With head coach Mike Elko departing for Texas A&M, it appears that quarterback Riley Leonard is leaving Duke as well. Judging by some recent social media activity, he’s aiming to join another program with a reputation for academic excellence.
A recent screenshot of Leonard’s new follows on social media shows that he’s been adding a lot of current players from the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to his list. There was already speculation that Notre Dame was the frontrunner and this firms up some of those suspicions.
Notre Dame have a need at quarterback with Sam Hartman set to leave at the end of this season. Leonard would offer the Fighting Irish a more experienced hand than the quarterbacks they currently have.
As a sophomore in 2022, Leonard completed 63.8-percent of his passes for 2,967 yards and 20 touchdowns with six interceptions. He added another 699 yards and 13 touchdowns on the ground that season.
Yeah whole lot of Notre Dame there https://t.co/M5xYKje1w6 pic.twitter.com/lrm7FfZmWJ
— Bud Elliott (@BudElliott3) November 29, 2023
The 2023 season saw Riley Leonard go 4-3 with 57.6-percent completion for 1,102 yards and three touchdowns with three interceptions. His final game for the Blue Devils saw him go 9-of-23 for 121 yards and an interception in a loss to Louisville.
Will Notre Dame be getting the better version of Leonard? Will they be getting him at all?