All season long, Notre Dame football has followed the lead of Riley Leonard’s play. When the senior quarterback was at his most composed, navigating an inexperienced offensive line and an opposing crowd north of 100,000 in Week One, the Irish outclassed Texas A&M. With Leonard at his most dominant with a trio of first-half rushing touchdowns in Week Three, Notre Dame hung 66 points on Purdue.
It’s not atypical for a signal-caller to serve as a window into his team’s situation. Starting quarterbacks, after all, are the most visible players in football. They wield the pigskin, appear before the media and generate fan reaction more than any other teammate.
Having Leonard in lockstep, however, didn’t always appear in the cards for Notre Dame. From the time he transferred to South Bend from Duke last December, lingering injuries painted Leonard as a giant question mark. As the Irish pressed on with spring practices, the Blue-Gold Game and summer sessions, his uncertain status seemingly left a disconnect between Leonard and the program he would come to represent.
And although he started the season on full-go, just two weeks in Leonard fell prisoner to his own mental disruption. Questions of “what if” circled the quarterback’s mind. What if something goes wrong? What if this happens? Two interceptions in a home loss to Northern Illinois brought Leonard and the 1-1 Irish face-to-face with those fears.
With their postseason dreams on life support, what Leonard and company did with that outcome has completely changed this season’s outlook. Using the helpless feeling of loss as fuel, Notre Dame has since won six straight games with improving play each week. Much of that comes from Leonard, who no longer entertains the cataclysmic what-ifs. Instead, he embraces adversity with the simple consideration of “even if.”
“Even if everything falls down and we hit rock bottom, my Lord and savior is always gonna be there for me, and nothing’s gonna change with that,” Leonard described after Saturday’s 51-14 Irish defeat of Navy.
Leonard attributes his shift in mindset to a number of sources. There’s the everyday voice of head coach Marcus Freeman, whose six-letter word has catalyzed an Irish return to the AP Poll’s top 10.
“Coach Freeman talks about it all the time — that’s one of his biggest things,” Leonard said. “Reload! Reload! Reload! If something bad happens, reload. If something good happens, reload. No matter what happens on the last play, you can’t let it affect the next.”
“That’s our M.O. now. We live by that.”
And then there’s the advice of those who came before Leonard. Former Notre Dame quarterbacks ranging from Brady Quinn and Ian Book to Tyler Buchner and Sam Hartman have offered him guidance on his position. Their message?
“Just don’t take it for granted and don’t have any regrets,” Leonard summarized.
Leaving no room for regret has put Notre Dame on another level for the better part of a month and a half now. Since the Northern Illinois loss, the Irish have essentially played a College Football Playoff game every week, avoiding a second misstep likely the only way to remain in the championship chase. For Leonard, that means putting it all out there. Fully trusting pass-catchers to make plays. Sacrificing the body for additional yardage. Playing to win the football game at all costs.
“I think regret only comes from missed opportunities, not failed opportunities,” Leonard said. “If you want to throw and you don’t throw it and let it rip, you’re gonna regret that. But if you throw it and something bad happens, it is what it is. At least you gave it a shot.”
On Saturday, Leonard yet again looked as good as he had all season, accounting for 261 total yards and three touchdowns with zero turnovers. Despite a week full of complicated prep work, Leonard found a way to shed any lingering doubts about facing the crafty Midshipmen.
“These guys run everything you could imagine. Half the time they’re dropping eight, but they’ve got 10, 15 different ways to do it,” Leonard said. “Shoutout to their defense, because we were paranoid all week. We didn’t have school this week so we had extra time to get to the film room, but we still came into this game like, ‘What the heck is going on back there?’ I certainly did.”
For as marvelous as a 37-point smackdown of a top-25 team may have looked, Notre Dame still isn’t a finished product. The Irish have not led after the first quarter in consecutive games all season. Their passing attack has room to grow in terms of consistency. Graduate linebacker Jack Kiser said it best after the Navy game: Notre Dame must continue to put in the work to be better and reach its potential every day.
“It’s hard to run a college offense these days … I think having that little bit of fear [that] there’s always more in the tank really helps us out and helps me out,” Leonard described. “It’s been a work in progress obviously, but I think we’re getting better every week.”
Heading into bye week number two, the Irish can count on their quarterback taking on the everyday quest for greatness. Whether it’s in his openness to the wise words of predecessors or his appreciation for the chance to share the field with Navy’s “heroes,” as he described them, Leonard aims to maximize the opportunities before him. If the past six games are any indication, Notre Dame collectively will do the same.
“It’s a huge honor to put on this Blue and Gold, and every day I wake up, I really live by that,” Leonard said. “Whether things go great or things go bad, I’m waking up every day and I’m not taking it for granted.”
