BLOOMINGTON — Indiana football hasn’t faced a true dual-threat quarterback this season.
That will change for the Hoosiers (11-1) in the first round of the College Football Playoff against Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard. The Duke transfer was one of only six Power Four quarterbacks this season with at least 1,900 passing yards and 650 rushing yards.
“He’s an excellent player,” Indiana coach Curt Cignetti said. “I’ve been watching him for a couple years, studying Duke offense, when he was at Duke. He’s a competitor, and he throws the ball well. He’s got good movement skills, good size.”
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Leonard has averaged 5.5 yards per carry in 39 career games and has the second most career rushing touchdowns (33) among active FBS quarterbacks. He had 16 of those in 2024 and closed out the year with multiple touchdowns in four of the team’s last five games.
“When you play Notre Dame offensively, it starts with the run game, and the quarterback is a big part of the run game,” Cignetti said. “Not only on the designed quarterback runs but when he drops back and he’s in the pocket and escapes the pocket and his ability to create plays with his arm and his legs.”
Notre Dame has the 10th ranked rushing offense in the country going into the College Football Playoffs (224.8 yards per game) and are one of only three FBS teams that’s averaging more than six yards per attempt (6.3 yards per carry).
The Irish lean on two running backs — Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price — in addition to Leonard. The group tied for the fourth most runs of 30 yards or more (16) this season.
Indiana defensive coordinator Bryant Haines, who is a Broyles Award finalist given annually to the nation’s top assistant, rattled off most of those stats from memory when he spoke to reporters on Monday afternoon.
“It’s a very good rushing attack,” he said.
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Leonard opens up a lot of what Notre Dame wants to do, but don’t be surprised if IU’s game plan doesn’t look all that much different on Friday night.
“You can’t stop the run if they’re going to run the quarterback,” Haines said. “I mean, you’d have to over commit so aggressively to stopping the run that you would put other parts of the defense in peril.”
He’s not going to abandon his core principles — IU’s defense has an aggressive play style that emphasizes getting the front seven downhill into the opposing backfield — with a focus on making Leonard pay a “toll” every time he decides to carry the ball.
“We have different things we can do, whether it’s blitzing, or mixing the looks up,” Haines said. “He can run some, and he probably will, and he’ll probably get some yards, but he’ll also get a couple hits from the Hoosiers.”
Haines’ scheme has held up against the run all season long.
Indiana has the best rushing defense in the country — the Hoosiers held opposing teams to 70.8 rushing yards per game — and gave up the fewest runs of 10-yards or more (26) out of 134 FBS teams. They set a single-game record by holding Purdue to minus-36 rushing yards and only gave up more than 100 rushing yards four times. They also ranked 20th in the FBS with 86 tackles for loss.
The magic number for IU on Friday night might be holding Notre Dame to less than 200 yards on the ground.
The Irish are 18-0 under coach Marcus Freeman, who has an overall record of 30-9, when rushing for 200 or more yards. They have averaged 112.7 rushing yards per game in those nine losses. The program hasn’t lost a game when rushing for at least 200 yards since No. 19, 2016 against Virginia Tech.
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
