It’s AWARD WATCH LIST season for Notre Dame football and the rest of the country. On Wednesday, Irish quarterback Riley Leonard was one of the players selected for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award watch list.

From the ND press release:

Leonard on the list of Golden Arm Award winners

SOUTH BEND, Indiana. – Senior quarterback Riley Leonard was selected for the 2024 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award watch list. The Golden Arm Award annually recognizes the best senior or high school quarterback graduating with his class.

This is Leonard’s second nomination for the Golden Arm Award Watch List (also in 2023). Leonard was also named to the award’s Top 25 in 2023.

Two Notre Dame quarterbacks have won the award: quarterback Tony Rice in 1989 and quarterback Brady Quinn in 2006.

Leonard has already been named a nominee for the 2024 Walter Camp Player of the Year and Maxwell Award. In 2023, Leonard started all seven games he played for Duke and completed 95 of 165 passes for 1,102 yards (57.5 percent completion rate) and three touchdowns. This season, he ran 58 times for 352 yards (44 long yards) and scored four touchdowns.

In 2022, he started all 13 games for the Blue Devils, completing 250 of 392 (.638) passes for 2,967 yards with 20 touchdowns and leading the team in rushing with 699 yards on 124 carries and 13 touchdowns. He was one of three FBS quarterbacks to record more than 2,900 passing yards and 695 rushing yards, joining LSU’s Jayden Daniels and North Carolina’s Drake Maye.

Johnny Unitas played in the NFL for 18 years, playing his college career at the University of Louisville before joining the Baltimore Colts in 1958. His career passing numbers include 2,830 successful passes for 40,239 yards, 290 touchdowns, and one touchdown pass in 47 consecutive games.

This year’s honoree will receive the Golden Arm Award trophy at the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award Ceremony at the Four Seasons Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland on Friday, December 6, 2024.