Notre Dame football announces 2024 captains
Notre Dame football has named five captains for the 2024 season: graduate student linebacker Jack Kiser, senior quarterback Riley Leonard, graduate student defensive tackle Rylie Mills, junior cornerback Benjamin Morrison and graduate student safety Xavier Watts.
Leonard is the second straight transfer quarterback to be named captain in his first season with the Irish, following Sam Hartman in 2023.
Each of Notre Dame’s captains will wear the “C” for the first time, with all four captains from last season — Hartman, offensive tackle Joe Alt, linebacker JD Bertrand and cornerback Cam Hart — moving on to the NFL.
Leonard came to South Bend from Duke, and he immediately made progress toward winning the locker room as the likely starting quarterback. He created a Quizlet set to memorize the names and faces of every Notre Dame player before he arrived, down to the walk-ons.
“He knew everyone’s name the day he came in here and when you’re a freshman walk-on and the grad-transfer quarterback comes in and knows your name, I think that’s a pretty cool deal,” quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli said.
It was difficult for Leonard to lead during the spring, when he was sidelined with multiple ankle surgeries after missing the back end of the 2023 season. But starting in May when he organized a trip to his hometown of Fairhope, Ala. for himself, his wide receivers, freshman quarterback CJ Carr and Irish quarterback commit Deuce Knight, Leonard earned the respect of his teammates on and off the field.
“He doesn’t lead by being a rah-rah guy, he’s going to lead by example,” Guidugli said. “So you really start to see his leadership come out when he could start being at more of the workouts in the summer. In the spring when you’re not out there it’s hard to go out and be a leader.”
Kiser chose to return for his sixth season, and he leads a young linebacker room that sees him more as a coach than a player. He’ll be a significant contributor to Notre Dame’s defense as well, headlining a linebacker rotation that includes himself, a freshman, two sophomores and one junior.
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Morrison is the second-straight true junior to be named captain, following Alt. Like Alt, Morrison is a consensus top-15 NFL Draft prospect. Also like Alt, Morrison took a huge step toward becoming a vocal leader over the offseason.
Irish head coach Marcus Freeman invited Morrison to speak at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Jack and Kathy Shields Family Hall, introducing him as a player and person who embodies everything Notre Dame football is about.
Elsewhere on defense, Mills has taken an active leadership role in coaching up the younger players in the defensive line room. During one practice in fall camp, defensive line coach Al Washington praised Mills for doing so in an individual drill. He’s been especially helpful with sophomore defensive tackle Armel Mukam, who broke into the back end of the DT rotation this season.
Watts rounds out the group, coming off a Bronko Nagurski Trophy-winning season as the nation’s best defensive player. He’s the longest-tenured member of the secondary, choosing to return for his fifth year after his breakout campaign.
Notre Dame begins its 2024 season against Texas A&M at 7:30 p.m. ET on Aug. 31 in College Station, Texas.
