How Notre Dame's offense will change with Riley Leonard at QB

Notre Dame has dipped into the ACC quarterback well for the second straight season to pluck out a likely one-year starter for its football team. In steps Duke‘s Riley Leonard.

And after a somewhat disappointing go of things with Wake Forest‘s Sam Hartman in 2023, the Fighting Irish are ready to mix things up.

“I think they run it to his flavor, for sure,” Blue and Gold’s Tyler Horka said on the Andy Staples On3 show.

Horka gave a perfect example of how Leonard’s skill set can be used, and it’s an example Notre Dame fans should be plenty familiar with at this point.

“I look at the Notre Dame-Duke game as an example of this, where Duke did it, and that’s just good coaching,” Horka said. “Riley Leonard threw 27 passes in that game. He only completed 13. It was clear that Notre Dame’s defense, the No. 1 pass efficiency defense in the country, was going to take some things away from, let’s face it, a lesser Duke offense. You don’t have the same athletes at Duke as you do at Notre Dame and you’re trying to pass on the best pass defense in the country.

“What did they do? They started running Riley Leonard a little bit more and it worked. He was running quarterback power, quarterback draws, quarterback sweeps. Everything was working against a very good Notre Dame defense. So I think you see Gerad Parker do some of those things.”

Leonard is one of the nation’s most elite runners from the quarterback position, though he didn’t get to show it quite as much in 2023 as his season was cut short due to injury.

Still, in 2022 he ran for 699 yards and 13 touchdowns.

That’s not to say Notre Dame will plan exclusively around his running ability, though. The Fighting Irish have been active in the NCAA transfer portal picking up new targets for Leonard.

“You bring in Beaux Collins as a wide receiver transfer,” Horka said. “Kris Mitchell, I know he wasn’t doing it at a very big institution, Florida International’s not Notre Dame, but you see some things on tape that he could bring to Notre Dame and maybe make some of those downfield catches. Because Riley Leonard can do it all. He can run, he can pass, but you have to have the guys that he can pass to. I think Kris Mitchell’s going to be one of those. Jayden Thomas needs to stay healthy.”

Right or wrong, Leonard will walk into a situation with some pressure. The team’s failure to do more with Hartman under center has created some uneasiness in South Bend.

Leonard will be counted on to set things straight.

“It’s interesting. Gerad Parker has a lot of heat on his shoulders because you didn’t get the most out of Sam Hartman that you would have liked to,” Horka said. “You’ve got to get the most out of Riley Leonard because he’s a true dual-threat quarterback and if you can do things in the pass game and the run game that kind of fit to his style of play, you can go 10-2, you can go maybe even 11-1 and make the College Football Playoff, and I’m sure Riley Leonard would love to do that.”