Notre Dame Football Hot Positional Takes: Quarterback Edition

Riley, Steve, Kenny, and CJ

Off-Season Hot Takes

Welcome to Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Positional Hot Takes. As a reminder to all of the readers, this is HEAVILY driven by you and comments are strongly encouraged. The thought here is to bring in your HOT takes only as this is the off season. The payoff will be much longer, but these pages will live in perpetuity (big word) for you to tell your friends, family, and strangers that you, “called it”. Since this isn’t geared towards specific games, I will go position by position with my own takes.

Quarterback

Photo by Kirby Lee/Getty Images

Is this the best and most competent quarterback room Notre Dame has had in…….Forever? I think the answer is yes when you think about how all 4 quarterbacks on the roster could lead this team to a win. They could lead them to wins not by just handing the ball off a la Drew Pyne in 2021, but by making big time throws. This is highly unique for Notre Dame, but for all of college football because high level quarterbacks simply do not stick around. This is a testament to the culture Gino Guidulgi has instilled in his room, but also shows how each guy thinks they are the, “next man in”. They are also very well aware that Riley Leonard runs a lot and could miss time at any given moment. Heading into camp, Steve Angeli has the locked in, but that is not to say others couldn’t overtake him.

Hot Take 1

Riley Leonard finishes top 8 in the Heisman Trophy

Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports

Leonard is the best dual threat QB the Irish have had since 2015 Deshone Kizer…… and luckily for him they will share an offensive coordinator in Mike Denbrock. (Ian Book had better production but was not the passer Kizer was in 2015) Leonard will have the opportunity to put up some pretty great numbers, especially with the supporting cast of talent around him. The biggest question mark is the offensive line holding up…..but if they do he should flourish for a few reasons:

1. WR talent and depth
2. Elite dual threat back (Love) and a RB1 behind him (Price)
3. Elite #1 TE + high upside depth
4. Play calling to fit his strengths

One of the massive keys here is Denbrock, who just called plays for the best dual threat QB in the country. Denbrock loves what he has in Leonard and will get very creative with RPOs, multiple back sets, motions, and so forth. This creativity should lead to an ample amount of running and throwing opportunities. My gut from a numbers standpoint could net him out at over 3500 yards passing, over 600 yards rushing, and 35-40 TDs resonsible for. On top of that, if ND is undefeated or a 1 loss team, he will have the hype and fanfare needed to drive a campaign. Leonard has the look, talent, talent around him, and opportunity to live up the first round hype he had heading into 2023. Let’s also not forget, he is true “gamer” in every sense of the word. Hell, he was a 4th and 16th Sam Hartman scramble away from upsetting the Irish a year ago.

Hot Take 2

Every QB on the roster throws for a touchdown this year

Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images

With the talent on the roster, the coaches will want to see what they have in every one of these guys when the bullets are flying. They won’t want to keep Leonard in games too long with the risk of injury. Finally, this is ideally going to be one of the longer seasons in Notre Dame history (if they win a playoff game) so they will want to be even more cautious with Leonard. The additional time will lend itself to the backups showing what they can do as opposed to just handing the ball off……and they also have the backup WRs to do some serious damage. Another key point is that Denbrock knows he will need to keep those guys engaged as well. In the era of NIL, keeping players happy is at the utmost premium, and the way to do that is opportunity. Each of these guys will take advantage of that and reach pay dirt at least 1 time this year.

Your Takes: Please leave your takes below and I will revisit them next Off-Season (long game folks). GO IRISH!