ATLANTA — At Notre Dame, the bar for legendary status is high. This is the school that gave us Rudy, after all, and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and Knute Rockne, and “Win One For The Gipper.” You’ve got to work hard to etch your name alongside those legends.
That said … leading your team to a stunning touchdown, displaying your faith on national TV, and then puking on the sidelines, all in the space of about 30 seconds, might just qualify.
Riley Leonard and Notre Dame did not win the national championship on Monday night, losing to Ohio State, 34-23. Truth be told, they weren't really even in the game for very long. Ohio State scored on its first five possessions, posted a 31-7 lead, and never worried too much about Notre Dame after that opening drive.
Oh, but what an opening drive it was. An 8½-point underdog coming into the game, given little to no chance by most analysts, Notre Dame took the opening kickoff and, under the guidance of Leonard, crafted an 18-play, 75-yard drive that devoured the first 9:45 of the clock.
The drive featured not one, but two fourth-and-1 all-in gambles as Leonard threw himself into the teeth of the Ohio State defensive line. He converted both, then took the ball into the end zone himself. Leonard’s final line on that possession: 31 yards passing, 34 yards rushing, one touchdown.
On that touchdown, Leonard powered through the line — again — and stomped right over the “R” in “NOTRE DAME.” He found a TV camera in the back of the end zone and lifted his right arm to display the Bible verse on his wrist — Matthew 23:12, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
After the game, he was characteristically humble, praising both his teammates and his opposition. He leaned heavily on his faith, showing grace in defeat and acknowledging the faith of Ohio State’s players as well as his own.
“I'm happy to see godly men come out on top no matter what the circumstance is,” he said. “I'm very happy to praise Jesus in the lowest of lows, as well.”
As for that opening drive, well — to Leonard, it was the purest distillation of what he and the Irish offense could do.
“We just came out and played Notre Dame football, took advantage of our matchups when we had to,” Leonard said after the game. “We just drove the ball down the field. We had to run the ball a little bit. Everything was just clicking.”
It was, in short, a perfect drive. But it was an unsustainable pace, and everyone on the Notre Dame sideline knew it.
“We couldn't run Riley every play,” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said later. “It's not right for Riley, and it's not going to sustain the success we needed offensively.”
“If Coach wants to call my number and have me run the ball every single play,” Leonard said, “I've got no problem with it.”
It was apparent as soon as Leonard left the field that something was up, however; he began throwing up on the sidelines. He attributed it to falling on the ball a couple times, which is certainly a possibility. But whether or not the internal distress affected him, Leonard conceded that he wasn’t the same quarterback the rest of the half.
“The next couple drives maybe I got relaxed a little bit, and I can't let that happen,” he said. “And I apologize to everybody for the way that I played after that drive in the second quarter because it's unacceptable.”
Leonard found his rhythm again in the second half, hitting Jaden Greathouse for touchdowns of 34 and 30 yards.
“That's kind of what the message was at halftime,” Leonard said. “We've got nothing else to lose. It's the last game no matter what. Might as well go out there and sling the rock and trust your guys.”
But by then, the damage had been done, the deficit too vast to overcome. Ohio State could run out the clock on the game and on Leonard’s college career. The final line: 22 of 31, 255 yards, two touchdowns in the air and one on the ground, no interceptions. As clean a sheet as you could hope for against the national champions, and one that might help Leonard’s prospects going forward. A trip to Mobile for the Senior Bowl and a wait — perhaps a long wait — for a phone call on NFL Draft weekend await. But he’s carved his name into Notre Dame lore, and he’s fine with that.
“The character of this place, it's kind of hard to describe,” he said Monday night. “I think I've grown so much just because of the people around me.”
Just before he left for the season’s final trip to Atlanta, Leonard paid a visit to the Grotto on Notre Dame’s campus. A small cave meant for prayer and contemplation, the Grotto gave Leonard the chance to reflect on his life, his career playing football. He’d spent three years at Duke, playing through highs and lows, injuries and triumphs, and he’d spent this magical season at Notre Dame, leading the team back from that early season loss to Northern Illinois all the way to a lead in the national championship.
“If you were to tell me this like five years ago that I'd be sitting here today, I'd say you're dang right,” he said earlier this week, “but at the same time, I would say, ‘How did we get there, dude?’ Yeah, it's been a crazy ride.”
The ride came to an end Monday night. But what a ride it was, for Leonard and for Notre Dame. “I don't even recognize the person I was before I got to Notre Dame,” he said after the game, motioning to Freeman and linebacker Jack Kiser, “and it's all credit to these guys beside me and everybody else in the locker room.”
About that locker room. On his hand before the game, Leonard wrote another Bible verse: Proverbs 27:17, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” Leonard sharpened the entire Irish team this year. He may not have ascended into Gipper territory, but it’ll be a long time before the Irish forget what Riley Leonard did for them, this year and this night.
