacks (Notre Dame included) with at least 100 drop backs, Leonard has: the sixth-worst NFL QBR at 72.9, the fifth-lowest average depth of target at 7.0 yards, and is tied for the fewest "big time throws" at two. PFF defines a big time throw as "a pass with excellent ball location and timing, generally thrown further down the field and/or into a tighter window."

Notre Dame does have a pair of good running backs in Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price, who have combined for 532 yards and six touchdowns on the ground. But to counter that, Louisville has done well when it comes to stopping the run as a whole, giving up just 111 total rushing yards to non-quarterbacks.

If the Louisville can take away the one thing that Notre Dame excels at offensively, it would bode extremely well for their chances to come out with a win. Of course, doing it is easier said than done.

"You have to know what you have to do, and just read your keys," linebacker T.J. Quinn said. "The offense is going to try to give you different looks and run different things to try to get the quarterback open to run the ball. All this week, you have to just go through everything and just study film, and know what they're gonna try to give us this week."

Kickoff between the Cardinals and Fighting Irish is set for Saturday, Sept. 28 at 3:30 p.m. EST.

(Photo of Riley Leonard: Marc Lebryk - Imagn Images)

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