Riley Leonard arrived at Notre Dame last spring still recovering from an ankle injury that prematurely ended his time at Duke. He wasn’t able to participate in spring practices due to the injury, but prior to the 2024 season he still found both the time and the space to throw to his new group of pass catchers.
The space was in a notable setting: Philip Rivers’ backyard.
Leonard is a native of Fairhope, Ala., and his parents live about five minutes away from Rivers, the should-be future Hall of Fame quarterback who’s now the head coach at St. Michael Catholic High School in Fairhope. So in 2024, Leonard invited several Irish pass catchers to Fairhope for a few days to work with him and Rivers – whose backyard, by the way, has a 50-yard turf field with end zones in it.
Those few days left a strong impression on Rivers, who joined Jeffrey Gorman and Matt Taylor on “The Last Word” last week (listen to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts).
“I thought that said a lot about him being a teammate to those guys at Notre Dame, how much they enjoyed being around him and respected him and how they interacted with them,” Rivers said. “And so it was fun to pull for him along the way.
Rivers caught himself following Notre Dame closely during the 2024 season, which saw the Irish reach the College Football Playoff championship game.
“Hey, there’s (Jaden) Greathouse,” Rivers remembers seeing and then thinking, “he caught that same route in the backyard.”