Former Duke quarterback Riley Leonard officially transferred to the Fighting Irish program on Tuesday, according to Pete Thamel of ESPN.

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Leonard spent the past three seasons with the Blue Devils. He earned the starting share of reps prior to the 2022 season, when he threw for 2,967 yards and 20 touchdowns in 13 games.

Injuries marred Leonard’s season in 2023. An ankle injury suffered during the Notre Dame game Sept. 30 forced him to miss Duke’s next game.

READ: LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels’ full Heisman Trophy acceptance speech

Leonard also missed the final month of the regular season. He finished the year with 1,102 passing yards and three touchdowns to as many interceptions.

Notre Dame went 9-3 this season with Sam Hartman under center. Hartman played one season with the Fighting Irish, throwing for 2,689 yards and 24 touchdowns after spending five seasons at Wake Forest.

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No. 8 Oregon will meet No. 13 Utah on the road, and the Ducks are looking to build on their 38-24 win over Washington State which served as a bounce-back measure after falling in a top-10 bout with Washington. 

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There are also 12 ranked teams that will play on the road in addition to Oregon, and the group includes No. 1 Georgia, No. 3 Ohio State and No. 4 Florida State. No. 2 Michigan is on a bye. 

Here are several games to watch this week. 

No. 6 Oklahoma at Kansas 

The top team in the Big 12 Conference will hit the road and challenge one team looking to play spoiler to their undefeated season. 

A 7-0 Oklahoma squad is set for its third road game of the season against the Jayhawks, who are doing a bit of searching after losing their second of three outings last week. 

The Sooners avoided upset last week against UCF, defeating the Knights 31-29 after trailing 23-17 in the fourth quarter. 

This week, they’ll face the No. 7 total offense in the Big 12 that averages 443.1 yards per game. Jayhawks quarterback Jason Bean has taken over under center for Jalon Daniels, who is dealing with a shoulder injury, and Bean passed for 410 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions last week at Oklahoma State. 

Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables is impressed with how dynamic Kansas’ offense can be, and he expects a number of ways the Jayhawks will attack Oklahoma’s defense, which is the No. 1 scoring defense in the Big 12 holding opposition to 16.1 points per game. 

“There’s a lot going on from an eye candy standpoint,” Venables said. “One of the most explosive offenses, explosive runs and explosive passes in all of college football. And so again, we’ve got to do a great job of playing with discipline and gap integrity and then staying on top of everything, leveraging routes in the back end, so that they don’t have this great balance, and that’s the challenge of all of that.” 

No. 8 Oregon at No. 13 Utah 

This week’s premier matchup focuses on the Pac-12 and the stipulations behind the Oregon-Utah matchup. 

Both teams enter with one loss in conference play already. They’re chasing Washington and USC in the standings, and both Oregon and Utah have proven worthy threats to the Pac-12 crown. 

Oregon has the top scoring offense in the Pac-12 and leads in rushing offense behind an average of 226.9 yards per game. Receiver Troy Franklin is second in the conference with 109.7 receiving yards per game. 

The Ducks defense is stout, too. They hold opponents to 312.6 yards per game. 

“There is no weakness. They’re a complete team,” Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said. “Big game in the conference picture. They’re a one-loss team as are we, so both our backs are to the wall and it should be a hopefully a great football game.” 

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Whittingham said he’s long been impressed with the way Oregon quarterback Bo Nix plays, particularly with “the way he just leads and competes every week.” 

“He’s a tremendous player,” Whittingham said. “But the thing I like about him most is his competitiveness and his leadership, and I saw that at Auburn. I saw him play one game at Auburn. I was watching an SEC game a couple of, what was it, three years ago I guess now in the ’21 season, and saw this guy. I thought, ‘Who is that guy? He’s just making plays and just an absolute field general of the team and it was him and so I’ve had a strong opinion of how good he is for several years.” 

No. 20 Duke at No. 18 Louisville 

In a matchup between two teams looking to bounce back from losses, there are plenty of Atlantic Coast Conference championship implications between Duke and Louisville this week. 

North Carolina suffered its first loss of the season last week to unranked Virginia, and the Tar Heels currently are tied for second in the ACC with Louisville. Duke sits tied for fourth place. 

Louisville boasts the No. 4 scoring offense in the ACC behind an average of 34.1 points per game, while Duke holds the top scoring defense in the conference holding opponents to 13.9 points per game. 

The Blue Devils are searching for a win amid their quarterback dealing with injury. Riley Leonard suffered a shoulder injury against Notre Dame in September, and he played last week against the Seminoles going 7-for-16 with 69 pass yards and an interception. 

READ: Big Board: Week 9

Duke is also looking to get back in the win column after losing its second game in its past three contests. Head coach Mike Elko said he’s not concerned with the way the Blue Devils have handled themselves in defeat. 

“The one thing I don’t question about this group is response,” Elko said. “We’re wired in a really good way right now in that locker room because those kids understand that they’ve got a very small window to represent Duke football and they want to try to take advantage of it as best they can, so I’m not worried about our response. I’m more worried about can we stop this Louisville offense and can we make enough plays on our side to win the football game.” 

The post Preview Thursday: Week 9  appeared first on Saturday Glory.

There are four ranked matchups scheduled for Saturday when Week 8 commences, and it will be headlined by another top-10 matchup this time taking place in the Big Ten Conference. 

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Among the other contests on tap for Week 8 includes eight ranked teams playing on the road, including No. 2 Michigan traveling to Michigan State. 

Here are several games to watch this week. 

No. 22 Air Force at Navy 

Air Force entered the Associated Press Top 25 Poll for the first time this season, checking in at No. 22 which is its highest ranking since the 2019 season. 

A battle between service academies will take place on Saturday, as the Falcons travel to face Navy in a series that dates back to 1960. Both teams enter on winning streaks since the Midshipmen have won their last two games and the Falcons have won 11. 

Air Force will be without its starting quarterback as Zac Larrier deals with injury, and head coach Troy Calhoun projects Larrier will be out “a while.” 

Navy averages 20.3 points per game on 335 yards of total offense. The Midshipmen shut out Charlotte 14-0 in Week 7. 

Calhoun said aside from the in-game competition, he looks forward to the march-ons of the service academies and pregame traditions. 

“It’s always a big deal,” Calhoun said. “We came in the other day from pregame and you look all the way up that tunnel and you see all those cadets. It just moves you beyond football too, and again, just you have future service members that have made a commitment to do everything they can to make our country a better place, and I think that’s awesome. And I keep thinking at some point, I’d like to go watch one of these games also to see the flybys but hopefully that’s a ways out.” 

No. 17 Duke at No. 4 Florida State 

This Atlantic Coast Conference matchup should be a fun one. 

The Blue Devils fell just short of an upset win over Notre Dame earlier in the season, dropping the game 21-14 and seeing quarterback Riley Leonard deal with ankle injury. 

READ: Big Board: Week 8

Florida State, meanwhile, is out to its first 6-0 start since the 2015 season. The Seminoles are led by fifth-year quarterback Jordan Travis who is tied for second in the ACC with 13 passing touchdowns and fourth with a 154.1 passing efficiency rating. 

Duke’s defense will present a challenge to the Seminoles, as the Blue Devils lead the ACC in total defense allowing 164.7 yards per game. It’s a tough enough team that stands out to Florida State head coach Mike Norvell. 

“You watch film and you see really good players,” Norvell said. “They’ve done everything they needed to do. They were one play away in that Notre Dame game that you just, I mean, you kind of felt for them for how it all played out but I mean this is a very, very talented team and it’s one that you don’t need to give a motivational speech to any of our guys because they know the challenge that’s ahead and it’s going to take our best game and I’m looking forward to continuing the week of preparation.” 

No. 7 Penn State at No. 3 Ohio State 

This week’s top-10 bout will take place in Columbus, Ohio. 

The Buckeyes and Nittany Lions are plenty familiar with one another, and Ohio State has won nine of the past 10 matchups. 

This time around, the stakes are high and the competition will be up to the level of a top-10 game. Both teams enter near the top of the Big Ten in total offense and defense. 

Penn State is No. 1 in total defense allowing 193.7 yards per game. That provides a dramatic challenge to the Buckeyes offense which tops the Big Ten at 443 yards per game. 

READ: Quotables: Week 7

The battle will remain in the trenches as both teams offer dynamic run offenses, with the Nittany Lions atop the conference behind an average of 203.3 rushing yards per game to Ohio State’s 135, and the Buckeyes could be without running back TreVeyon Henderson due to injury. 

A contest between two undefeated programs will take place at Ohio Stadium, and Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day said he hopes to see the fans in the stands early. 

“I know I talked to Gene (Smith), about this, and one of the biggest things that he mentioned to me was getting everybody in the stadium early,” Day said. “We want to do that. We’ve done that in the past just to set the tone. But this is one of those games that we’ve got to really create a hostile environment for Penn State, in particular their offense. When we’re really loud in the stadium, anytime that their offense has the ball, it makes it very difficult to operate the communication, the snap count, all of those things and so the louder we can be, it doesn’t matter whether it’s third down, red zone, short yardage, if they’re operating and they’re on the field, the louder we can be, the more hostile that we can be, advantage Buckeyes.” 

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