Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SEPT. 21, 2024 11 UNDER THE DOME NOTRE DAME QUARTERBACK RILEY LEONARD SUFFERED AN INJURY VERSUS NORTHERN ILLINOIS, PER REPORTS Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard took a shot in the middle of the Fighting Irish's loss to Northern Illinois Sept. 7. He looked uncomfortable after it. Injured, even. He was. At least a little. Blue & Gold Illustrated and On3's Pete Nakos confirmed with sources that Leonard injured his left posterior labrum taking a hit against the Huskies. The Fighting Irish signal-caller underwent an MRI on his non-throwing shoulder in the immediate aftermath of Notre Dame's 16-14 loss to NIU, which revealed the ailment. Leonard struggled in his first two games with Notre Dame after transferring in from Duke over the offseason. He did not throw a touchdown pass and completed 61.3 percent of his attempts for an average of 160.5 yards per game and 5.2 yards per attempt. He had 2 interceptions and ran 23 times for 79 yards and a touchdown. Leonard accounted for 73 yards on Notre Dame's opening drive of the game against NIU, including 11 on a touchdown rush that put the Irish up 7-0. His play deteriorated from there. He ran the ball fewer times, and his accuracy was off all afternoon. "I think accuracy starts from the ground up," Notre Dame offen- sive coordinator Mike Denbrock said. "I think he'll be the first one to say that to you and that he's got to do a better job with his feet in the pocket in particular." Both of his interceptions this season came against the Huskies. The second gave the 28.5-point underdogs the ball at midfield with just less than six minutes remaining. NIU nursed the clock and kicked a 35-yard field goal with 31 seconds remaining for the 16-14 win. "Notre Dame is a tough place to be a quarterback," Denbrock said. "And you're going to feel that here over the course of the next, whenever, until we get this offense functioning at a much higher level. And he understands that." Leonard's downfall came one week after he made two heroic passes in the final minutes against Texas A&M in Week 1. Leonard completed a pass to Jaden Greathouse on third-and-5, then hit Beaux Collins for a 20-yard gain all on a drive in which Notre Dame eventually took a 20-13 lead over the then-No. 20 Aggies in the final two minutes at College Station. Leonard was still hit-or-miss in that game, though, and his per- formance in his Notre Dame home opener led some Irish fans to call for junior quarterback Steve Angeli to get a chance to play. Angeli only made one start in his first two seasons at Notre Dame. He connected on 15 of 19 throws for 232 yards with 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions in Notre Dame's 40-8 win over Oregon State in the Sun Bowl. — Tyler Horka The national media had a heyday with Notre Dame's season-opening vic- tory over then-No. 20 Texas A&M in College Station. On3's own Andy Staples, for instance, put the Irish solidly into the No. 5 seed in his College Football Playoff projections. He was not the only pundit to predict Notre Dame to be a shoo-in for that spot after the 23-13 win over the Aggies. Kirk Herbstreit hyped up the Irish. As did Nick Saban. The list went on and on. ESPN analyst and "Always College Football" podcast host Greg McElroy, meanwhile, was a little more hesitant. It's not that he saw Notre Dame's 16-14 Week 2 loss to Northern Illinois coming, but he was a bit perplexed at the anointment of the Irish as a top-tier team coming out of one game against a middle of the road SEC team. "I still don't recall on this show ever jumping to the conclusion that Notre Dame is all of a sudden a national championship contender," McElroy said. "I don't know where people thought that. Texas A&M is an 8-4 team. They beat them and they looked good in the process. A&M might not even be an 8-4 team, by the way. I think that's probably their ceiling. Maybe it's slightly beyond that, but not an eight-win team. "Beating them the way they beat them didn't really have me feeling as if Notre Dame all of a sudden has joined the ranks of the elite." McElroy pointed to Notre Dame not showing any level of elite play in the A&M game outside of a few running back flashes of brilliance. He said he was not surprised the Irish had immense difficulty moving the ball against NIU because he saw the signs of a largely dysfunctional offense in College Station. As for the dysfunction of the entire program, he hit on that too. "I think Notre Dame has a lot of soul-searching to do, and Marcus Freeman hasn't quite figured out the recipe," McElroy said. — Tyler Horka Senior quarterback Riley Leonard reportedly injured his non-throwing shoulder in the Fighting Irish's loss to NIU. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER ESPN'S GREG MCELROY WARNS AGAINST GETTING TOO HIGH ON NOTRE DAME