Riley Leonard (born September 13, 2002) is an

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 ...

for the

Notre Dame Fighting Irish The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the athletic teams that represent the University of Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish participate in 23 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I intercollegiate sports and in the NCAA's Division ...

. He previously played for the

Duke Blue Devils The Duke Blue Devils are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Duke University, located in Durham, North Carolina. Duke's athletics department features 27 varsity teams that all compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Associatio ...

High school career

Leonard attended

Fairhope High School Fairhope High School (FHS) is a public secondary school located in Fairhope, Alabama. Fairhope High School is a part of the Baldwin County Public Schools system. They service grades 9– 12. Clubs and activities A wide variety of clubs some incl ...

Fairhope, Alabama Fairhope is a city in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States, located on the eastern shoreline of Mobile Bay. The 2020 Census lists the population of the city as 22,477. Fairhope is a principal city of the Daphne-Fairhope-Foley metropolita ...

. As a senior, he passed for 1,900 yards and 25

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 had 500 rushing yards. He committed to

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

to play college football. Leonard received offers to play college football from programs like

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

Syracuse Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy *Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' *Province of Syracuse United States *Syracuse, New York **East Syracuse, New York **North Syracuse, New York *Syracuse, Indiana * Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, Miss ...

, and

Tulane Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...

. Leonard also played basketball in high school, receiving offers to play college basketball from programs like St. Mary’s, North Alabama, Samford and Missouri State.

College career

Leonard played in seven games and made one start as a true freshman at Duke in 2021. For the season, he completed 37 of 62 passes for 381 yards with one touchdown and one

interception 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 ...

. Leonard was named the starting quarterback entering his sophomore season in 2022. On November 29, 2023, Leonard announced he would be entering the transfer portal. On December 12, 2023, Leonard announced he would be transferring to Notre Dame.

Statistics

References

External links

Duke Blue Devils bio
2002 births Living people Players of American football from Alabama People from Fairhope, Alabama American football quarterbacks Duke Blue Devils football players Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players {{Quarterback-stub