‘21 AL QB Riley Leonard (Duke Transfer - Notre Dame Verbal)

DillonHall

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Because next year you are going to be crying in your beer because you have a starting QB with zero game experience lining up week one vs Texas A&M who will have a vast improved QB playing with real game experience
It's a completely valid point if we get a second loss. But it's very strange to be concerned about next year when the team is ranked #8 and in the midst of a 6-game winning streak
 

Some Irish Bloke

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I was highly critical of him early on but agree that he has really improved. I think it goes to show you how important it is to be involved in the Spring/Offseason stuff as much as possible to gel with your guys and it was unfortunate he was hurt. It can't be easy learning a whole new offensive scheme with 8-10 new targets to throw to, not to mention some early attrition on the OL we had to deal with (playing MUCH better, as well).

Dude has balled out. If there are still people hung up on what happened almost 2 months ago, idk what to tell you, because you've been blind to some really solid QB play these past few weeks.

Keep it rollin, RL.
 

SDIrishFan

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I sort of shrugged off missing spring as "not that important". Turns out it was critical in this case as far as the development of Leonard and experience with this group of players.
 

FWIrish4

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If you haven’t listened to ISD’a Hit and Hustle today with Greg and Jamie, I recommend it. They had a pretty long segment on Leonard.

I’m paraphrasing, but Jamie had some interesting stats on Leonard:

- #11 in the country in adjusted completion % (taking out throwaways, etc) at 75%. That is 5% higher than he was any time at Duke

- #7 in rushing EPA of ALL players, not just QB’s. Insane production on the ground and why our red zone offense is so good.

- #4 in sacks taken per times pressured. I’ve argued this since Purdue when people wanted Angeli in. This is such an underrated aspect of his game that is ELITE and doesn’t show up in the stat box. He doesn’t take sacks and turns a lot of pressures into positive gains keeping us ahead of schedule and picking up first downs.

Denbrock is really starting to get what we hoped out of him. I don’t think we’ll ever underestimate the importance of a QB’s spring practice again.
 
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HouseofPain

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Weigman still sucks, though. He was 6-18 for 64 yards last night.
Next year wont be Weigman. A&Ms QB that rocked LSU wasnt Weigman, but Reed. He was unstoppable vs LSU and I believe you will see A&M take off this year with him in the game now. The guy runs like you wont believe and when the safety's come up to stop his run, he deep throws. Guy is gonna be tough to beat.
ND should have been developing those QBs over the last six weeks playing the crap competition that they have been playing. No excuse for next year getting wrecked because our starting QB has deer in the headlight eyes and piss soaked pants when he should have plenty to game experience by now.
Hey Im happy that ND is 7-1 now but no one can remotely say with a straight face that the competition has been even middling. A&M was the only quality opponent this year that would give a "good" team any reason to pause. Everyone else on that schedule would be roadkill and you guys know it.
 

KPENN

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Next year wont be Weigman. A&Ms QB that rocked LSU wasnt Weigman, but Reed. He was unstoppable vs LSU and I believe you will see A&M take off this year with him in the game now. The guy runs like you wont believe and when the safety's come up to stop his run, he deep throws. Guy is gonna be tough to beat.
ND should have been developing those QBs over the last six weeks playing the crap competition that they have been playing. No excuse for next year getting wrecked because our starting QB has deer in the headlight eyes and piss soaked pants when he should have plenty to game experience by now.
Hey Im happy that ND is 7-1 now but no one can remotely say with a straight face that the competition has been even middling. A&M was the only quality opponent this year that would give a "good" team any reason to pause. Everyone else on that schedule would be roadkill and you guys know it.
I seriously don’t understand your line of thinking. Are you saying ND should bench RL to play a younger QB to be ready for next season?
 

T-Boone

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That list of contenders does not look all that great. If love was getting more pill he could be on that list and towards the top.
 

Wild Bill

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Next year wont be Weigman. A&Ms QB that rocked LSU wasnt Weigman, but Reed. He was unstoppable vs LSU and I believe you will see A&M take off this year with him in the game now. The guy runs like you wont believe and when the safety's come up to stop his run, he deep throws. Guy is gonna be tough to beat.
ND should have been developing those QBs over the last six weeks playing the crap competition that they have been playing. No excuse for next year getting wrecked because our starting QB has deer in the headlight eyes and piss soaked pants when he should have plenty to game experience by now.
Hey Im happy that ND is 7-1 now but no one can remotely say with a straight face that the competition has been even middling. A&M was the only quality opponent this year that would give a "good" team any reason to pause. Everyone else on that schedule would be roadkill and you guys know it.
Let’s give it a few weeks to see how he does against a defense with film on him and a coordinator who designs a gameplan to stop him before we hand him the Heisman.
 

Irish4life

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What do we think the chances are that Leonard could get a medical redshirt and play at ND in 2025?
 

NDohio

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Next year wont be Weigman. A&Ms QB that rocked LSU wasnt Weigman, but Reed. He was unstoppable vs LSU and I believe you will see A&M take off this year with him in the game now. The guy runs like you wont believe and when the safety's come up to stop his run, he deep throws. Guy is gonna be tough to beat.
ND should have been developing those QBs over the last six weeks playing the crap competition that they have been playing. No excuse for next year getting wrecked because our starting QB has deer in the headlight eyes and piss soaked pants when he should have plenty to game experience by now.
Hey Im happy that ND is 7-1 now but no one can remotely say with a straight face that the competition has been even middling. A&M was the only quality opponent this year that would give a "good" team any reason to pause. Everyone else on that schedule would be roadkill and you guys know it.
Reed looked terrible against both Bowling Green and Arkansas. He was barely over 50% completion rate in those two games and Arkansas held him in check on the ground (1.3 yards per carry). LSU made him look like an all world QB while he only attempted two passes in that half against them. That's not sustainable. I'm not worried about Reed...
 

HouseofPain

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I seriously don’t understand your line of thinking. Are you saying ND should bench RL to play a younger QB to be ready for next season?
No Im saying that the backups should have been playing a LOT of time in the last six weeks against the cupcake soft competition that ND has been playing. 49-7, 51-14, 31-13, 66-7,28-3 Cmon man the backup QBs should have been in by halftime. Instead, you see RL tossing or running for TDs late in the third quarter. Bad coaching by a subpar coach that will come back to bite us next year.
 

Jimmy3Putt

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No Im saying that the backups should have been playing a LOT of time in the last six weeks against the cupcake soft competition that ND has been playing. 49-7, 51-14, 31-13, 66-7,28-3 Cmon man the backup QBs should have been in by halftime. Instead, you see RL tossing or running for TDs late in the third quarter. Bad coaching by a subpar coach that will come back to bite us next year.

Maybe they plan on starting Steve next year?
He’s been getting reps.
 

HouseofPain

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Maybe they plan on starting Steve next year?
He’s been getting reps.
Very, very little. Can you honestly say you feel confident in him leading ND vs Texas A&M week 1 based off the handful of throws he has made as a backup QB in the waning minutes of the blowout games when he just handed off the ball to the backup RBs?
 

notredomer23

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No Im saying that the backups should have been playing a LOT of time in the last six weeks against the cupcake soft competition that ND has been playing. 49-7, 51-14, 31-13, 66-7,28-3 Cmon man the backup QBs should have been in by halftime. Instead, you see RL tossing or running for TDs late in the third quarter. Bad coaching by a subpar coach that will come back to bite us next year.

I for one hope Marcus Freeman is focused on winning this season, and Riley Leonard's improvement is critical to that. We've seen him improve quite a bit since the first bye week until now and he's only going to do that with more reps.
 

Te'o4Heisman

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Reed looked terrible against both Bowling Green and Arkansas. He was barely over 50% completion rate in those two games and Arkansas held him in check on the ground (1.3 yards per carry). LSU made him look like an all world QB while he only attempted two passes in that half against them. That's not sustainable. I'm not worried about Reed...
Not to mention whether successful or not the goal each week has to be to throttle our opponents to build a playoff resume, not let 31-3 halftime leads turn into 38-17 wins because we took a foot off the gas at halftime. Fictional score example but you get the point.
 

benneboy

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Next year wont be Weigman. A&Ms QB that rocked LSU wasnt Weigman, but Reed. He was unstoppable vs LSU and I believe you will see A&M take off this year with him in the game now. The guy runs like you wont believe and when the safety's come up to stop his run, he deep throws. Guy is gonna be tough to beat.
ND should have been developing those QBs over the last six weeks playing the crap competition that they have been playing. No excuse for next year getting wrecked because our starting QB has deer in the headlight eyes and piss soaked pants when he should have plenty to game experience by now.
Hey Im happy that ND is 7-1 now but no one can remotely say with a straight face that the competition has been even middling. A&M was the only quality opponent this year that would give a "good" team any reason to pause. Everyone else on that schedule would be roadkill and you guys know it.
You're too high in Marcel Reed. There is already tape on him from earlier in the year. He's late and inaccurate on anything over 10 yards, struggles to see the field, and can make their offense one dimensional. He's also about 180 lbs. Maybe he progresses in those areas but unstoppable he is not at this point.
 
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