The golden dome brings a different kind of pressure. You’ve seen it before. Every single year, the conversation around South Bend eventually narrows down to one guy standing under center, and the Notre Dame QB 2024 season was no exception to that rule. It was a rollercoaster. Honestly, if you followed the Irish this past fall, you know that the quarterback room felt less like a stable depth chart and more like a high-stakes chemistry experiment that occasionally threatened to blow up the lab.
Marcus Freeman went all-in on the portal. Again. After the Sam Hartman experiment in 2023—which had its moments but ultimately lacked that "it" factor in big games—the coaching staff pivoted to Riley Leonard.
He was the prize. The dual-threat weapon from Duke.
But here is what most people get wrong about that choice: it wasn't just about finding a guy who could throw a deep post. It was about changing the entire identity of the Notre Dame offense under Mike Denbrock. Denbrock, coming off a stint where he helped turn Jayden Daniels into a Heisman winner at LSU, wanted mobility. He got it. But he also got the injuries, the accuracy concerns, and the loud, lingering whispers from a fan base that has been waiting for a homegrown superstar since the days of Ian Book or even Brady Quinn.
The Riley Leonard Gamble and the Northern Illinois Disaster
Let's talk about that Saturday in September. You know the one.
The loss to Northern Illinois didn't just sting; it felt like a systemic failure. Entering that game, the Notre Dame QB 2024 narrative was all about Leonard’s legs. He’s fast. Like, deceptively fast for a guy who stands 6’4”. But against the Huskies, the passing game looked broken. Leonard finished that game without a passing touchdown, a trend that haunted the first month of the season.
He looked hesitant.
The foot surgery he underwent in the offseason clearly played a role in his early-season rhythm. If you can’t plant that back foot, you can't drive the ball into tight windows. It's physics. Fans were calling for Steve Angeli by the third quarter. Angeli, who had stayed loyal to the program despite the portal additions, became the "people’s champion" for a few weeks. It’s the classic Notre Dame trope: the most popular guy on campus is always the backup quarterback.
Yet, Freeman stuck with Leonard. It was a gutsy move that could have lost the locker room, but instead, it galvanized the run game. By the time the Irish hit the meat of their schedule, Leonard wasn't trying to be a pocket passer. He was a bruising runner who happened to throw just well enough to keep safeties honest.
✨ Don't miss: When Was the MLS Founded? The Chaotic Truth About American Soccer's Rebirth
Depth Chart Realities: More Than Just the Starter
Behind the scenes, the room was actually deeper than it has been in years. You had Steve Angeli, the reliable veteran who proved in the Sun Bowl against Oregon State that he could manage a game perfectly. Then you had the flashier options.
Kenny Minchey is a name that kept popping up in practice reports. He has a live arm. He moves differently. But in the Notre Dame QB 2024 hierarchy, he was the odd man out, relegated to mop-up duty or scout team reps because the staff prioritized experience over raw upside.
Then there’s CJ Carr.
If you want to know why Irish fans are actually optimistic about the future, look at Carr. The grandson of Lloyd Carr—yeah, the Michigan legend—he’s got the pedigree and a release that looks like it was engineered in a specialized facility. He didn't see much meaningful action in 2024, which was always the plan. Redshirting him was about preservation. In an era of "win now or get fired," Freeman and Denbrock actually showed some restraint by not throwing Carr to the wolves when Leonard was struggling early on.
Performance by the Numbers
It is easy to get lost in the "vibe" of a season, but the stats tell a weird story.
Leonard’s completion percentage hovered in the low 60s for a chunk of the year, which won't win you a Davey O'Brien Award. However, his rushing touchdowns were pace-setting. There were games where he was the leading rusher by a mile. That’s the Denbrock effect. He realizes that if you have a quarterback who can pull the ball on a zone read and take it 40 yards, it creates a vertical stress that a traditional pro-style guy just can't replicate.
- The Ground Game: Leonard’s ability to move the chains on 3rd and 5 with his legs saved the Irish against Louisville and Texas A&M.
- The Turnover Issue: Early on, interceptions were a nightmare. Most were the result of late throws or miscommunications with a young receiving corps that featured guys like Jaden Greathouse and Beaux Collins.
- Red Zone Efficiency: This is where the 2024 season was won or lost. When the field shrunk, Leonard’s size became a weapon.
Why the "Portal Culture" is Still Polarizing
There is a segment of the Notre Dame faithful that hates the portal. They want a four-year starter. They want a guy who came in as a freshman and bled Blue and Gold for half a decade.
Using the transfer portal for the Notre Dame QB 2024 starter felt like a band-aid to some. But look at the landscape. Everyone is doing it. Ohio State, Oregon, Ole Miss—nobody is winning big without dipping their toes into the transfer waters. The problem for Notre Dame is the academic hurdle. You can’t just bring in any guy with a strong arm; they have to be able to pass an Admissions check that doesn't care about their 40-yard dash time.
🔗 Read more: Navy Notre Dame Football: Why This Rivalry Still Hits Different
Riley Leonard fit the culture. He’s a high-character guy. He’s tough. Watching him take hits against Georgia Tech and keep ticking won over a lot of the skeptics who thought he was "just a Duke kid."
But we have to be honest: the ceiling of a portal-led offense often feels limited. There is a lack of baked-in chemistry. When you only have one spring and one fall camp to get on the same page with your wideouts, the timing is always going to be a fraction of a second off. That fraction of a second is the difference between a touchdown and a pass breakup in the College Football Playoff.
Navigating the Noise
Social media makes playing quarterback at Notre Dame nearly impossible. Every throw is dissected by a thousand amateur scouts on X (formerly Twitter). During the mid-season stretch, the noise was deafening.
The "bench Leonard" camp was loud.
They pointed to the lack of "explosive" plays. And they weren't entirely wrong. The 2024 Irish offense wasn't a vertical juggernaut. It was a grind-it-out, defensive-minded, ball-control machine. It wasn't always pretty. In fact, sometimes it was downright ugly to watch. But it was effective. Winning ten games isn't an accident, even if the path to those ten wins feels like a slog through the mud.
The real expertise comes in recognizing that a quarterback's value isn't just his stat line. It’s his gravity. Because defenses had to account for Leonard as a runner, it opened up massive lanes for Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price. Those running backs owe a significant portion of their 2024 highlights to the fact that linebackers were frozen, terrified that Leonard would tuck it and run.
Looking Ahead: The Post-2024 Landscape
As we move past the Notre Dame QB 2024 era, the questions don't stop. They just change shape.
The "one-year bridge" strategy has to end eventually. You cannot live in the portal forever if you want to build a sustainable championship program. The development of CJ Carr is now the single most important storyline in the building. If he is the "truth," as many insiders suggest, the Irish might finally break the cycle of renting talent for twelve months at a time.
💡 You might also like: LeBron James Without Beard: Why the King Rarely Goes Clean Shaven Anymore
But Leonard's legacy will be that he stabilized the ship. He didn't crumble after the Northern Illinois disaster. He didn't let the noise get to him. He stayed the course and proved that a dual-threat QB could survive the rigors of a Notre Dame schedule.
Real-World Takeaways for the Fans
If you’re trying to make sense of where the program goes from here, keep these specific points in mind.
First, the offense is fundamentally different now. The days of the "statue" quarterback in South Bend are likely over. Whether it’s Leonard, or a future starter like Carr, the ability to escape the pocket is now a requirement, not a luxury.
Second, the offensive line development is inextricably linked to QB success. Leonard took far too many hits in 2024. Part of that was his style, but part of it was a line that struggled with consistency against elite pass rushes.
Finally, don't ignore the importance of the backup. Steve Angeli’s readiness in 2024 showed that Notre Dame has finally built actual depth. In previous years, an injury to QB1 meant the season was over. Now, they have "winning" football players throughout the room.
To really understand the Notre Dame QB 2024 season, you have to look at the film from the November games. You see a quarterback who finally looked comfortable. You see a coaching staff that stopped trying to force him to be something he wasn't. They embraced the "ugly" wins. And in South Bend, an ugly win is always better than a "beautiful" loss.
The next step for anyone following this program is to watch the spring game closely. Pay attention to the velocity on CJ Carr’s intermediate throws and whether or not the staff brings in another veteran to compete. The cycle never truly stops; it just resets every January. Watch the transfer portal entries in the post-bowl window, as that will tell you exactly how the coaches feel about the internal development of the younger guys. If they don't take a high-level transfer, it’s the ultimate vote of confidence in the talent already on campus.