Riley Leonard embracing heightened pressure, expectations at Notre Dame: 'This is what every kid dreams of'

Riley Leonard isn’t shying away from the expectations that’ll be placed upon his shoulders as the leader of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

While the college football world recognized his abilities with the Duke Blue Devils, being the quarterback in South Bend is a whole different animal. Still, Leonard, even though he’s coming off a major injury, is ready for the challenge it’ll present. In fact, he’s excited for it.

“This is what every kid dreams of. Everybody wants to be the quarterback at Notre Dame,” Leonard said, regarding the pressure of leading the Fighting Irish, via an appearance on ESPN’s Get Up on Friday. “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.”

Alas, the expectations placed on Leonard and the Fighting Irish will be grand, but they’ll still pale in comparison to the ones they place on themselves. Will they be able to live up to them? Now, that remains to be seen.

Regardless, Riley Leonard has said all the right things leading up to his first season with the Fighting Irish, and the sky is the limit if he can live up to his potential in South Bend.

Riley Leonard reveals the biggest difference playing at Notre Dame

Moreover, Riley Leonard made a big jump this offseason, leaving Duke and transferring to Notre Dame, where he’s in line to be the starting quarterback. And so far, Leonard has noticed so differences between the two places.

Speaking at the Manning Passing Academy recently, Leonard dished on the differences. The biggest ones manifest mostly from the fervent following that Notre Dame football has.

“Obviously there’s a lot of social media attention that comes with it. I don’t really go on social media, so I’m not sure on that scale,” Leonard said. 

While it was evident he didn’t want to disparage the Duke faithful, Leonard acknowledged there’s a different level of investment around South Bend. 

“But I will say, walking around South Bend, you drive 15, 20, 30 minutes off campus, you’re still going to get some diehard Irish fans, which is really cool and I embrace,” Leonard said. “I think just the community as a whole is probably more into the football side of things, for sure.” 

On3’s Andrew Graham contributed to this article.