After Sam Hartman exhausted his final year of eligibility at Notre Dame last season, head coach Marcus Freeman turned to another ACC transfer, nabbing Riley Leonard from Duke. Leonard was hailed as one of the country’s top passers after a successful junior season in Durham, but through his first year in South Bend, he’s relied on his legs to lead the Fighting Irish to 11-1 and a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff.
Joe Theismann never played in a 12-team CFP, nobody has, but the Fighting Irish legend has plenty of experience winning football games as the quarterback at Notre Dame. The 2003 College Football Hall of Fame inductee started for two seasons at Notre Dame, finishing second for the Heisman Trophy in 1970 and leading the program to a 10-1 record with a Cotton Bowl victory and a No. 2 finish in the AP Poll. The Notre Dame legend likes what he’s seen from Leonard, who will lead the Irish into the CFP as the seven-seed, hosting Indiana in the first round.
“People forget, Riley Leonard really didn’t have any Spring,” Theismann said while promoting USAA’s Recycled Rides program ahead of the Army/Navy game. “Now, as the season has gone on, you see him throwing the ball better, you see the decisions, you see his ability. He’s a heck of a runner, but I think if we’re going to advance in the playoffs, I think we’ll have to be able to throw the football effectively, and that’s something he continues to get better and better at.”
Theismann, who led Washington to the franchise's first Super Bowl in 1982 and won the NFL’s MVP Award in 1983, was back in DC for the Army/Navy game. Along with Robert Griffin III, Theismann presented retrofitted vehicles to service members in both branches of the military in partnership with USAA and their Recycled Rides program.
The DC icon has been a longtime supporter of the armed forces and spoke about how special it was to play both Army and Navy, but acknowledged the irony that his Fighting Irish derailed both program’s during promising 2024 campaigns.
“I feel bad about the fact that we knocked them out basically.” Theismann said, “But the bottom line is, we had to win after losing to Northern Illinois, it’s all we could do to run the table, to be able to qualify for the playoffs.”
You can listen to the full conversation here: