Will Howard of Ohio State and
Riley Leonard of Notre Dame are ready to lead their respective squads at quarterback Monday in the College Football Playoff national championship.
In addition to their success on the gridiron, both were standout basketball players in high school.
The 6-foot-4 Howard played ball at
Downingtown West (Downingtown, Pa.). The 2020 high school graduate played varsity as a freshman and made an immediate impact scoring, rebounding and defending, helping the Whippets to the state tournament in 2017.
Howard scored his 1,000th career point for Downingtown West as a senior in January of 2020, one of his final games as he enrolled early at Kansas State to begin his college football journey.
Leonard was a star on the court at
Fairhope (Ala.) and had basketball offers from the likes of Alabama-Birmingham, Missouri State and Saint Mary's. He was unsure what sport he would play in college until he received a flurry of football offers just before his senior season began.
The Class of 2021 dual-sport athlete averaged more than 20 points and seven rebounds per game with 147 steals in his final two seasons. As a senior, he led the Pirates to a 27-2 record and eclipsed 2,000 points in his career.
Like Howard, Leonard had success at another program (Duke) before transferring to Notre Dame this season. He comes from a family of athletes, including his great-grandfather James Curran, who won a national title at Notre Dame as a football player in 1938 and again as an assistant coach in 1946. Curran eventually became the first head football coach at
DeMatha (Hyattsville, Md.) in 1949 and also coached basketball, baseball and golf.
