Notre Dame Quarterback Riley Leonard: 5 Thoughts Ahead of 2024 Season

What does Notre Dame have at quarterback for 2024? Some thought on the Fighting Irish starter ahead of the 2024 season.

Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard throws the ball during a Notre Dame football practice at Irish Athletic Center on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in South Bend. / MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE / USA TODAY NETWORK

Notre Dame has a new starting quarterback to start the year for the fourth time in the four years since Ian Book has left campus.

In that time the level of quarterback play has certainly had a limited ceiling (see Jack Coan in 2021 as a prime example) but for the most part, usually a high enough floor as well (aside from when Drew Pyne was called upon due to injury in 2022).

What does Notre Dame have in its starting quarterback for the 2024 season?

Here are five thoughts and things to know about Riley Leonard before he puts on the white jersey and leads Notre Dame to take on Texas A&M on August 31.

5. Trustworthy with the Football

Riley Leonard played parts of three seasons at Duke and although his passing numbers really don't jump off the page at you, one passing statistic, or the severe lack of it, should.

Riley Leonard really doesn't throw many interceptions.

At Duke he attempted 619 career passes in his three seasons, throwing 10 interceptions the entire time. That's one interception every 61.9 pass attempts.

Sam Hartman at Wake Forest? An interception every 38.9 pass attempts while the number fell slightly to once every 37.6 attempts at Notre Dame.

Jack Coan at Wisconsin? Once every 54.6, which improved to once every 55.1 attempts at Notre Dame.

Essentially, even if Leonard is a little less trust worthy throwing the ball than when he was at Duke, he still should be throwing interceptions at a much lower clip than Hartman did a year ago.

4. Struggles with the Elites

It's not often in college football you see a player put up just as good, if not better numbers against elite competition than he does against the lesser foes.

Sometimes those numbers drop down a little bit while other times they fall off a cliff.

In the case of Riley Leonard, at least simply on paper, those numbers tend to do the cliff dive.

In 2023, before getting hurt Leonard completed just 17 of 33 passes against Clemson (Duke still won) and 12 of 27 passes against Notre Dame (he was injured on Duke's final offensive play of the game). His ability to run was a huge factor in Duke beating Clemson and the Blue Devils being in position to upset Notre Dame late.

Its also worth noting, in Leonard's best season to date (2022), Duke did not play a ranked team the entire season, as Leonard threw for 2,967 yards and 20 touchdowns while for nearly 700 yards more and 13 scores.

3. Are Leonard's Health Concerns Really All That Concerning?

Sep 30, 2023; Durham, North Carolina, USA; Duke Blue Devils quarterback Riley Leonard (13) leaves the field on crutches as fans cheer for him at the end of the game against Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Wallace Wade Stadium. / Jaylynn Nash-USA TODAY Sports

Leonard is coming off an ankle injury last year that he originally suffered against Notre Dame at the end of September. That injury flarred up in a big way later in the year when he had Duke playing toe-to-toe with unbeaten Florida State, and Leonard didn't play the rest of the year following it.

This off-season after transferring, much was made about Leonard being unavailable because of having to undergo a procedure to clean up the ankle. That cleanup wasn't because of something being overly wrong with how Leonard was healing but instead to put a different size plate in his ankle.

Some players simply are injury prone and if you only look from afar, Leonard might seem like that kind of player. But when you examine what was actually going on, it was one injury that had some complications in the execution of the procedure, not a guy who keeps reinjuring the same body part.

2. Going Mobile - Keep if Moving

Love to see it #GoIrish☘️ pic.twitter.com/BdBJ8QgzJk

— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) August 9, 2024

I'm not saying Riley Leonard is the perfect quarterback, he's clearly not based off some of the things I said earlier in this post. He may be really close to the perfect quarterback for this specific Notre Dame offense, however.

Leonard isn't likely to be blessed with one of those Notre Dame offensive lines that dominates everything in front of it. The reworked offensive line has been a huge story all off-season and only been more of one after the injury suffered by left tackle Charles Jagusah in fall camp.

Add in a very mobile Riley Leonard to help erase a lot of those offensive line concerns. Leonard has run for over 1,200 yards and 19 touchdowns over the last three seasons. Mix him with Mike Denbrock, an offensive coordinator who has thrived with dual threat quarterbacks the last decade, and it should be very much a winning formula for Notre Dame in 2024.

1. Better Talent Around Him

Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard warms up during a Notre Dame football practice at Irish Athletic Center on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in South Bend. / MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE / USA TODAY NETWORK

Maybe the most intriguing thing to me about Riley Leonard at Notre Dame is the fact that he's at Notre Dame, not Duke.

With that comes an offensive line that might not be great by Notre Dame standards, but should be a significant improvement over what Duke's was last year.

Notre Dame's receiver issues have been well documented on the national level but again, the improved collection of them compared to last year should be not only better for Notre Dame, but also better than what Duke offered Leonard.

A year ago RIley Leonard averaged 6.1 yards per carry at Duke while Sam Hartman averaged 2.7 yards per rush. Yet Notre Dame averaged 5.3 yards per carry a season ago while Duke averaged 4.9 yards per carry.

How does Notre Dame replace leading rusher Audric Estime? Whether or not Leonard gets the same running dose he did at Duke remains to be seen, but simply the threat of him being able to do so should help all of Notre Dame's running game.

A rising tide raises all ships and that should be the case not just Leonard joining a more talented roster, but also that more talented roster joining forces with Leonard.

—Enjoy free coverage of the Irish from Notre Dame Fighting Irish on SI—

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