Notre dame Football QB Riley Leonard's remarkable recovery fueled by faith

When Notre Dame Football announced that quarterback Riley Leonard was out for the rest of the spring, people were concerned that his recovery from a second ankle surgery would set back his ability to lead the Fighting Irish to victory this fall.

Earlier this month, Leonard eased concerns when he returned to Notre Dame Football practice earlier than most expected. While he’s not full go, he can throw the ball plenty and learn Mike Denbrock’s offense.

On Tuesday, Leonard discussed his continuing recovery, saying that he’ll be back to full strength in three to four weeks. That raised some eyebrows. It appears that even the transfer quarterback has been happily surprised at how quickly he’s come back.

He also made it clear that he'd be okay with not being on an accelerated timetable. A big part of his journey over the last few weeks has been coming to grips with his injury issues and leaning on his faith to help him deal with them.

“My faith has kind of gotten me through all this,” Leonard told the assembled media after Notre Dame Football practice. “The way I see it is maybe this protects me from something worse. Maybe if I don’t have to have this second ankle surgery, maybe something worse happens to me. I have that faith-based mindset that God has me and he’s in control.  If I knew what God knew, I wouldn’t be asking any questions at all and I wouldn’t be hesitating on his decisions.”

Notre Dame Football quarterback cites faith as what kept him going

It continues to be interesting that all of this happened when he suffered a high ankle sprain against the Fighting Irish. He returned a few weeks later but reinjured it and sat out the rest of the season.

There is talk that Notre Dame Football wouldn’t have even had a shot at getting Riley Leonard if he hadn’t been hurt. Now he’s at the school that caused him to eventually need two different surgeries to get back on the football field.