It’s hard to find another Riley Leonard in the storied history of Notre Dame football. If he sticks to the Irish for his entire collegiate career, there might be a greater legacy blooming down the stretch. But since it’s not the case and the standout QB is all up for stepping into the next chapter in his career and this time as a pro, it’s time to a harbored look back. Riley has the talent, numbers, and magnetic presence to impress the NFL scouts, but it’s the past injury horror that can hold teams back from landing him. But at the same time, his resilience throughout the rough patch can still show and make a reverse case.
With his final year of eligibility, the former Duke talent enrolled at Notre Dame and was immediately handed the responsibility to lead the team’s offense as the starting quarterback entering the 2024 season. Leonard went 14-2 as a starter while pushing the Irish to the National Championship Game. He rushed for nearly 1,000 yards in addition to his passing production. With his extraordinary arms and legs, Leonard engineered drives of 75 and 72 yards to lead Notre Dame to two touchdowns in the third quarter against Penn State late in the season and took his team to a historic national championship appearance.
Although the Irish couldn’t lift the trophy, Riley remained the man of the smoke light of the season. But it was not the same at the beginning. His momentum fizzled out quickly with the resurgence of a past ankle ailment right after he came to Notre Dame, but the worst was registered during his time at Duke.
”I had a high ankle spray in there, ended up recovering from that, played three games, later tweaked it a little bit more, and then played the next game against Louisville and had turf toe,” Riley opened up on his misery with the Blue Devils on March 5th episode of Whoop podcast. He underwent two procedures in the Irish offseason, including a TightRope procedure in mid-January to adjust the right ankle and another surgery in March to address a stress fracture that could get worse if not treated right then.
Diving deeper into his ankle complications, Riley continued, ”So, for anybody who doesn’t know what turf toe is, pretty much toes stuck into the ground hyperextends because your foot’s not really able to slip out on Turf as well as it is grasser, and I could be completely wrong with it. I’m pretty sure what it is, then toe hyper-extends had to get surgery on that so that surgery was done in November and that’s like a four-month recovery process, so in November I have the surgery I go through the whole transfer cycle on crutches.”
The process was as frustrating as it sounds. The veteran QB didn’t want to take a visit to Marcus Freeman’s program in those clutches, ignoring the repeated plea from the team. He waited for some time before getting there but still couldn’t get off to a good start. Ironically, the Irish offensive Howard Cross sacked him to the point of a right ankle hurt, and they had to pay for it. The Irish team members used to crack jokes on that, but missing the winter workouts and spring practice took a heavy toll on the confidence of the current NFL hopeful, regardless. But there is one, rather two mindsets that kept him grounded.
Leonard Riley thanked his all-time savior for providing him strength during the upheaval journey
Leonard rolled into the best version of himself during his first year in South Bend. He has racked up 2861 yards, 21 touchdowns, and eight interceptions on an elite 66.7 completion percentage. Leonard has also 751 rushing yards and 15 rushing touchdowns as his career highs. But all this would have remained as a farfetched dream if Riley hadn’t decided to cope with his initial tough time with courage. The source of his courage? Not even a question, as always, the supreme, the divine, the holy father, whatever you may call it.
There were two things that kind of stuck out to me, number one is that I always told myself if I knew what the Lord knew, I wouldn’t ask any questions, so who am I to sit around and ask him like why I’m in the situation that I’m in because he’s probably just up there chuckling thinking like you’re like you’re so shallow-minded Riley, like don’t you see what I see like you’re the plan I have for your life is so beautiful,” Riley divulged on his unwavering faith on Jesus that has always been his biggest savior.
Another reason is he was clear about his why, so giving up was not even an option. ”I‘m a big perspective guy like no matter what I’m doing, I always have perspective, and I transferred as a college quarterback to go play quarterback at Notre Dame. That is like the coolest thing ever, and I’m gonna sit around and mope because my ankle twisted up a little bit!” Riley shed light on another biggest plus in his core nature, an ace in the hole to fight off the adversities of life and the field.
The post Riley Leonard’s Emotional Confession on Hitting Rock Bottom With Injury & How Faith in God Helped Recovery appeared first on EssentiallySports.