Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM MARCH 2025 25 T here's a natural re- action elicited by t h e h u m a n b o dy when you want some- thing — need something like you need oxygen to breathe — and you either break through and obtain it or fall short and watch someone else acquire what you can't have. You cry. It's either tears of joy, of which were aplenty for Ohio State inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium after the Buckeyes beat Notre Dame 34-23 to win the national champion- ship, or tears of incon- solable sadness, as was the case on the Notre Dame side. Linebacker Jack Kiser and quarter- back Riley Leonard, two Notre Dame team captains, could hardly get through their time in front of reporters on the main postgame press conference stage. Waterworks came easier than words. Nobody blamed them. The final game of their college careers will always be associated with crippling cheerlessness. Someday soon, though, they'll real- ize all was not lost in Atlanta on the 20th day of 2025. Kiser played 70 games in a Notre Dame uniform, more than anyone else in the history of the pro- gram. Leonard, a Duke transfer, saw ac- tion in just 16. And those 14 others who make up the 16 players who will never play another down in a blue-and-gold jersey, were on the field somewhere in between. Those appearances can be quantified, but what each and every one of them meant to head coach Marcus Freeman's program cannot. "They've left this program better," Freeman said while sandwiched be- tween Leonard to his right and Kiser to his left in the postgame press con- ference. "I don't care if you were here for one year or you've been here for six years; our program is in a better place because of the examples these two have set, and many other leaders in that locker room." Six years. Half a dozen. Kiser dedi- cated one-fourth of his time on earth to date to the Notre Dame football pro- gram. His eyes weren't wet because Notre Dame lost a singular football game. The Fighting Irish lost 15 in his time on campus. His eyes were wet because never again will he have the chance to suit up, strap on a helmet and go for victory with what sophomore wide receiver Jaden Great- house called a "band of brothers." Not with this band of brothers, any- way. "It's about the people," Kiser said. "It's the people that's made this place different." Different and better. Notre Dame was one win away from the program's first national champion- ship since 1988, and the Fighting Irish actually had more people rooting for them to do it than not. It helped that Ohio State is largely unlikeable to the college football fan at large, but this was less about loathing one program and more about loving everything the other stands for. Notre Dame has generally been in the same class of detestation as Ohio State; it's always been easy to look down on all things Irish in the same way sports fans scoff at the New York Yankees or the New England Pa- triots in their heydays. And, with the Yankees, even now. Since Freeman became the head coach in South Bend, though, there's been less of that and more fawning. More respect. And maybe even a little rooting. Rooting, because it's easy to root for home- grown kids like Indiana native Jack Kiser. Root- ing, because it's easy to root for men of faith like Riley Leonard. Who points to a Bible verse printed on a wristband after scoring the first touchdown in a national champi- onship game? Leonard does. Leonard did. That's always been who Leonard is, but even he admitted through his time at Notre Dame he became an even better version of someone who didn't need any changing in the first place. Somehow, Notre Dame still changed him. And he changed Notre Dame. "We've learned a lot," Leonard said. "We've been through ups and downs. I've been through ups and downs. I don't even recognize the person I was before I got to Notre Dame, and it's all credit to these guys beside me and ev- erybody else in the locker room." After Leonard leaves, there will still be up and still be downs. That's life. And Notre Dame is not guaranteed to make it this far ever again. But it sure feels like the Fighting Irish are primed to, positioned to, and that's because guys like Leonard, Kiser and so many others paved the way. "They've left this place a better place, and I am very grateful to have been on the journey with them," Free- man said. ✦ Quarterback Riley Leonard (left) and linebacker Jack Kiser (right), who were among 16 Irish players who exhausted their eligibility in the national championship game against Ohio State, left the program in a better place than they found it. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER Irish Seniors Went Out Giving Everything They Could 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