Thirteen months ago Riley Leonard decided to chase a life-long dream of playing Quarterback under the Golden Dome in South Bend. I wasn’t fully convinced that the highly likeable Kid from Alabama had that level of talent and just two weeks into his opportunity the Fighting Irish were upset at home by Northern Illinois.
I have watched the Haters beat up Daniel Jones from start to finish as he went from a Zero Star 🌟 High School player in Charlotte to being drafted 6th overall by the New York Giants. Now it felt like fate would play a similar role for Leonard.
The folks that get paid to tear people down were feasting on Leonard. He couldn’t even beat Northern Illinois at home.
In the World 🌎 where I chose to live, you don’t bail on people when the going gets tough. While I would have rather covered Galax at Carroll County on The Hill, my back up plan was to wear my Duke Football gear and root, root, root for our Guy 👦.
Riley Leonard played Riley Leonard football which means it was a roller coaster ride for sure. It was his second interception that put the Irish behind the eight ball. All he did was lead a tying TD drive 🚗 and then set up the game winning Field Goal.
Here now in roughly 10 days, Leonard and Head Coach Marcus Freeman will face either Texas or Ohio State for a National Championship.
Freeman will now be the first African American ( and the first Asian) Head Coach to participate in a Natty Title game. Kudos to Freeman and his accomplishments and I’m pretty sure that its the FIRST TIME that a Duke QB will be playing in the ultimate game.
Somewhere everyone that played the position, back to Sonny Jorgensen, who had to play Cornerback as well as QB, is smiling atleast a little.
Mike Elko headed to Texas A & M, Waters played running back for NC State and of course Leonard headed to South Bend. Pulled for them all except the day where Duke faced Waters 💧 and his Wolf 🐺Pack.
Freeman was always not good enough and Leonard was also easy to pick on but now the unlikely duo will take one more ride together. Not sure if they can become the first team to win four straight under the new playoff system.
Indiana, Georgia and now Penn State all tried to stop ✋ the run 🏃♂️ of Freeman, Leonard and Company. The winner of Texas – Ohio State University will be favored down in Atlanta.
But win or lose that one, it will be the first time that a QB with ties 👔 to Duke University will try and lead his team to a National Championship!!!
A.S.P.N on The Hill 