(Photo Courtesy of the College Football Playoff)

Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard walked off the team plane as the Irish landed in Atlanta ahead of the College Football Playoff National Championship Game sporting a shillelagh in his hand.

For a player who has only been at Notre Dame for a year, he certainly has a full grasp of what Notre Dame is all about. After transferring from Duke, he’s embraced being a part of the Notre Dame family and he’s well aware of how big a win over Ohio State on Monday would be for himself, the team and the fan base.

“Obviously it would mean the world to me,” Leonard said of winning a national championship. “It’s kind of something I’ve dreamed of my whole life. To be at a school like this and be able to represent a school like this and lead them to the National Championship [game], it’s truly an honor and something I don’t take for granted. I take a lot of pride in wearing the blue and gold. I know our fans for a very long time have been very loyal to this program, through the ups and downs since 1988. It would be an honor to deliver them another one.”

Leonard considers himself a loyal person. He didn’t want to transfer from Duke. He loved it there. He didn’t spend much time in the portal. As soon as Notre Dame became an option, he jumped at the opportunity. He knew in his heart that it was the place for him and the place where he could have a shot to win a national title. It’s what he expected when he came to South Bend.

“I thought this would happen–that’s why I came here,” Leonard explains. “Even my girlfriend, I was talking to her the other day, and a bunch of people were texting her like ‘oh, my gosh, I can’t believe you guys made it, this is crazy.’ Even she was like, ‘Riley this isn’t that surprising. Like we expected this.’ I think people get surprised whenever things they don’t expect happen in their lives, but when you expect it to happen, it’s just like, yeah, we’ve believed this for a long time. I definitely thought it would be happening.”

Leonard was the toast of South Bend when he led the Irish to an opening game win on the road at Texas A&M in week one. Then everything came crashing down a week later when Leonard played his worst game of the season and the Irish were stunned at home, losing to Northern Illinois.

“Yeah, after Northern Illinois, that’s when you start to think, like, dang,” Leonard explained when asked if he still expected to play for a national title after that loss. “At that point it was like, shoot, we’ve just got to — we weren’t even thinking about the playoffs at that point. So yeah, kind of a double paradox there. But after that game it was like, shoot, forget being the best team in the country. You’ve got to be the best team on the field every single week.”

Leonard put his head down to make himself the best version of himself too. It didn’t happen right away. Calls for Steve Angeli to replace him at quarterback were loud. Boos were heard in Notre Dame Stadium. But as Leonard got more comfortable with Irish offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock, Leonard’s play improved dramatically and suddenly Notre Dame was a on a roll. They, of course, haven’t lost since that Northern Illinois defeat—winning 13 in a row and are now looking to become the first team to win a national championship in the 12-team playoff era.

It won’t be easy against an Ohio State team that is more than a touchdown favorite. The Buckeyes defeated Notre Dame in both 2022 and 2023. Even though Leonard wasn’t on the team at the time, he knows what happened in those games, including the Irish having only 10 men on the field defensively as Ohio State scored the go ahead score to win at Notre Dame Stadium last season.

If for nothing else, his head coach Marcus Freeman is consistent. And for perhaps that reason alone Freeman has dipped into his post Northern Illinois bag of tricks to set the right mindset for his team. Freeman doesn’t bring up the losses to Ohio State too much to the team but he did play clips in the facility all week—just like he did for weeks after the loss to Northern Illinois.

“He doesn’t really have to mention the Ohio State loss to give you any extra motivation because it’s the National Championship, so if you’re not motivated enough, you’re tripping,” Leonard says.

A man of profound faith, Leonard doesn’t think it’s an accident that it has come down to Notre Dame and Ohio State for the national title.

“I think we’re the two main teams to just publicly display our faith the most, and I don’t know if this is some divine teacher who put us here, but I truly believe that Jesus was looking over both of our shoulders throughout the whole season and put these two teams on a pedestal for a reason,” Leonard says.

Something divine might help explain how Leonard even got a scholarship for college football to begin with.

Leonard grew up in the small town of Fairhope, Alabama. He basically got his shot at Duke as a favor between friends. Leonard wasn’t heavily recruited and never took an official or unofficial visit to any school but he was tight with David Morris, who played for Duke coach David Cutcliffe at Ole Miss.

“So Coach Cut was doing him a favor and offering and I took full advantage of it,” Leonard explains. “It’s crazy to think where I am today because I went 3-9 at Duke; wasn’t heavily recruited. I think the one group of people that did believe in me throughout my entire college career was Fairhope and all the families back home. I think that’s because they don’t really see me as a quarterback. They kind of just see me as who I am as a person and they’re going to have my back no matter what. It’s crazy to think that we’re here now, but very grateful to be in these shoes and represent Fairhope, Alabama, where I come from.”

Now that little boy from Fairhope, who grew up watching Rudy and hearing the stories of his great grandfather James Curran playing at Notre Dame during the 40s, has his chance to tie it all together and deliver what Notre Dame fans have been starving for for 36 years, a national championship.

Notre Dame and Ohio State will kickoff just after 7:30pm Monday night in Atlanta.