{"id":1131499,"date":"2025-01-09T10:49:33","date_gmt":"2025-01-09T16:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/?p=1131499"},"modified":"2025-01-09T10:49:33","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T16:49:33","slug":"riley-leonard-takes-on-penn-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/riley-leonard-takes-on-penn-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Riley Leonard Looks to Punch Ticket to National Championship Tonight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fairhope&#8217;s own Riley Leonard is just one win away from leading the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to their first National Championship appearance in over a decade. Fresh off a hard-fought 23-10 victory over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, Leonard&#8217;s performance has been one of the main factors leading to Notre Dame&#8217;s playoff run.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the Sugar Bowl, Leonard may not have had the most amazing stat line, completing just 15 of 24 passes for 90 yards and a touchdown. However, his dual-threat capability gave Georgia\u2019s defense and Coach Smart fits all afternoon, rushing for 80 yards on 14 carries, including an airborne scramble on 3rd and long where he flipped for a first down. His play against Georgia earned him the Offensive MVP award of the game.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\ud83c\udf89 Miller-Digby Award Offensive MVP is Riley Leonard!<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfc6 2025 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CFBPlayoff?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#CFBPlayoff<\/a> Quarterfinal at the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Allstate?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Allstate<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SugarBowl?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SugarBowl<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NDFootball?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@NDFootball<\/a> \/\/ <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/GoIrish?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#GoIrish<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3s998jwQ1Y\">pic.twitter.com\/3s998jwQ1Y<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Allstate Sugar Bowl (@SugarBowlNola) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SugarBowlNola\/status\/1874982316336132384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 3, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tonight, Leonard faces another formidable opponent in the Penn State Nittany Lions. Penn State has had one of the most formidable defenses in the nation all season, and that dominance has continued through the College Football Playoff, allowing 14 points or fewer in both of their games. Penn State\u2019s leading edge rusher, Abdul Carter, who has 11 sacks on the year, has been dealing with an injury and will be a game-time decision. If Carter is available, what was already going to be a tough night at the office for Leonard may become even tougher.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With only four teams remaining in the playoff\u2014Ohio State, Texas, Penn State, and Notre Dame\u2014and just one from the \u201cSEC family\u201d (or what some may even call our extended family), the Mobile-Baldwin County community will rally behind the Fighting Irish tonight and, hopefully, for the next few weeks leading to the College Football Playoff National Championship.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Riley will return home to the 251 area soon, as he has already accepted an invite to the Reese\u2019s Senior Bowl, where he will begin his next journey as a future NFL quarterback. This year\u2019s Senior Bowl quarterback class is already full of elite names, including Jaxon Dart, Dillon Gabriel, and Jalen Milroe, with the possibility of more joining as well. If Riley can shine among a stellar class like this and put on a show tonight against Penn State, his draft stock will only continue to rise.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Fairhope&#8217;s own Riley Leonard is just one win away from leading the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to their first National Championship appearance in over a <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/riley-leonard-takes-on-penn-state\/\" title=\"Riley Leonard Looks to Punch Ticket to National Championship Tonight\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":4875,"featured_media":1131513,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,5,150,154,176],"tags":[532,932,967],"class_list":{"0":"post-1131499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured-news","8":"category-home","9":"category-local-sports","10":"category-senior-bowl","11":"category-top","12":"tag-fairhope","13":"tag-notre-dame","14":"tag-riley-leonard"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/ccr2501025452_nd_v_uga.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1131499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4875"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1131499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1131499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1131514,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1131499\/revisions\/1131514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1131513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1131499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1131499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1131499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}