Riley Leonard bold predictions for top-25 Notre Dame-Army showdown

11/19/2024 05:52 PM

Notre Dame football has a big game on Saturday against Army. The Fighting Irish are in position to grab a College Football Playoff spot, but certainly won’t do that without this victory. As an independent, Notre Dame football doesn’t have the luxury of playing in a conference championship. It needs the chips to fall a certain way to earn that CFP berth.

Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard will play a major role if the squad can get past the Black Knights. Army football enters the game undefeated, and Leonard will need a strong game in order to lift the Notre Dame offense. This is going to be a battle between two of the three best scoring defenses in the country, per NCAA stats.

"They are a dang good football team," Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said, per Yahoo Sports. "They play hard. They take care of the football. They keep the ball away from you. They take the ball from you. It's a challenge, man, a really big challenge for us."

Here are some bold predictions for the Notre Dame quarterback heading into Saturday’s battle.

Riley Leonard will score a TD through both the air and on the ground

Leonard has had success this season as a dual-threat quarterback. Notre Dame’s starter has 1,789 passing yards, with 12 touchdowns. He’s also rushed for 641 yards this season, for an additional 13 touchdowns.

The Notre Dame quarterback is quite effective in the red zone with his feet, and that should continue against Army. The Black Knights will not have faced a play caller this season, as versatile as Leonard. Army is allowing just 10.33 points a game this season, which is good enough for second nationally in scoring defense. That’s extremely impressive.

Unfortunately for Army, their pass defense has had some issues. Army allows 191 passing yards a game, per NCAA stats. Notre Dame in turn is averaging not much more than that, at 199 passing yards a contest. The matchup slightly favors Notre Dame in this instance and with the weapons that Notre Dame has, Leonard should be able to have a solid day against Army.

As mentioned, Leonard will also be able to score as a ball carrier. He’s rushed for touchdowns in three of the last four games, and that will continue against Army. The Black Knights will be put off-balance by the versatility of Leonard, and that will allow him to post at least two total scores in the contest.

That leads to the final prediction for Leonard in this game.

Notre Dame will spoil Army’s perfect season

The Fighting Irish will get the win over Army on Saturday. While the performance won’t be perfect, Notre Dame football will make enough smart decisions to eke out a victory over Army. It certainly helps to have a quarterback like Leonard on the team.

Even though Army hasn’t defeated a power 4 football team this season, Notre Dame coach Freeman isn’t taking the squad for granted.

"They're led, to me, by their O-line," Freeman added. "They come off the ball, they're physical, they're big – bigger than what you usually see when you play academy schools. They're aggressive in the special teams. All three phases present some issues that we have to be prepared for."

Notre Dame is making it difficult for CFP voters to leave them out of the bracket. The Fighting Irish have a bad loss to Northern Illinois, but so many other teams have piled up losses. Notre Dame has been able to stay involved in the CFP conversation by handling their business, and has a great win over Texas A&M. The Aggies might take the SEC.

Notre Dame football plays Army in South Bend on Saturday at 7:00 Eastern. The Irish will be wearing their Shamrock Series uniforms for the game.

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