Duke
Leonard: I love proving people wrong
Riley Leonard speaks to the media after a 34-31 win over Wake Forest
Hey Harry. Very good. Well, yeah, at what point did you know tonight is gonna be that kind of thing where you would have um really, really the first drive, whenever I was able to sling the ball around and watch them make plays, I kind of knew where things were gonna go. Um, I was able to have time in the pocket. So big shout out to the old line there and really just, you know, when you got, when you have guys with two yards of separation as a quarterback, you kind of know that you'll be able to uh, you know, have a pretty successful game. So you know, that I give all the credit to them. Yeah, Coach Sean talks all the time about the greenhouse. Um, so no matter what happens outside the greenhouse, the temperature always stays the same. And that's the mentality we have, um, you know, whether something bad happens or something good happens, we're gonna come back and we're gonna be the same team that we've been uh, throughout the, throughout the game. So, um, Nothing changes in our mentality and I'm super proud of the guys for staying consistent. Was able to have a big time possession advantage without a great running game by completely short passes. That was the game plan going in to get a lot of 8, 10, 12 yard passes and it worked, just talked about that. Yeah, when you play a good team like that on defense, but you know, a really skilled uh, defensive back position group. Uh, you kinda gotta take what the defense gives you, you know, that's how I've learned as a quarterback throughout the year, um, you know, if you have to check the ball down, you have to take the ball down, you know, and uh, we had a great game plan, we found some holes in their defense and were able to execute media makes it about the other guy, you're always gonna show up. I try not to, but I'd be lying if I said that it didn't affect my, you know, how I, you know, went into the game. Uh like I always say, I love hearing, you know, all the negative things about me because I just want to prove everybody wrong, you know, I hope, you know, for the remainder of my career, things don't change. Uh, I've always loved, you know, reading those articles, I don't, I don't look for them, but, you know, if somebody brings them to me, you know, I'm not complaining, reading them. So, uh yeah, that's definitely something, You know, a mentality thing that I bring into every game. I'm sure you've been answering variations of this question all year, but now that the regular season is complete, you know, 8451 improvement from last year, what stands out the most about the first year of the Mike, Elko era? That's a great question. Uh, the thing that stands out the most to me is we go into every single game expecting to win. Um, and trusting that if we do our job, we're going to win. Um, I know that in the years past, some guys kind of predetermined things in their head, but this year, uh, there was not one game that we went into thinking that we were gonna lose. So the winning winning mentality and in this Duke organization is definitely the biggest change this year. It's early on, it's probably harder than it was. Confidence grows. And it's always like kind of like having that go from just like maybe something you put on a poster having to be something that you're really living our strength program and everybody inside this organization really knew the steps that we're taking. But obviously there's, there's a little ambiguity there whenever you don't know, uh, how, you know, everything's gonna turn out. I mean, at the end of the, at the end of the day, we're just a bunch of backups from last year really, especially on offense, me, the running backs, wide receivers in this part. Everybody, you know, we're all just the backups from last year. So, uh, you never know what's gonna happen, but you know, I'm super proud of you guys, let me ask you about after the touchdown touchdown when you completed the first time out as a quarterback, whenever you have that situation and they call it pass, that means a lot to me, uh, for them to show that they have confidence in me and, and Samir to run a great route and catch the ball on that situation. Uh you know, it definitely means a lot uh to have the coaches trusting you so I respect the call and I'm proud of them for trusting in me. Yeah, it's really cool to play against a guy like Sam after seeing his story, you know, you can't dislike him. So competing against him is something, you know, it's really cool for me being a younger guy. And then for me and Drake, you know, obviously I think our names are kind of gonna be head to head for for quite a few years now, so I'm excited for that competition in that robbery. Was that like a specific one? Uh Yeah, we we've called that play before earlier in the year against U. N. C. So uh it was a play that I knew if I throw it up 85 was gonna make a catch. So we did, yeah. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thanks man.