Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SEPT. 28, 2024 31 T here wasn't any mistak- ing what Notre Dame fans called out in unison from the north end zone of Notre Dame Stadium Sept. 21. One name. Four syllables. Rhymes with peanut butter and jelly. " S teve A n - ge l - i ! " C l a p, clap, clap, clap, clap. If you didn't hear it, it's be- cause you chose not to. It was there, it was loud, it was bit- ing. And it was 100 percent a shot at senior starter Riley Leonard. Leonard, the same quarter- back who Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman put full faith in following the Fighting Irish's 28-3 victory over Miami (Ohio) when asked about the Irish faithful's not-so-sweet calls for beloved junior backup and boo-birding of QB1. "We don't make decisions based off what the sentiment of the stadium is," Freeman said. "So that's the answer to that part of the question. … We've got a lot of confidence in our quarterback that led us to a great victory today." Leonard accounted for three of the four touchdowns and ran for a career- high 143 yards. But just a month into the 2024 season it sure feels like there isn't anything he can do with his legs to as- suage intense distaste for what he can- not do with his arm, namely fire passes with the consistency that's typically required of the starting quarterback at a place like Notre Dame. Leonard's misses are sometimes 50 Cent-level of "goodness gracious was he even trying to throw the ball at the target?" It hasn't helped that Angeli has entered the game in the second half of Notre Dame's last two wins and pulled off at least one pass in each of them that had Irish fans and media alike thinking, "Can Leonard even make that throw?" In his defense, the first touchdown pass of his Notre Dame career could not have been any more perfect. He aired it out to Beaux Collins for a 38-yard score that certainly should've shut up some doubters. Doubters is too nice — Leonard has downright haters who wear the same colors as him, and we're only one-third of the way through the season. One- third of a season is a relatively long time, though, for some things like, say, throwing touchdown pass No. 1. It took Leonard 14 quarters. Angeli threw 2 touchdown passes in one half at Purdue. That's the world we're living in with Notre Dame football at the moment. Reality is reality. The Fighting Irish's offense, particularly the passing game, has been poor for large stretches of these first four games of the season. The quarterback is always going to take heat when that's the case. And when his seat gets super hot, the backup is longed for to cool things down. Just the way it goes. Making it all the more fascinat- ing is that Freeman is so clearly not even slightly interested in entertain- ing a quarterback controversy. Doesn't seem like his assistants or any of Notre Dame's players are either. What they see, hear and expe- rience is completely different and much more thorough than what the fans do. Something in plain sight for everyone, padded up or not, is the scoreboard. In the last two games quarterbacked by Leonard, he left the field to put on a headset and signal for An- geli with the Irish up by a com- bined score of 70-3. He was re- sponsible for six touchdowns. That's a lot to a little. That's a lot of Leonard-led end zone entrances. That's a lot of rea- sons for Freeman to keep put- ting him and his 25 career starts and counting between the white lines no matter what outsiders are saying and yearning for from someone who only has one. "I didn't ask him about how he feels about people booing him," Freeman said. "People boo me. We can't perform to make sure everybody cheers for us. That's part of the game. If you don't do your job, people are going to boo you. "But if you let that affect the way you go out and execute the next play, then man, you're not the right person for this job or to be our quarterback at Notre Dame." There isn't an ounce of internal fear that Leonard let the noise negatively get to his head. Heck, he played his best ball against Miami (Ohio) after the boos and pleas for Angeli. That's the Leonard Freeman and Co. choose to see. "I've played a lot of football, a lot of collegiate football in my life," Leonard said. "I've been through these situa- tions where you might start slow, or you might start missing easy passes. As a quarterback, it happens. I've seen my- self respond throughout the years mul- tiple times." ✦ Notre Dame improved to 3-1 with Riley Leonard as its starter, but some fans are ready to see a quarterback change to junior backup Steve Angeli. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER No Pleasing The People Despite Another Blowout Win Tyler Horka has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2021. He can be reached at thorka@blueandgold.com GOLDEN GAMUT TYLER HORKA