Ohio State’s Will Howard, Notre Dame’s Riley Leonard Maintained Perspective Following Stunning Defeats

Will Howard and Riley Leonard transferred ahead of their final season of eligibility. Both quarterbacks sought an opportunity to play for a national title. Both quarterbacks, roommates at the Manning Passing Academy, overcame difficult, and certainly shocking, defeats on their way to leading Ohio State and Notre Dame, respectively, to Monday’s CFP national championship game in Atlanta.

Both quarterbacks met those losses head on and understood their final season of college football could still be a special one. Sure enough, they are ready to compete on the game’s grandest stage at the end of this initial expanded playoff year.

Overcoming Michigan Setback

Howard apologized to Ohio State fans following a stunning loss to Michigan at the conclusion of the regular season, a mess of a defeat to a bitter rival. (Perhaps some Buckeyes’ fans should have later apologized for not showing up at “The Shoe,” which proved to be a bonanza for Tennessee fans who scarfed up tickets to a first-round CFP matchup in Columbus.)

“I’m sorry to Buckeye Nation, but listen, we still got things ahead of us and we can still run the table and win a national championship,” he said. “I think at the end of the day, that’s what we have to focus on. That’s got to keep us going.”

The Buckeyes kept it going. They had two weeks to get past the Michigan loss, which prevented a rematch against Oregon in the Big Ten championship game. But big deal. After all, there was still a much larger prize on the table and an additional week to prep for that prize. Indeed, Ohio State defeated the Vols, what was a rematch anyway versus top-ranked, undefeated and, ahem, Big Ten champ Oregon, and then Texas by a combined 111-52.

Howard? The 6-foot-5 Downingtown, Pa. native has completed 74 percent of his passes for 919 yards and six touchdowns in the CFP. The Volunteers, Ducks and Longhorns were all top 15 defensive units. (By the way, the Irish lead the nation in pass efficiency defense.) Now, the prize is in front of Howard and the Buckeyes.

“We’ve come all this way, but it means nothing if we don’t finish it the right way and win this last one,” he said Wednesday.

‘A Lot Of Eyes Are On Me’

Notre Dame paid $100,000 per point in a 16-14 loss to Northern Illinois, which was given $1.4 million for its visit to South Bend.

For Leonard, his second game with his new team left Irish eyes rolling in dismay, if not disbelief. He threw two interceptions and the offense totaled 286 yards – the Huskies allowed an average of 285 on the season to rank fourth nationally – in a defeat that left Marcus Freeman’s team 1-1 after opening with a 10-point win at Texas A&M.

“I think everybody is going to be looking at me,” said Leonard, following the shocker. “How I approach today, how I approach tomorrow is going to be indicative. Obviously, a lot of eyes are on me and I have to lead by example right now.”

The remainder of the regular season schedule was far from daunting. Still, the Fighting Irish, with no margin for error, ran the table before making the CFP as the No. 7 seed. They have since defeated Indiana, Georgia and Penn State, on Mitch Jeter’s 41-yard field goal with seven seconds remaining, while limiting the three teams to a combined 51 points.

As for Leonard, his numbers in the playoff are far from impressive. Not that they have had to stand out in order for his team, which is tremendous defensively, to get to this point. The Fairhope, Ala. native is averaging 220 yards of total offense with five total touchdowns and three interceptions in the three games. Yet, Notre Dame has continued to win. It’s 13 straight since NIU and a 14th would mean going out on top.

“After that game it was like, shoot, forget being the best team in the country,” he said. “You’ve got to be on the best team on the field every single week. But definitely, grand scheme of things, that’s why I came here, to compete in a National Championship.”