Notre Dame football 'edge' expected to travel to L.A. for Season Finale

The Notre Dame football team needs to be zeroed in on USC on Saturday afternoon. Riley Leonard thinks they will be. But he also knows there are plenty of people are expecting them to have the same kind of problems they did against Northern Illinois.

"I felt it a little bit," Leonard said this week of feeling the intensity of the rivalry. "It's" not something Coach Freeman has to go into the meeting room and remind us of. We all knew as soon as Army ended what was at stake and what was coming next. It's kind of just said and done. And yeah, being at Duke and being able to experience the UNC rivalry there, there are a lot of parallels."

Yet, Leonard isn’t worried about the noise or the immense pressure to win one of the nation’s most intense rivalries with the playoffs on the line. He understands that Notre Dame football has to go in and do its job.

Notre Dame football needs edge against USC

“it all starts with the turnover margin,” stated Leonard. “I don't know what we are. I don't look at that stuff, but I know we've done a great job. We're in the positives every single game in the turnover margin. Great job protecting the ball and the defense is just playing great. I think the field positioning with those guys, we're starting to win that battle a little bit. That's really helped us a lot." 

Saturday will mark the final regular season game and Leonard’s time in college is quickly coming to an end. The senior quarterback could have anywhere between 1-5 games left in his career, but it’s something he hasn’t spent much time thinking about. 

For now Leonard is just about getting the win for Notre Dame football. And then looking at what comes next.