Why Riley Leonard’s Mom Texts Him ‘You Suck’ Before Every Game

On January 21, 2025By Littum

Notre Dame football quarterback Riley Leonard receive an SMS before Monday College Football National Championship: “You suck.”

The lyrics will seem mean to most, coming from his own mother, but for Leonard, it’s a tradition he’s been building since high school. The redshirt senior, who transferred from Duke to Notre Dame this offseason, even wears a bracelet with those words.

The words will inspire him ahead the national championship game between no. 7 Notre Dame (14-1) and no. 8 Ohio State (13-2) from Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

“My mom, before every football game, texts me, ‘You suck,'” Leonard said in one ESPN video shared on Instagram. “It started in high school. I was tired of everyone telling me how good I was all the time. I needed someone to tell me I suck every once in a while to give me some motivation.”

Leonard was a two-sport athlete at Fairhope High School in Fairhope, Alabama. As a senior, he earned second-team all-state honors at quarterback and also excelled on the basketball court, averaging 20.8 points and 7.9 rebounds per game to lead the Pirates to a 27-2 record.

According to a segment from ESPN’s “College GameDay” in 2023, when Leonard was still around Blue Devilshe and his parents sat down for a strategy session after his game gained more attention.

“I needed someone to tell me that sometimes I suck,” Leonard told “GameDay.” “So my mom raised her hand and said, ‘I got you.'”

Thus the tradition was born.

“I just told him, ‘You suck,'” Heather Leonard said.

“It lets him know as much as I tell him, ‘You stink,’ I also let him know that I love you and I’m behind you and I support you.”

Leonard transferred to Notre Dame in the offseason from Duke when his Blue Devils head coach Mike Elko took over the coaching position at Texas A&M. Leonard entered the portal for his final season of eligibility and quickly committed Fighting Irishwhere his great-grandfather, James E. Curran, played football for in 1940.

Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman added Leonard to replace Wake Forest transfer quarterback Sam Hartman and keep the Fighting Irish in contention for a CFP run. Freeman wasn’t surprised by the tradition his signal-caller and his mother have.

“When I heard that, it’s a reminder to me why he’s so competitive,” Freeman said. “And whatever she’s doing and whatever that text means to him, it makes him play at a high level.”