Leonard Moore still isn’t over Notre Dame’s loss to Miami. The tongue-lashing head coach, Marcus Freeman, gave the defense in that game has stuck with the talented defensive back. And that’s why he thinks this year’s going to be quite the revenge tour for the Fighting Irish.
"He told us we was weak, we was soft," Moore recently told ESPN’s Heather Dinich. "All that type of stuff. It's serious to him, too. That's something he's not used to seeing from us."
Moore said the defensive backs shouldered much of the blame for Notre Dame’s loss to the Hurricanes, as Miami quarterback Carson Beck completed 20 of 30 passes for 205 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions. "That's what used to keep me up at night," Moore added.
Why Leonard Moore believes Notre Dame football is built for a revenge tour
While Freeman doesn’t hate the idea of a “revenge tour,” he also knows that the focus needs to be on this season and not what went wrong last year.
“You've got to focus on the task right at hand,” Freeman told Dinich. “It's my job to make sure I'm directing the focus where it needs to be. That's an everyday message, an everyday reminder to struggle. Struggle has to be hard mentally and physically, and to sacrifice and put Notre Dame in front of yourself.”
What is clear, whether it’s coming from Leonard Moore, his coach, or any of his Notre Dame teammates, is that there’s a chip on the Fighting Irish team’s shoulder. That’s bad news for everyone they play this year. Starting with Wisconsin.