Notre Dame QB Riley Leonard gets injury scare, returns to rally Irish into CFP championship game

By Canadian Press on January 9, 2025.

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Riley Leonard took a big hit and got a big scare.

He wound up ending the night with the biggest win of his college career — and now, a chance at a national championship.

Leonard and Notre Dame are going to the College Football Playoff title game, after he threw for 223 yards and rushed for 33 more to help the Fighting Irish beat Penn State 27-24 in the Orange Bowl on Thursday night.

Leonard ran for a score, rushed for another — and did all that after missing the last two minutes of the first half while being evaluated for a concussion. He was cleared to return and now is heading to the title game on Jan. 20 against either Ohio State or Texas.

“He’s a competitor,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said during the postgame celebration on ESPN. “And competitors find a way to win. That’s what Riley does. That’s what this team does, man. They’re a bunch of competitors and they find a way.”

Leonard missed much of Notre Dame’s final drive of the first half while being evaluated for a concussion, Freeman told ESPN. Leonard was “asymptomatic,” ESPN quoted Leonard as saying, and he started the second half.

He led an eight-play, 75-yard drive and capped it with a 3-yard touchdown run that pulled Notre Dame into a 10-10 tie. Freeman had a 54-yard pass to Jaden Greathouse with 4:38 left to tie the game again, that time at 24-24, and Mitch Jeter’s 41-yard field goal with 8 seconds left sealed the deal for the Irish.

Leonard said a halftime speech from Freeman was critical.

“He said, ‘History is written by conquerors, and we’re holding the pen.’ … We believed that we could do it and we went out there and did it,” Leonard said.

Leonard went into the medical tent on the Notre Dame sideline with about two minutes left in the half after a play where he was hit by Penn State’s Zane Durant and Dvon J-Thomas. It appeared Leonard hit the back of his helmet on the turf.

Leonard was replaced by Steve Angeli and Notre Dame kicked a 41-yard field goal on the final play of the half to cut Penn State’s lead to 10-3.

“I knew I was going to get back out there,” Freeman said. “Obviously, safety first on football field. I just kind of had to prove to everybody I was fine. I got up a little wobbly, but it was all good.”

Leonard found Aneyas Williams for a 36-yard gain on his lone pass of the drive that opened the second half. The other seven plays were all runs, with Leonard — who rushed for 15 touchdowns this season coming into Thursday — capping it himself.

Leonard completed six of 11 passes for 63 yards and an interception in the first half. Angeli was 6-for-7 passing for 44 yards on the final drive before the half.

___

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press