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The band Riley Leonard wears around his left wrist is a different color these days. It’s a change he made to match his new team’s uniforms.
The message written on it remains the same.
“YOU SUCK,” it says.
He doesn’t, of course. Quite the contrary.
The senior quarterback was one of the most sought-after transfers in the portal last winter when he made the transition from Duke blue to Irish green. And he’s delivered on that promise by leading Notre Dame to Thursday’s rescheduled College Football Playoff quarterfinal against Georgia at the Sugar Bowl.
Leonard’s wristband is an unconventional method of reminding him to stay humble and keep working hard no matter how many people pat him on the back. His inspiration for wearing came from an even more surprising source.
His mother.
“My whole life, I’ve kind of gotten a lot of praise. So I went to my mom one day and said, ‘hey, someone has to bash me and tell me I suck to give me motivation,'” he said in an interview last season. “She was like, ‘Shoot, I’ll do it.'”
The tactic has paid off, though given Leonard’s understated personality and playing style staying humble hasn’t been that difficult a chore. He’s not a look-at-me kind of guy in the mold of Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart. He’s not a dynamic playmaker like Oregon’s Dillion Gabriel or a flashy downfield bomber like another Heisman finalist, Miami’s Cam Ward.
Leonard is more like a point guard in basketball. He’s a facilitator whose best attribute is getting the ball into the hands of his playmakers. But he can also take matters into his own hands when necessary.
His humility is best illustrated by his decision to leave Duke to play his final season of eligibility at Notre Dame. It wasn’t a matter of enhancing his NFL Draft prospects as it was for Leonard’s predecessor with the Irish, fellow ACC ex-pat Sam Hartman. Or putting gaudy numbers on a stat sheet.
It’s more about being surrounded by elite talent, representing an iconic program and helping his team put numbers into the win column.
“To make it where we are now is kind of why I came to Notre Dame,” he said before the Irish’s opening-round Playoff win against Indiana. “I came here to compete, to make the College Football Playoff and compete for a national championship.”
Leonard’s decision has been mutually beneficial.
While playing for the Irish has provided the senior quarterback with opportunities that would never have been available at Duke, his presence in the backfield has given Irish coach Marcus Freeman everything he’s been looking for in a leader.
And didn’t get a year ago with Hartman.
Leonard is 1 of only 5 power conference quarterbacks to have thrown for more than 1,900 yards and rushed for better than 700 this season. Between his passing and running, he’s accounted for 32 touchdowns (17 through the air and 15 on the ground) for a 12-1 team whose offense ranks fourth nationally at 38.8 points per game.
As successful as he’s been, things didn’t exactly click right away. It’s not as though he lived up to the phrase on his wristband. He just took some time to get settled in.
It took nearly 14 quarters, 115 pass attempts and a stunning upset loss to Northern Illinois before Leonard finally broke the ice on a 38-yard strike to Beaux Collins just before halftime in Week 4 against Miami (Ohio) for his first touchdown pass as a member of the Irish.
He’s taken off since then and gotten better as the season progressed.
His completion percentage of .720 over his past 4 games, including a workmanlike 27-17 Playoff victory against Indiana, is 5 points higher than his season mark. And his quarterback rating of 106.2 is a full 30 points higher than those first 4 games without a touchdown.
As good as he’s been, Leonard will likely have to be even better against a Georgia defense expected to load up the box in hopes of limiting Notre Dame’s potent ground attack and turning him into a 1-dimensional passer.
But with the Bulldogs facing uncertainty at quarterback with untested sophomore Gunner Stockton forced into his first career start in place of injured teammate Carson Beck, Leonard and the Irish might not have to put up a big number to earn a semifinal date against Ohio State.
Just continue to do what he does best by staying poised, making the right reads and spreading the ball around.
And above all else, don’t suck.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
