Riley Leonard Shares Injury & Rehab Update as Marcus Freeman Calls for the Extremes in National Championship

From 7th choice to hit the CFP to 15th down and under after the Northern Illinois loss. Marcus Freeman and the Irish have crawled back from the jaws of irrelevancy to put up a miracle Cinderella story. “I don’t believe in ghosts, but I do believe in God,” Freeman had said. Battling injuries throughout their natty run, it’s just one more game, and Notre Dame can finally call themselves the national champs. But will it be that easy? On the other end, the North stands tall on the bodies of SEC giants. Winter is coming for Notre Dame, and once again, Marcus Freeman will find himself standing against all odds, “What you can’t do is sit here and say, ‘I’m just going to let God handle everything and not do the work.’”

Giving the Irish the benefit of the doubt is not the answer. See, Ryan Day and Co. have resurrected the Bucks. That one Michigan game was hard enough to turn the tides at Ohio State, and they have been on a constant rampage ever since. For Freeman? Time has slowed down. Riley Leonard took a massive hit at Orange Bowl that left the QB ‘wobbly’. “I knew I was going to get back out there,” Leonard had said and he did. Took ND to the natty berth with a 54-yard TD pass to Jaden Greathouse and set up the perfect drive for Mitch Jeter‘s 41-yard FG. But is he ready to face the Reds?

“You’ve got injuries you’ve had surgeries. Could you have imagined getting to this point?” Nicole Auerbach from NBC Sports asked and Leonard had a simple answer: “I obviously imagined myself being exactly where I am right now, but when you’re like week 20 of rehab. And then you know, you got another surgery coming up like it’s hard, it’s hard to, you know, stay optimistic and uh you know, Envision yourself, you know, being in the national championship.” 

The “Faith” is trickling away… Notre Dame’s injury woes have haunted them since the start of the season. “Losing-sleep injuries,” DC Al Golden had once said. Even for the Bucks game, ND is going into this with few important players in “questionable” status. 

That calf injury against the Lions has put WR Beaux Collins in a not-so-good spot. Against Ohio State, Freeman is yet to make any comments on Collins’ presence. Another massive hit to the running room was Jeremiyah Love’s struggle with the knee injury. For now, hopes are high that Love is going to battle through it.

However, all of this, once again, points the arrow towards Leonard. “It’s a real grind right now for Notre Dame. They’re not getting a ton of push-up front… I don’t think Leonard is just gonna will them through,” even though it sounds pessimistic, Dalton Wasserman was not wrong. As Riley had said, “It’s kind of a double Paradox there.”

On one hand, your running room is in a mess because of the injuries and on the other hand, your starting QB is in despair. Is Notre Dame walking into a trap or can Marcus Freeman fight a war against destiny once again and come out as a victor?

“We’ve been right here” 

“That’s the reality of what we focus on, is putting in the work that gives this program the best chance to have success,” Freeman pointed out. A few motivational speeches here and there and a dime on luck won’t help bring the natty home and Marcus Freeman knows it well.

Doesn’t matter how much we ponder on Riley’s injury scare and ND losing its running depth, it is no excuse. “Our guys have to continuously do what they’ve done to get to this moment,” Freeman made it clear. For ND to even last on that turf, the boys cannot pull their punches…

See, if we are talking about the Bucks, they are the jack of all trades. Their defense is elite and barely allowed Texas or Oregon to go past the 20-point mark, and on offense, they have NFL-grade guys out there running down the field.

And Notre Dame? The “organized but chaotic” defense is not strong enough to contain OSU running and receiver room. You can double or triple coverage on some of the receivers, but what do you do when the Bucks play Jeremiah Smith as a decoy and push the football out to say TreVeyon Henderson?

This is it, man. You either give OSU another Michigan nightmare, or you get dogwalked out of Atlanta. There is no in-between.