While explosions and smoke bombs are going off all over the country on Saturday, there are still a few months until the Notre Dame football team can bring its own fireworks. Still, when those fireworks come, especially on the defensive side of the ball, it's clear that Leonard Moore will be the one exploding onto the scene.
ESPN recently hammered that home again by naming Moore not only one of the best defensive players in college football for the 2026 season, but also the best defensive player. The top of the heap. The king of the hill. It's hard to argue that the research Eli Lederman and Max Olson put into reaching that conclusion was wrong. The pair surveyed more than 20 front-office staff members across the sport, including general managers, player personnel directors, and scouting directors, and tallied who those experts consider the best defenders in the country.
In arriving at the Notre Dame defensive back as the top defender in the sport, there were plenty of quotes showing that even those who haven't gone up against him fear doing so. Leonard Moore has definitely gotten into not just opponents' heads but also those of people who might end up facing him.
"Nobody gives him fits," one Power 4 director of player personnel (DPP) said of Moore, according to the ESPN analysts. "That's hard to really say about any other defensive player. Leonard Moore doesn't struggle with anybody. You can put him on anybody in the country. ... He's the ultimate shutdown guy."
Leonard Moore named college football’s best defender by ESPN survey
"I can't think of another player I'd put ahead of him," another Big Ten DPP reportedly said about the Fighting Irish star.
It's not just that the defensive back has cultivated a reputation. The stats show he really is not just one of the best, but that opposing offenses tend to try and stay away from him, for good reason. Last season, he allowed just 12 catches for 135 yards on 33 targets. He also allowed more than 30 yards just once all year. He did this while playing the second-most snaps in press coverage (186) of any FBS defensive back.
The real proof in the pudding that teams actively stay away from Moore is that Notre Dame's other starting corner, Christian Gray, saw almost twice as many targets (62) in 2025. Even with Moore missing two games due to injury, it's clear that opposing teams stayed away from Moore as often as they possibly could.
There is also the fun little tidbit that when teams were dumb enough to throw in Moore's general direction, they saw more than a few turnovers. The Notre Dame star tallied five interceptions last season after logging two the year before. He also had his first career interception return for a touchdown against Syracuse in the Orange's 70-7 dismantling.
Likely entering his final season in South Bend, both the metrics and the many, many experts in the sport believe this could, in fact, be the best season yet for Leonard Moore. If that happens, it could be the best season for Notre Dame in decades.
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