Greg McElroy believes Riley Leonard is not 'anywhere near where he can be'

For the second straight season Notre Dame has found their QB1 through the transfer portal and the ACC conference, signing Riley Leonard this offseason from Duke after adding Sam Hartman from Wake Forest last year.

Leonard is a tremendous athlete, regarded as one of the best dual-threat quarterbacks in the country ahead of the 2024 season. But college football analyst Greg McElroy believes that he still has a lot of room to grow before taking his first snap for the Fighting Irish.

“Let’s be real for a second, I look at Riley Leonard, I think he’s got a really high ceiling,” McElroy said. “The problem is I don’t think he’s anywhere near where he can be, and this is gonna happen with downfield accuracy, accuracy on throws that travel 10 or more yards downfield.”

Leonard had a breakout sophomore season for Duke in 2022, throwing for 2,967 yards with 20 touchdowns while leading also leading the Blue Devils in rushing with 699 yards and 13 scores on the ground. But in 2023 he wasn’t able to match that same success or production.

“If you look at Riley Leonard he’s not an inaccurate player, but the consistency on the downfield throws just isn’t there. And part of that had to do with what he was asked to do at Duke, he was asked to rely a lot on his legs, especially against top competition à la Clemson Week 1,” McElroy said.

Leonard led Duke to an upset victory over the No. 9 ranked Tigers behind his 273 yards of total offense and one rushing touchdown. But four weeks later he suffered an ankle injury against his new school that allowed him to make just two more starts moving forward during a season where he didn’t look quite like himself. Ending 2023 with just 1,102 passing yards, three touchdowns, and three interceptions in his seven games.

“If you watch him, he’s getting the ball out really quickly because his offensive line at that time they weren’t sure how they were going to gel. So they asked their quarterback hey get the ball out, don’t let this defensive line, don’t let this pass rush for Clemson get home. So he was getting the ball out and then he kind of got hurt,” McElroy added. “So it’s tough to evaluate the ’23 season for Riley Leonard, but I think there’s a lot left in the tank. It’s just can he get there? That’s a big question.”

The good news for Leonard is that he will be joining forces with new offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock, who’s spent the last two season as the playcaller for LSU. Whose offense was electric in The Bayou, particularly last season fueled by Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels, who has a similar skillset to Leonard when healthy.

“Because if you actually look at what Mike Denbrock did with Jayden Daniels, Jayden Daniels had really good moments early in his career at Arizona State. Now, he was inconsistent, but he always had wheels. Well, Riley Leonard’s always had wheels, but there have been a lot of moments of inconsistency,” McElroy explained. “So hopefully Mike Denbrock can accelerate the development of Riley Leonard and he can look a little bit more like Jayden Daniels who brought home the Heisman Trophy last year, that would be tremendous.”

There’s no guaranteeing that Denbrock will turn Leonard into a Heisman Trophy caliber player, but the pairing is certainly one of the more exciting ones across college football heading into next season. As the Fighting Irish will be hoping Leonard can take their offense and program as a whole to new heights in 2024.