Pete Thamel tells story of Riley Leonard using Quizlet to learn teammates' names

In a college football offseason loaded with different stories and headlines, it’s hard to compete with the player movement that occurred through the transfer portal. With big-time moves occurring that will likely impact the outcomes of games and seasons for the nation’s top programs this upcoming season.

Former Duke quarterback Riley Leonard joining Notre Dame was first and biggest transfers of the offseason. But also provided college football insider Pete Thamel with one of his favorite stories of the offseason when he met up with the new Notre Dame quarterback.

“I said, ‘Hey Riley, how did you learn all your teammates? Like it’s hard to walk in on campus and do that.’ There’s an app, I’m sure Chris Davis used it at his various institutions, called Quizlet. You ever heard of this app Rece?” Thamel asked Rece Davis on the College GameDay Podcast.

Davis was not familiar with Quizlet, the website and app used primarily as a study tool for students. Which Leonard used instead to study up on his teammates ahead of his arrival at Notre Dame.

“So Quizlet, you and I call them flashcards, but we didn’t have iPhones,” Thamel explained. “And he put all, let’s just say, 100 of his teammates, walk-ons, everybody. He put all of their pictures and their names in Quizlet and he memorized everyone’s name and face.”

The former Duke student-athlete showed off his academic side and passed his self-made assignment with flying colors according to Thamel. Likely more familiar with his teammates that some of the Fighting Irish’s returning players following his study sessions.

“So the first day he walked in if Rece Davis was the backup long snapper from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, he would walk in and be like, ‘What’s up Rece? How was your break and Muscle Shoals?’ The back of long snapper is like how does he know who I am? He said that he went like 100 for 100, he said he didn’t get one guy’s name wrong,” Thamel said.

The effort put forth by Leonard is a tedious and small gesture that could potentially go a long way for Notre Dame. Showing great initiative as he looks to lead the program this upcoming season despite it representing his only year with the team.

“So anyway, but I thought that was instructive,” Thamel said. “People are like oh yeah, he’ll just go in and start. It’s like well it’s kind of hard, like these guys have to be rallied around you. They have to like you, have to be connected to them, you have to be you have to build, you have to build through adversity sometimes. But that was one of my favorite stories of the offseason.”

It will be fascinating to see how Leonard performs for Notre Dame’s new-look offense for his senior years, as all eyes will be on him in Week 1 as the Fighting Irish visit Texas A&M and his former head coach Mike Elko in a game that will be featured on ESPN’s College GameDay.