Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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4 OCT. 12, 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED A ll the way back to high school, Notre Dame se- n i o r q u a r te rba c k R i l ey Leonard has donned a gift from his mother on his left wrist during every football season as a friendly reminder to stay grounded. It's a rubber wristband with a simple two word message, "YOU SUCK." R i l ey 's m o t h e r, H ea t h e r, doesn't stop there in trying to use some reverse psychology to motivate her son. She also reinforces her mes- sage before Riley's games with a "You Suck" text. Though, she does include a "Love You" kicker line with her "motherly" pre- game messages. Riley shared this funny and cute mother-son anecdote be- fore he transferred to Notre Dame in December 2023. The problem for Leonard is, with the uninspiring start he had with the Irish, some Notre Dame faithful are taking Heather's message quite literally and not including the "Love You" part. Even in a 28-3 victory over Miami (Ohio) Sept. 21, a cascade of boos rained down inside Notre Dame Stadium after Leonard missed multiple easy throws. Public calls for the benching of Leon- ard have been persistent since the un- thinkable upset loss to Northern Illi- nois Sept. 7, and perhaps rightfully so, at least to a point. The Notre Dame passing offense has yet to climb out of the bottom third of the NCAA rankings all season. While at the same time, Leonard has been keeping company with the worst quar- terbacks in the country in passing ef- ficiency and yards per passing attempt. Through four games, Leonard ranked 118th nationally in yards per passing at- tempt with only a 5.70 average. More concerning for Irish fans was that Leon- ard didn't throw a single touchdown pass through Notre Dame's first three games. And while the statistical analysis and eye-test may suggest differently, Irish head coach Marcus Freeman in- sists that Leonard is making great prog- ress this season. "I have a lot of confidence in Riley Leonard," Freeman said before the Lou- isville game Sept. 28. "… I said after the [Miami] game that there is not much difference between being the head coach and being the starting quarter- back at Notre Dame. You have to be able to handle everything that comes with it, and he's doing a great job at doing that." UNFAIR COMPARISON? Without knowing much about Leon- ard before his decision to relocate from Duke to Notre Dame, the logical as- sumption was that the Irish were again bringing in a one-year, pass-happy mercenary cut from the same mold as Sam Hartman, when nothing could've been further from the truth. When Hartman arrived at Notre Dame from Wake Forest before the 2023 season, he was a proven gun-slinger. In 48 games with the Demon Dea- cons, Hartman averaged 270.1 passing yards, 13.7 yards per completion and 2.3 touchdown passes per game. Leonard came to Notre Dame as a dual-threat player whose legs often made him more danger- ous than his arm. In 27 games at Duke, Leonard averaged 164.8 passing yards a game (105.3 yards fewer than Hartman) and 11.6 yards per completion, and he threw only 24 touchdown passes in 27 games, fewer than one scoring toss a game. When it took Leonard four games to throw his first touch- down pass at Notre Dame, it shouldn't have been a cause for full-blown panic. During those first four Irish games, Leonard had piled up 6 rushing touch- downs, which led all Power Four quarterbacks. For comparison, Hartman had 3 rushing touchdowns in 12 Irish games all of last season. Clearly, the Irish passing game has taken a step back this season with Leonard in charge com- pared to last year with Hartman. But again, that should've been more ex- pected than surprising. Like it or not, we should be cautious when comparing Leonard to Hartman because they're two very different players. In his 31 games before the Louisville matchup Sept. 28, Leonard had thrown for multiple touchdowns only five times (16 percent) in his career. Meanwhile, Leonard rushed for multiple touch- downs seven times in those 31 games. Hartman, on the other hand, remark- ably threw for multiple touchdowns 42 times in his 60 career games (70 per- cent), and only twice rushed for multiple scores, even with 29 more games than Leonard had played. Notre Dame knew what it was getting with Leonard — his modest passing stats at Duke bared it all. So, instead of booing and calling for the hook while we wait for Leonard to become the next Hartman, let's instead appreciate Leonard for the dual-threat player he is, and not lament over the big- armed accurate passer that he is not. ✦ After the first four games of the season, Riley Leonard had rushed for 6 touchdowns (the second most by a quarterback in the FBS ) and 322 yards (the fifth most by an FBS signal-caller). PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER Like Ir Or Not, Leonard Is Just Doing What He Does Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com. UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE