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Riley Leonard’s Basketball Highlights Resurface Ahead of CFP National Championship

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Matt Wadleigh | Last updated Jan 20, 2025 5:43 PM ET

The College Football Playoff national championship game kicks off Monday night with No. 8 seed Ohio State facing No. 7 Notre Dame.

The matchup has plenty of storylines, including both Ohio State's Will Howard and Notre Dame's Riley Leonard transferring to the program last offseason.

Howard transferred from Kansas State to Ohio State and replaced Kyle McCord, who went to Syracuse. Leonard transferred from Duke to Notre Dame and replaced Sam Hartman, who went undrafted in 2024.

As it turns out, Leonard did more than play football before. In his high school days, Leonard was a pretty good basketball player for Fairhope High School in Alabama.

On the morning of the national title game -- and the biggest one of Leonard's career -- a video resurfaced of some of his highlights from his high school basketball days.

Notre Dame QB Riley Leonard had an INSANE dunk reel in high school

Leonard scored more than 2,000 career points and had multiple D1 offers before choosing to play football at Duke.

Read: https://t.co/vmVjQaZE1D

pic.twitter.com/G9o7wPUx3V
— On3 High School (@On3hs) January 20, 2025

Leonard's high school hoops film is quite impressive, especially for somebody who is playing in the CFP national title game and doing well at the QB position.

Leonard wasn't just a backup, either, but he averaged more than 20 points per game during his final two seasons at Fairhope. He also totaled 147 steals and had more than 2,000 points throughout his high school career, which are all impressive numbers.

Leonard had offers from several Division 1 programs for basketball, including UAB, Missouri State and Saint Mary’s, per On3.

The decision to play football was a good one for Leonard, and entering Monday, he has a total of 7,056 passing yards and 43 touchdowns along with 2,090 rushing yards and 35 touchdowns while setting a Notre Dame school record for most rushing scores in a season.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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