Riley Leonard cites family atmosphere at Notre Dame as the best part of his transfer

New Notre Dame quarterback and Duke transfer Riley Leonard may be one of the stars on the South Bend campus, but he says the transition to ND wasn’t completely seamless.

“Yeah, it was good. You know, it’s tough,” he commented on the move to Notre Dame after several years with the Blue Devils. Sure, Leonard’s the QB at Notre Dame, a pretty prestigious gig, but even he says that acclimating to a brand new school had its challenges.

“We’re kids just like everybody else, like, I’m a kid at a new school that didn’t know anybody. Okay, like, we’re quarterbacks and it’s cool or whatever, but we got to make friends just like everybody else.”

Of course, having to sit out thanks to a TightRope procedure on his right ankle shortly after transferring didn’t help that transition process. “So it was kind of a tough transition for me,” he added “I got there and had to get surgery, it’s been a lot.”

Luckily, though, Leonard says he’s been blessed with a great group of guys on the team he’s really started to get to know.

“But the easiest part has been the family atmosphere at Notre Dame, and the fact I can relate to my teammates so well. Best people in the world, love those guys.”

Leonard also emphasized that the surgery back in winter is behind him and he’s feeling 100% ready to go this summer as the season approaches. “Healthy, healthy, healthy. I can’t stress that enough. I’m very healthy,” he said.

Thanks to that injury dating back to last season, Leonard only played in seven games in 2023 under Mike Elko at Duke. He was dealing with that ankle injury dating back to, coincidently, the Notre Dame game in Durham. Even so, Leonard was still able to put up 1,102 passing yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions in ’23.

All told, Riley Leonard completed a very productive career with the Blue Devils. The 6’4 215-pound QB threw for 4,450 yards and 24 TDs and added 1,224 yards and 19 scores running in his three years at Duke. He’s a true dual-threat guy.

Leonard played high school football at Fairhope (AL) High School, where he was a three-star prospect. He was the No. 554 overall recruit in the 2021 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Rankings, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.