When was the last time Notre Dame entered a football season with one of the nation’s ten-best quarterbacks?

Sam Hartman was experienced entering last season but there were more than nine other quarterbacks better than him last season. 

When healthy, Riley Leonard was one of those. Leonard was of course at Duke last season before transferring to Notre Dame following the regular season. 

While healthy he had Duke in position to upset Notre Dame and had the Blue Devils giving Florida State a tremendous battle before injuries forced him from both games.

So where does Riley Leonard rank on the list of best quarterbacks entering 2024 and how does that compare to what Notre Dame has started with at quarterbacks in recent years?

Pete Fiutak of College Football News recently ranked the nation’s best quarterbacks entering the 2024 college football season.

Notre Dame’s Riley Leonard wasn’t knocking on the door at the top of the list but wasn’t very far down either, ranking seventh overall.

What stuck out to me in Fiutak’s rankings was that Leonard checked in four spots ahead of Texas A&M’s Conner Weigman, who checked in 11th.

Other quarterbacks Notre Dame will face checked in 10th (Louisville’s Tyler Shough) and 17th (Florida State’s DJ Uiagalelei) also made the list.

An argument can be made that Fiutak has Riley Leonard perhaps a spot or two too low, or a handful of spots too high. Leonard is in that conversation where the difference between No. 6 and No. 12 really isn’t very significant whatsoever.

For the first time in a very long time though, Notre Dame might be getting ready to climb that list in short order.

Notre Dame quarterback coach Gino Guidugli has done a lot to upgrade the position with sophomore Kenny Minchey and freshman CJ Carr waiting in the wings behind Leonard and junior Steve Angeli.

If all goes according to plan this will be the final Notre Dame starting quarterback we see for some time that comes from the transfer portal.

The expectation will be for Carr to likely challenge to start next season as mega-recruit Deuce Knight of Mississippi remains Notre Dame’s biggest piece of the 2025 recruiting class and could be Notre Dame’s biggest quarterback recruit in a decade-and-a-half or more.

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