Mitchell Leidner (born January 17, 1994) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

, and was signed by the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

High School career

Leidner attended

Lakeville South High School Lakeville South High School (LSHS) is a high school located Lakeville, Minnesota, United States. To meet the needs of a growing population, in the early 2000s the district began construction of LSHS. LSHS enrolled students for the first time in ...

Lakeville, Minnesota Lakeville is an exurb of Minneapolis-Saint Paul, and the largest city in Dakota County, Minnesota, United States. It is approximately south of both downtown Minneapolis and downtown St. Paul along Interstate Highway 35. Starting as a flourishi ...

. He committed to the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

to play college football.

College career

Leidner played at Minnesota from 2013 to 2016. He tied a school record for quarterbacks when he ran for four touchdowns in one game in 2013 against

San Jose State San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sy ...

as a redshirt

freshman A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. Ara ...

. After starting four games as a freshman, he took over as the full-time starter in 2014. Leidner was named the MVP of the 2015 Quick Lane Bowl. During his career, he started 41 of 47 games and passed for 7,287 yards, 34

touchdowns A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether Rush (gridiron football), running, Forward pass, passing, returning a Kickoff (gridiron football), kickoff or Punt (gridiron football), punt, or recovering a Turno ...

and 32

interceptions In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team b ...

Statistics

Leidner's college statistics are as follows:

Professional career

Leidner signed with the

as an undrafted free agent on August 20, 2017. He was waived on September 2, 2017.

References

External links

Minnesota Golden Gophers bioCBS Sports (Statistics)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leidner, Mitch 1994 births Living people Players of American football from Minnesota American football quarterbacks Minnesota Golden Gophers football players Minnesota Vikings players