This message from Riley Leonard to his Notre Dame family is worth keeping. On December 18 he posted:
“We’re done being afraid of anything — I know that much about this team. I know that, win or lose, we’re going to do it our way: We’re going to dare greatly.” Go to the source to read the entire post but you might need to get a box of Kleenex first: A Message For My Notre Dame Family | By Riley Leonard
A scant 133 days ago, after the loss to Northern Illinois some of his ‘Notre Dame family’ would have gladly put his head on a spike right next to Marcus Freeman’s in the middle of the God quad and yet he kept his head while everyone else was losing theirs. Rudyard Kipling could have been thinking of Riley when he authored his immortal poem “If”…

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise…
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!”
Source: Quote by Rudyard Kipling: “If you can keep your head when all about you A…”
No matter what happens Monday — even if an errant throw costs us the game — Riley Leonard will go down in my mind as one of the greatest quarterbacks in Notre Dame history not because of his arm or his legs, but because of his heart, his head, and his character. He is the spirit of Notre Dame!