Notre Dame knew it would hear its name on Selection Sunday, so quarterback Riley Leonard wasn’t too nervous about the day itself. He was actually ready to get it over with. By then he had grown weary of what he referred to as 120 amateur bracketologists — err, teammates — guessing the Fighting Irish’s first-round opponent in the College Football Playoff.
“I was just rolling my eyes all week,” Leonard said, smiling. “They thought they could perfectly predict all 12 teams that were going to be in the bracket and they knew exactly what was going to happen and who we’re going to play. I heard a lot of different takes, and I didn’t really care. Like, can we just get to Sunday?”
He just wanted to know who he’d be playing, and he wanted to get to work. Then, the matchup flashed on the screen: No. 7 Notre Dame vs. No. 10 Indiana. Friday night, under the lights in South Bend, Ind. Leonard was pumped.
“It’s huge for the state of Indiana — we’ve been talking about it becoming a football state,” Leonard said. “It’s notorious for basketball, for obvious reasons.”
He smiled. This type of matchup with these kinds of stakes is exactly why he picked Notre Dame a year ago. He said he left Duke and hopped into the transfer portal last year because he wanted an opportunity to play for a national championship. He knew the 12-team CFP era was about to begin, and Notre Dame was going to be well-positioned to make it year-in and year-out.
“To be here right now, it’s really fulfilling,” Leonard said. “You know you made the right decision. And I knew I made the right decision right away, but this reassurance is really good, obviously. Notre Dame fans have been talking about this day since I committed — the 12-team Playoff. They were all over it. So, we’re able to grant their wish.”
That’s not to say it’s all been easy, or that getting to this point was a straight line. Leonard had multiple offseason surgeries on his right ankle. He missed all of spring practice. And then, after working his way back to health and starting to get real experience in a new offense, the Irish lost to Northern Illinois in the season’s most stunning upset.
The day after the loss, head coach Marcus Freeman told Leonard something he’ll never forget. Freeman said there will come a day and time in which Leonard admitted he was thankful for the experience of that humbling loss. It’s been three months since the head coach shared that message. In that time, Leonard led Notre Dame to 10 consecutive wins, many in blowout fashion, and now a Playoff appearance.
As it turns out, that moment of gratitude is here.
“It’s hard for me to even say I’m thankful for it, but I am,” Leonard said. “(Coach) said he was thankful for, in the previous years, similar losses, that they’ve (helped him grow) as a person. And I just sat there like, ‘Dude, there’s no way. There’s no way I’m ever going to say that.’ But here we are.
“It drove us the rest of the year. (Freeman) always said to ‘keep the pain’ before every game. He said, ‘Keep that pain, because you don’t want to have that feeling again.’”
In some ways, Notre Dame was the first team into the Playoff — three months ago. The Irish have been playing “make-or-break games for 10 games straight,” as Leonard put it. “Every game has been, either you make the Playoff, or you don’t.”
So, the Irish simply didn’t lose. And now they’ll face a team in Indiana that also did a lot of winning this season. The losingest program in college football history won 11 games in the regular season for the first time, one of the best stories of the entire season. The Hoosiers have veteran players who are well-prepared and well-disciplined. They don’t beat themselves, and they never walk onto a field and believe they’re overmatched. They’ll be ready for the Irish; Leonard said he expects “a dog fight.”
Tickets are reselling for thousands of dollars. Fans are hoping for snow. And students have the very first on-campus College Football Playoff game to look forward to at the end of finals week.
“I wouldn’t say they’re prioritizing it over finals, but it gives them hope,” Leonard said, smiling. “They’ve got something good coming.”
