ATLANTA — Sports make for strange bedfellows — or in this case, roommates, as Ohio State quarterback Will Howard and his Notre Dame counterpart Riley Leonard discovered.
The pair roomed at the Manning Passing Academy in Thibodaux, La., last summer and will be leading their respective teams in the College Football Playoff national championship game on Monday.
They talked at the camp about their transfers — Howard from Kansas State and Leonard from Duke — without projecting too far into the future.
“We probably wouldn’t have imagined that a couple of months later, here we are playing for the national championship for two new schools,” Howard said. “He’s a great guy, somebody I have a lot of respect for.”
Leonard pointed out that he and Howard “weren’t really the big names” at the camp.
“We were just two dudes hustling, trying to compete and make a name of ourselves,” he said. “It’s really cool to have those late-night conversations with him about life and whatever and see where we are now.”
They initially met at the camp in 2023 and now will be forever linked in the first title game since the field was expanded to 12 teams.
Howard completed 292 of his 402 passes (72.6 percent) for 3,779 yards with 33 touchdowns and 10 interceptions this season. Leonard went 247 of 372 (66.4 percent) with 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions but has the edge in rushing.
Leonard has carried the ball 167 times for 866 yards and 16 touchdowns, while Howard has had 89 rushes for 169 yards and seven touchdowns. Howard did convert a critical fourth-and-2 run for 18 yards to keep the go-ahead drive alive against Texas in the CFP semifinal on Jan. 10.
Ohio State coach Ryan Day has a lot of respect for the Notre Dame QB.
“I think Riley Leonard is a tremendous leader and a tremendous player and a winner,” Day said.
–Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman doesn’t shy away from ties to Ohio State, but he doesn’t dwell on them either.
Freeman was a linebacker for the Buckeyes from 2004-08 for head coach Jim Tressel. He played for four Big Ten championships teams and was on the losing side in national championship games vs. Florida in 2006 and LSU in 2007. He also spent a graduate assistant year there in 2010.
He made it clear this is not the time for reminiscing as he prepares for the game.
“This has nothing to do with the past and where I went to school,” Freeman said.
Freeman was a college teammate of Ohio State linebackers coach James Laurinaitis, who was also a graduate assistant for Notre Dame in 2022.
“He was in my wedding and I was in his wedding,” Freeman said. “We’ve got a lot of great moments and probably some that I won’t share on this press conference, but he’s a great friend.”
–The favored Buckeyes are a win away from redemption after an inexplicable 13-10 loss to three-touchdown underdog Michigan in the regular-season finale on Nov. 30.
A fourth straight loss to the bitter rivals had fans calling for Day’s firing, and critics suggested the Buckeyes would be one-and-done in the postseason in the aftermath of the debacle.
But blowout wins over Tennessee (42-17) and Oregon (41-21) and a 28-14 win over Texas in the semifinal put the Buckeyes a victory away from completing their redemption.
“We’ve come all this way, but it means really nothing if we don’t finish it the right way and win this last one,” Howard said.
The Fighting Irish would rather not be a footnote to history.
“They’ve got a ton of athletes everywhere,” Notre Dame linebacker Joshua Burnham said. “They’ve got a good offensive line. They’ve battled through some injuries. But so have we. It’s just going to be a game that comes down to grit and who wants it.”
–Craig Merz, Field Level Media
