SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Riley Leonard expected the worst.
As he entered coach Marcus Freeman’s second-floor office for their standing Sunday sitdown, roughly 24 hours after a stunning home loss against Northern Illinois, Leonard braced himself for bad news. After all, he’d thrown two costly interceptions in a game that seemed to dash all hopes for Notre Dame making the College Football Playoff.
Is he going to tell me that I’ll never touch the field again?
Was that my last game at Notre Dame?
What happened next was a bit weird, wholly unexpected and, for Leonard, one of the most resonating thing he’d ever witnessed.