Riley Leonard Shares Inside Look at Notre Dame's Wild 2024 Season

Star QB shares how he asked a police officer for a ride home following upset loss to Northern Illinois

Nov 30, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish quarterback Riley Leonard (13) reacts following the victory against the Southern California Trojans during the second half at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

Quarterback Riley Leonard has only been at Notre Dame for roughly a year but with everything that has happened it feels more like a decade.

Leonard was coming off an injury when he enrolled at Notre Dame last winter, and struggled through that recovery long before ever getting to the fall.

This fall has obviously seen the highs of winning at Texas A&M and USC while earning a College Football Playoff berth along the way, but had the lowest of lows in a home loss to Northern Illinois as well.

Leonard put pen to paper for The Players Tribune to recap the wild ride it has been and preview what's to come in the College Football Playoff. You'll have to click the link for the full piece but a few of the highlights below:

Riley Leonard on Transferring to Notre Dame

Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard (13) throws the ball during a NCAA college football game against Virginia at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in South Bend. / MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

“One thing I love about Notre Dame is that, for as special of a football program as it is, the feelings that led me there weren’t really about football at all. Like I’ll never forget my first official visit. I’m not gonna sit here and type out a bunch of words about how I was blown away by the elite facilities or the elite coaches or the elite players … because once you get to a certain level, everybody has those. What sold me on Notre Dame was when I went to dinner with some of the guys on the team, at this steakhouse downtown — and if we talked about football even once, I can’t remember it. Actually, no, there was one time it came up: Howard Cross was there!!! He’s the guy who landed on my ankle last year, so that was a funny moment. We just laughed about it, and I told him he’d better pay for my steak. But other than that?? I swear, we just talked about life. We talked about our upbringings. About our faith and our spiritual growth. About dealing with how people think they know you, just based off of two hours on a Saturday. 

How Hard Riley Leonard Took Notre Dame Loss to Northern Illinois

Sep 7, 2024; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Northern Illinois Huskies running back Antario Brown (1) celebrates after the Huskies defeated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 16-14 at Notre Dame Stadium. / Matt Cashore-Imagn Images

Leonard notes in the piece that following the loss to Northern Illinois, he was so embarrassed to show his face publicly that he asked a police officer for a ride home. He then shared how his regular Sunday meeting the day after a game went with Marcus Freeman following that upset.

On Sunday I met with Coach Freeman in his office, and I told him how terrible I felt and how the loss was on me. The cool thing about Coach is that you can tell he believes his job isn’t only to make the program better, but also to make us better people. And when he talks to you, you don’t feel like he’s talking down as an authority figure or anything. It’s almost a teammate relationship — which to be honest I don’t think a lot of coaches could pull off. But that’s how Coach Freeman earns your respect. He makes you feel like you’re not playing for him, you’re playing with him.

So anyway, I walk into Coach’s office on that Sunday after NIU, and I’m telling him how bad I feel, how sorry I am, all of that. And he justlaughs. You know how someone can laugh during a low moment, but it’s not in a bad way — it’s in this confident way, almost like they know the future? That was Coach Freeman. He was just like, “Riley, I’m telling you. One day you’re gonna be thankful for this.” In my head I’m thinking, Bro … there’s zero chance I'm EVER gonna be thankful for this. But even though I didn’t believe him when he said it, the way he said it was still so comforting to me. He was just so calm and assured."

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