Marcus Freeman addresses quarterback battle between Riley Leonard, Steve Angeli

Fall Camp is underway for Notre Dame. With that, have come questions for head coach Marcus Freeman about a potential quarterback battle between Riley Leonard and Steve Angeli.

Freeman addressed that battle following the first practice for Notre Dame, explaining that right now Leonard is working with the first string unit.

“Riley is going with the ones. Steve’s going with the twos,” Marcus Freeman said. “I didn’t get a chance to watch a whole bunch of seven-on-seven. I was with the other group, but I’ll go back and watch film.”

Riley Leonard is in his first season with the Notre Dame program after transferring in from Duke. However, injuries have derailed his practice time and ability to workout throughout the offseason. Now, he’s starting to get pushed by Steve Angeli.

“The time that I was over there, I was pleased with both of them,” Freeman said. “They both made some good plays in those last two periods and, again, this is day one and I’m sure there’s a lot of learning but I’m excited for what they’ll do.”

A three-star recruit, Riley Leonard was ranked as the 36th best quarterback recruit in the Class of 2021, according to the On3 Industry Ranking. He went on to Duke, where he found plenty of success before his season in 2023 was cut short due to injury. During that time, Leonard played in 27 games for the Blue Devils and had a 61.7 completion percentage for 4,450 yards and 24 touchdowns to 10 interceptions. He also ran for 1,224 yards and 19 touchdowns.

As for Steve Angeli, he came to Notre Dame as a three-star recruit in the Class of 2022. He was the 33rd-ranked quarterback in that cycle. He’s played in 10 games, completing 34 out of 44 passes for 504 yards and seven touchdowns. He also took reps with the first team in the spring.

Regardless of who Notre Dame plays at quarterback, it’s been a position of change for the Irish in recent seasons. In the past three seasons, the Irish have brought in transfers to play quarterback, including Sam Hartman and Jack Coan. Drew Pyne and Tyler Buchner also saw reps during that time in games.

Riley Leonard embracing heightened pressure, expectations at Notre Dame

Riley Leonard knows expectations are high at Notre Dame. He also knows that it’s what he dreamed of growing up.

“This is what every kid dreams of. Everybody wants to be the quarterback at Notre Dame,” Leonard said.

“The support that we have all around the country us like no other. So, I feel like, the expectations, and the pressure, but I embrace it. We all embrace it. We understand what the expectations are, and trust me, we’re putting more pressure on ourselves to win than anybody, so it’s going to be a lot of fun this year.”