Notre Dame Fighting Irish College Football Pregame Quote, 12/30/2024

Q. Between the NIU game and now, where has – what has been the key to how much better this offense functions now than it did the first couple weeks of the season?

RILEY LEONARD: Yeah, I think the biggest thing is not caring what people think. Once you lose a game like that, you can’t say any worse things and people can’t think many worse things about you, so you got nothing to do but respond and not care at that point and play freely. And that’s what we’ve done.

We’ve had our back against the wall. We’ve said it before, but every game has been like a playoff game for us ever since that NIU loss. So I think it’s playing freely, not caring what people think. Just having fun with this thing because I only got one chance at it. I would hate to look back and live with any regret.

Q. This is what the 12-team playoff was built for. Teams get better as the season goes along. And for your situation, coming off the spring injury and first year in the program, everybody is feeling out how it all fits together. You should be rewarded for getting better as the year goes along, this is finally the year that can happen?

RILEY LEONARD: Right, and hopefully, people can notice that. I don’t think I recognize the player that was playing early on in the season. I just didn’t understand the offense quite as much. I missed spring ball and most of the summer. That’s not to make excuses, but reps matter. And practice after practice after practice, everybody sees the game days, but I’m having five practices a week before game day. Just constantly getting better. Constantly learning the offense, making checks, going through my progressions.

So we’ve made a lot of progress throughout the season. And I don’t think we’ve even come close to reaching our full potential yet.

Q. How many times have you gone back and watched the film from that game (Northern Illinois University)?

RILEY LEONARD: I’ll probably go back and watch after the season. I don’t want to be reminded of it quite yet. But yeah, I already know what to expect.

Q. That’s got to be a good feeling, too, of like, I don’t look like that anymore. It’s one thing if you have to go back and tape still looks that way. It’s another thing when you can say, look what the difference three months have made?

RILEY LEONARD: Yeah, it would be a scary thing if I looked back and I was like, oh, man, I made that throw early in the season, but I can’t now. That would be scarier than what I’m going through.

Yeah, I’m probably ‚Äì I know I am at a point in my career where I have the most confidence in my game, and I understand this offense probably better than any offense I’ve ever been in the past.

Q. When you look at Georgia and y’all’s preparation, especially on their defensive side of the ball, what’s been some things y’all have noticed that are key for you guys in practicing in the last week or so?

RILEY LEONARD: Number one, you got to win the line of scrimmage. That was one of our keys to victory against Indiana. You have to control the line of scrimmage and win that up front. Stay above the chains. A lot of the games they’ve won in the past, teams have gotten behind the chains almost every single possession, whether that’s pre-snap penalties or sacks. So we got to do those things really, really well to give ourselves a chance.

And then just play situational football. Do the little things right. They do a lot of things on the backend and show up in different fronts, so we got to be able to control all that. Coach [Marcus Freeman] says one of our superpowers is the type of player you have in the locker room. You got some of the smartest kids in the country, so we need to use that our advantage. Our preparation and the way we work and the way we communicate nodes to be an advantage for us.

Q. What kind of game do you have to have in order to have success come Wednesday night to beat those guys?

RILEY LEONARD: Yeah, obviously, a good one, but I try not to think about that too much. The moment I start to say, All right, I need to throw this many yards and score this many touchdowns is the moment I get off track. My job is to win the football game however it presents itself.

You have to take into consideration all variables when you’re controlling the game and playing quarterback. What do I have to play like? Shoot, I don’t know, my job is to win the football game, so however that may look.

Q. What would you say comes to mind when you think about Kirby Smart and his defense and the defense you’ve studied this year?

RILEY LEONARD: Yeah, obviously, growing up in Alabama, watched a lot of Georgia football in the past. And they do a really good job. Like I said, I lot of different fronts, a lot of different coverages on the backend. We got to be great in protection there. They’re going to be really well coached and fly around and have a lot of really good athletes. Like I said, we play our game, control the line of scrimmage, and stay above the chains, we’ll be all right.

Q. Do you think it’s an opportunity Notre Dame to go against a defense like this? Do for the narrative about the school against SEC teams ‚Äì

RILEY LEONARD: Yeah, I think it will be really good. Being a non-conference team sometimes can be hard to prove ourselves, and this is a great opportunity to do so on the national stage. What we can control and all we can control is who is in front of us and how we play the game. So at the end of the day, just got to go out there and play Notre Dame football like we’ve been doing all year.

Q. Any advantage to you guys playing – the flow of the season opposed to Georgia having to wait three weeks?

RILEY LEONARD: I think so. Three weeks is a lot of time off. And we spent two weeks off before Indiana, and it felt like an eternity. We were just waiting and waiting and waiting.

So I think it was an advantage to have that game under our belt. Not being able to play in a conference championship, you want to be able to experience a playoff-type atmosphere or a game a lot of stakes on the line. So it was good to have that game under our belt.

And our preparation for that game kind of looked different because we had finals. And that’s no joke. These dudes, as soon as practice ends, these dudes were going to library and stuff, going to study, going to take finals. The it’s crazy. And being from Duke, I kind of understand that, but it really is something special. But now with that finished, we are able to just focus on Georgia, which has been a really big help for us.

Q. What’s it been like in the City of New Orleans? You come down and play, and they got the band playing. What’s the atmosphere in New Orleans?

RILEY LEONARD: Yeah, New Orleans is a very special place. Obviously, being a couple hours from here, I’ve experienced it, but a lot of these guys are from the Northeast, so for them to be able to come down here and enjoy the warmer weather than what we’re used to, everybody is talking about how different street names are pronounced and beignets and all these special things about New Orleans. There’s a lot of cool things and traditions here that we really appreciate.

Q. You go to the [Caesars] Superdome much growing up?

RILEY LEONARD: I haven’t been to the Superdome, surprisingly, but I’ve been to the [Smoothi] King Center to watch the Pelicans, so that was a lot of fun.

Q. So what do you think about playing there? Obviously, it’s an iconic half-century-old stadium.

RILEY LEONARD: Absolutely. A lot of history there. A lot of history there with Katrina and all that. Growing up, it’s this mecca of the southern part of the country, and it’s a special place. Drew Brees, one of my favorite players growing up, so it will be a lot of fun to step out there. Luckily, we’ll have practice there today and tomorrow. So it won’t be like we’re going in the first time. We’ll understand the stadium a little bit before getting in there.

Q. A funny thing about your story, you were under recruited, probably more appreciated as a basketball player. Go to Duke and people overlook you. You come here and struggle early. A lot of people have probably told you suck at some point. But that’s always been the thing that’s kept up grounded. It’s such ‚Äì usually, has there been a point where you worried?

RILEY LEONARD: Not really. I’ve always had a lot of confidence in myself. Obviously, when you hit some lows. Sometimes you’re like, dang. But I’ve never been to that point quite yet. Hopefully, never will. I don’t think I ever will. Yeah, it’s always good to get humbled. And when people are saying bad things about you, I remind myself, that’s why I do it. My mom can say I suck, but who cares what everybody else thinks. So it’s always good to remind myself of that.

Q. Gunner Stockton making his first career start for Georgia. What do you remember about your first start at Duke and then when you stepped on the field at Notre Dame?

RILEY LEONARD: My first start. Yeah, he’s more talented a player than I was my freshman year. I went to Virginia Tech for my first start. It was about 17 degrees. 30 mile-per-hour winds. Man, I had no clue what I was doing.

I actual remember running out the tunnel for that game, and I left my mouthpiece in the locker room. So everybody else is running that way. I get about 15, 20 steps in, turn back around which is a terrible idea. Somebody could have grabbed it for me. But I’m running the opposite direction looking for my mouthpiece. That whole experience was just awful during the moment but hilarious to think about now.