More Crisis Awaits Marcus Freeman in Tough Insider Revelation as Riley Leonard Confirms Notre Dame HC’s Costly Blunder

Another season of college football is in the history books, and a new class of freshmen is ready to fill the void left behind by departing seniors. This proverbial conveyor belt of talent, a carousel of players hopping on and off, is a perpetual cycle. That makes near-sightedness a cardinal sin in this sport. As great as they’re currently positioned, programs cannot rest on their laurels. Especially at the quarterback position. Now that the adrenaline has come down from Notre Dame’s run to the Natty, a glaring issue is staring them in the face. Marcus Freeman has a bit of an issue at QB, and it’s causing concern.

QB1 Riley Leonard was one such departing senior. His watch has now ceased, and it’s time for coach Freeman to find a succession plan. Now, the Irish do have a lot of talent in the wings. CJ Carr, Kenny Minchey, Steve Angeli, and Blake Herbert are all high-rated prospects. However, not one of them is a 5-star recruit. Now, that is hardly the benchmark for how a high school player will translate to college. But it’s interesting that Marcus Freeman has more 5-stars across the rest of the roster than downtown LA. Yet, the most important position group is missing out completely. The 2025 QB depth chart is one thing. But this has led to a more overarching worry for one Notre Dame insider. Is recruiting quarterbacks a blindspot for the school under Freeman?

Over the “Locked on Irish” podcast, Tyler Wojciak was asked, “Which position does Notre Dame need to get to a high level, beyond the obvious?” The obvious, in this instance, pertained to the D-line and the receiving corp. To this, Wojciak didn’t hesitate in replying with “Quarterback.” He proceeded to give his reasoning. He prefaced his take by saying, “Quarterback recruiting has certainly improved under Marcus Freeman.” Wojciak mentioned Minchey and Carr being 4-star recruits who were good pulls. However, he then pointed to the signal callers Freeman had missed out on. “They had Deuce Knight committed for a long time, and then he sort of strung them along. Ended up flipping to Auburn. But they need to continue to close on those super high-end guys,” he said. Knight is rated a 5-star in the class of ‘25 by On3. Tyler Wojciak continued to speak on other similar instances.

“We all know that quarterback recruiting is like a crap shoot…There are 5-stars at the high school level who don’t pan out in college. But the best way to get over that is just by bringing in more of those,” he remarked. Wojciak brought up Dante Moore, another 5-star who went as far as saying he was “leaning towards” the Fighting Irish. But ended up with Oregon. This is a trend that Marcus Freeman will be aware of. Being a defensive guy, he’s got a stacked contingent of top-end prospects on that side. But he’ll have to get this monkey off his back of being unable to recruit that caliber of QB. It’s not frequent that a 3-star such as Riley Leonard pans out the way he did.

Speaking of which, Leonard has finally addressed an elephant in the room. One that has subliminally haunted Irish fans since the very moment the National Championship ended.

Depending on whether you caught every down, every beat of the Natty. Or if you saw the box score at the end. You’d have very different perspectives on how that game played out and how close Notre Dame was to winning it. The moment that sticks out most is certainly Marcus Freeman’s decision to kick a field goal down a million in the 4th instead of going for it. Followed by the kicker then missing, regardless. However, the game was in many ways lost well before this transpired. Perhaps even before Ohio State scored touchdowns on 4 consecutive drives to score 28 unanswered points.

Football Riley Leonard doesn’t fully absolve Marcus Freeman of blame

That very first drive of the game. Man, will Marcus Freeman and the fans want to relive that feeling one more time, or what? 9 minutes and 45 seconds of bliss that reverberated hope all across South Bend. That long-drawn, 18-play TD drive was as good as it got for Notre Dame all night. It was almost as if the gold sheen on QB Riley Leonard’s helmet was exuding an extra, halo-like glow. But it turns out the design of that drive actually hampered his and, by extension, Notre Dame’s entire night thereon.

Riley Leonard was seen throwing up at the end of this drive. He was clearly fatigued to a level most humans would not be able to play on. Leonard averages about 15 carries per game. On that drive alone, he ran the ball 8 times. Against Ohio State’s front 7, no less, one of the most physical in the country. He was visibly exhausted before the drive was even over. About a month on, Leonard has leveraged his true sentiments about that ordeal.

“That drive obviously didn’t feel too great on my body,” he said. “But I didn’t really feel it too much. I had a lot of time to recover on the sideline after that one, but I was definitely a little hurt out there. It probably looked like I didn’t run the ball as much the rest of the game, but a little bit of that was just due to the circumstances, given that we were down by a lot going into halftime. Hopefully that provides some closure to fans and Freeman, who caught flak for the same. Which was always somewhat weird since he doesn’t call offensive plays.

Adrenaline is a heck of a thing. National Championship, opening drive, the eyes of the country on you. It’s by far the most adrenaline-inducing moment of Leonard’s career. Remember, he was just a college kid, after all. Perhaps he pushed himself more than was required. By the time he reached the red zone, reality began creeping in, and his body couldn’t quite cope. Maybe he flew too close to the sun. However, Marcus Freeman wouldn’t change a thing. He will, though, need to learn from his experience. The ability to take one step back to take two steps forward is what makes a good coach. The lessons learned will serve him and the program as a collective well. He’ll hope to take all his learnings onto the recruitment front and get that elusive QB prospect next time around.