Leonard moore could give notre dame first jim thorpe award
Not every star arrives with fanfare. Not every player who ends up changing a program's defensive identity does so with a five-star recruiting ranking, a top-10 national profile and the weight of enormous expectations pressing down on his shoulders from the moment he steps on campus. Some players arrive quietly, get to work and let the field do the talking — and by the time the rest of the world catches up to what they already are, the transformation from unknown to undeniable is already complete.
That is the Leonard Moore story. And as he enters what could be his final season in South Bend, it is one of the most compelling individual journeys in Notre Dame football.
Moore wasn't heralded when he arrived at Notre Dame. He wasn't the centerpiece of a signing class headline or the subject of breathless recruiting coverage. He came to South Bend without the noise that typically surrounds players of his caliber — and then he went out and became the best cornerback in college football. Quietly, completely and undeniably.
Now, as he prepares for his third season with the Fighting Irish, the entire country has caught up to what those inside Notre Dame's program recognized long ago. Leonard Moore has been added to the Jim Thorpe Award watch list — and he isn't just on it. He is the front-runner to take it home.
The Arrival Nobody Saw Coming
When Leonard Moore came to Notre Dame, the recruiting spotlight was pointed elsewhere. He did not arrive as the kind of prospect that generates national recruiting coverage or sends fan bases into celebration mode at the moment of commitment. He was not a household name in the recruiting world. He was a Texas native with talent that hadn't yet been fully discovered, quantified or celebrated by the recruiting services that shape early national narratives.
What he was, to those who watched him closely enough, was a cornerback with the physical tools, the competitive instincts and the natural feel for the position that you simply cannot manufacture through coaching alone. The 6-2, 195-pound frame with the length and athleticism to match up with elite wide receivers at the college level. The feet. The instincts. The way he processed routes before they fully developed, the way he competed on the ball and the way he made the position look natural in a manner that only truly gifted players ever do.
Notre Dame saw it. They offered. Moore came to South Bend without the fanfare — and then the work began.
A Star Takes Shape
The first signs that something special was developing came early in Moore's freshman season. Those who watched closely enough saw a cornerback whose instincts were ahead of his experience, whose physical tools were already operating at a level that made experienced offensive players uncomfortable and whose competitive drive was evident on every snap regardless of the score, the opponent or the moment.
But it was his 2025 season that turned what insiders quietly believed into something the entire country could no longer ignore. Moore started 10 games and delivered a performance so comprehensive, so statistically dominant and so consistently elite that the sport's most respected evaluators were left searching for superlatives.
He led Notre Dame with five interceptions — tied for sixth most in the entire country. He added 31 tackles, seven pass breakups and a forced fumble while missing only six tackles all season — a number that reflects the complete cornerback he had become, not just the ball hawk the highlights suggested. He allowed only three receiving touchdowns across the entire season. And he did it all while being one of the most scouted, game-planned-against cornerbacks in college football — a player that every offensive coordinator in the country was specifically scheming to avoid.
The signature moments punctuated the statistical dominance. A 46-yard pick-six against Syracuse that changed the momentum of the game and announced Moore's big-play capability to a national audience. A two-interception performance against Boise State that earned him both the Walter Camp FBS Defensive Player of the Week and Jim Thorpe Award Defensive Back of the Week honors simultaneously — two of the sport's most prestigious weekly recognitions landing in the same hands on the same weekend.
Notre Dame finished the season ranked No. 1 in the country in total interceptions with 21. Moore, the cornerback who arrived without a headline, hauled in five of them.
The Numbers That Turned Heads Nationally
When the season ended and the evaluation process began in earnest, the numbers that emerged from Moore's 2025 campaign were not the kind that generate polite acknowledgment. They were the kind that stop conversations.
PFF ranked Moore first among all starting Power Four cornerbacks in coverage grade at 91.4 and first in overall defensive grade at 90.9 — the top marks at the position across the entire landscape of major college football. Those grades reflect not one great game or one great stretch of games but a full season of elite performance sustained against the best competition the sport offers.
The number that perhaps best captures what Moore had become by the end of 2025 is the target rate — opponents threw at him on only 11.5 percent of his coverage snaps. Offensive coordinators and quarterbacks made a collective, conscious decision across the entire season to route their passing games away from Leonard Moore's side of the field. That is the ultimate testament to a cornerback's dominance. You can only measure a player's full impact when you account for the plays that never happened because of him — and Moore's 11.5 percent target rate tells you the plays that never happened numbered in the dozens.
The season earned him unanimous All-American honors — the kind of recognition that requires every major selector to arrive at the same conclusion independently. For a player who arrived at Notre Dame without the recruiting world's attention, unanimous All-American status represents one of the most complete turnarounds in modern college football recruiting history. He went from under the radar to unanimously the best in the country. The arc of that journey is remarkable.
The Jim Thorpe Watch List — And Why Moore Is the Front-Runner
The Jim Thorpe Award watch list announcement confirmed what the preseason evaluations had been building toward all offseason. Leonard Moore belongs in the conversation for the most prestigious individual honor a defensive back can win in college football — and he doesn't just belong in that conversation. He leads it.
Moore was a Thorpe Award finalist after his 2025 campaign, becoming the first Notre Dame cornerback to reach that stage since Bobby Taylor in 1993. No Fighting Irish cornerback has ever won the award. The history of that gap — more than three decades without a Notre Dame corner reaching the Thorpe podium — makes Moore's opportunity in 2026 feel genuinely significant, not just for his personal legacy but for the program's.
ESPN's Heather Dinich named Moore the lead candidate for the award in the network's Way-Too-Early Top 25 rankings, pointing to his unanimous All-American honors, his nation-leading PFF coverage grade and the five interceptions that defined his 2025 campaign. Beyond the Thorpe, Moore carries legitimate front-runner status for the Bronko Nagurski Trophy — the defensive equivalent of the Heisman Trophy — and the Chuck Bednarik Award, which recognizes college football's top defensive player regardless of position.
Three of the sport's most significant individual defensive awards. One player's name near the top of every list. The player who arrived at Notre Dame without a recruiting headline is now the player that every preseason award conversation builds around.
Former Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts brought the Nagurski Trophy home to South Bend after his dominant 2023 season. Moore now has the opportunity to make it back-to-back Nagurski winners from Notre Dame — a back-to-back run that would say something profound about what Marcus Freeman's program has built on the defensive side of the ball.
What Back-to-Back No. 1 Rankings Actually Mean
PFF has ranked Moore the No. 1 returning cornerback in the country heading into 2026 — the second consecutive season they have done so. Every major outlet including CBS Sports, Athlon Sports, Sporting News, FOX Sports and ESPN has echoed that assessment, identifying Moore as one of Notre Dame's most important returning players and one of the premier defensive players in the sport.
Back-to-back No. 1 cornerback rankings from PFF are not handed out carelessly. They reflect a sustained standard of excellence that separates elite players from one-year wonders — the ability to perform at the highest level not just when the element of surprise is working in your favor but when every opposing offense has had a full offseason to study your tendencies, design routes against your technique and find whatever exploitable weakness might exist in your game.
Moore held that No. 1 ranking in 2025 when opponents came after him with a full scouting report. He held it when teams specifically designed plays to attack him. He held it when the margin for error shrinks because every opposing coordinator knows exactly where you line up and how you play. And when the offseason evaluations were complete, PFF gave him the No. 1 ranking again — because nothing they saw in a full season of trying to find a weakness changed their fundamental assessment of what Leonard Moore is.
A Defense Made Better By His Presence
Moore's individual excellence cannot be separated from what it has meant for Notre Dame's defense as a collective unit. When a cornerback locks down his side of the field with the consistency that Moore demonstrated throughout 2025, the structural benefits ripple across the entire defensive system.
Safeties can rotate toward the opposite side with greater confidence. Linebackers can play downhill more aggressively knowing the deep outside is protected by a cornerback who rarely needs help. Pass rushers get critical fractions of a second longer to reach the quarterback because the corner on Moore's side has already eliminated his receiver as a viable option. Notre Dame's leap to No. 1 in the country in interceptions with 21 total picks was not independent of what their best cornerback was doing every single week. It was deeply connected to it.
A defense takes on the identity of its best player. In 2025, Notre Dame's defense took on the identity of a unit that simply did not give up big plays in the passing game — and Leonard Moore was the primary reason why.
The Final Chapter in South Bend
As Moore prepares for what could be his third and likely final season with the Fighting Irish before the NFL comes calling, the shape of his Notre Dame legacy is already remarkable. A player who arrived without recruiting fanfare has become a unanimous All-American, a two-time PFF No. 1 ranked returning cornerback, a Thorpe Award finalist and the preseason front-runner for every major individual defensive award in college football.
The journey from unheralded arrival to the top of every preseason board is the kind of story that programs build cultures around — proof that development, coaching and competitive drive can take a player without a five-star label and turn him into something the entire country agrees is the best at his position.
But Moore isn't finished writing that story. He has one more season in blue and gold, one more opportunity to add to a legacy that already exceeds anything the recruiting services predicted when he arrived in South Bend, and one very specific piece of history within reach.
No Notre Dame cornerback has ever won the Jim Thorpe Award. Leonard Moore arrived at Notre Dame without anyone predicting he would be the one to change that.
At this point, nobody would be surprised if he does exactly that.
The quietest arrival. The loudest statement. The best cornerback in America — and he has one more season to make history in South Bend.
drayk bowen, leonard moore on nagurski watchlist
Notre Dame defenders continue to receive admiration and buzz from the success of the Fighting Irish defense over the past three seasons. The latest recognition is courtesy of the Bronko Nagurski Award, which has linebacker Drayk Bowen and cornerback Leonard Moore on its preseason Watch List.
The Nagurski Trophy goes to the nation’s top all-around defensive player, and the award found it’s way to South Bend in 2023 when it went to Notre Dame star safety Xavier Watts. Bowen and Moore are the two returners getting the most preseason recognition as the Irish look to have another star win that honor.
Bowen excelled as a first-year starter in 2024 and he took control on the Mike linebacker position under now ex-defensive coordinator Al Golden, and became a vocal leader for the defense. He finished third on the Irish defense with 78 tackles while ranking 7th on the defense in snaps. By the end of the season Bowen was a clear leader of the Irish defense. He played his best football of the season during the final stretch, racking up 22 tackles in the final three playoff games, including 8 in both the Orange Bowl win over Penn State and 8 in the title game loss to Ohio State.
Bowen was listed as a preseason All-American by Phil Steele.
Moore is widely considered the best returning cornerback in college football and projects as a future first-round NFL draft pick. He was a star as a freshman earning Defensive Freshman of the Year honors from the Football Writers Association of America. He tallied 48 tackles, picked off two passes and broke up 11 more during his dynamic rookie season. Heading into his sophomore season, Moore is expected to be one of the top defenders in the nation, regardless of position.
Five Notre Dame opponents also made the Nagurski Trophy Watch List. Miami (Fla.) defensive end Rueben Bain Jr., Texas A&M cornerback Will Lee, Pittsburgh linebacker Kyle Louis, Navy defensive tackle Landon Robinson and Boise State defensive Jayden Virgin-Morgan all made the list.
Shaun M. Davis
teammates Joey o’brien and grayson mckeough took different paths to nd
The roller coaster recruitment for 6-4 195-pound five-star defensive back Joey O’Brien of Glenside (Pa.) LaSalle College Prep reached a conclusion when he picked Notre Dame on June 20th over finalists Oregon, Penn State, and Clemson. At one point, all four programs were perceived as possible leaders for O’Brien. His teammate, 6-7 285-pound pass blocker Grayson McKeough, who chose the Fighting Irish over Penn State, had a totally different path to his commitment to Notre Dame and their head coach,Brett Gordon, witnessed both journeys as a confidant and advisor.
“All four schools did a great job recruiting Joey,” Gordon said. “The coaches did a great job of showing him how they would develop and use him. Joey really liked all the schools, coaches and players, but it came down to what school felt like home for him.”
Originally, the Pennsylvania Player of the Year was scheduled to take his official visit to South Bend on June 20th but decided to switch to the weekend of June 13th, which happened to be the same as his teammate four-star offensive lineman Grayson McKeough, who also eventually committed to the Fighting Irish. At the same time, he announced that his decision would now take place on June 20th , leaving the fanbases of the finalists pondering about where their teams stood in the recruitment.
“I don’t think he was leaning anywhere going into the Notre Dame visit,” Gordon said. “I told him that he was being recruited by the blue bloods with tradition, and great coaching. So, whatever school felt like the place he wanted to spend the next four years of his life would be the determining factor.
“The date change was to help make things easier,” Gordon continued. He wanted to take all five official visits, but I thought that was too much. Joey and his family were thorough in the five unofficials, and taking five officials was too much, so the Tennessee one was dropped and that’s why the Notre Dame visit was moved.”
The Fighting Irish seemed to take over in his recruitment as his June 13th official visit approached. His teammate, 5-star defensive back Joey O’Brien would be visiting on the same weekend after a late change to his schedule. Although they would travel different paths to South Bend on that weekend, they would leave with similar feelings about the visit that led both to commit to the program on June 18th and June 20th respectively.
“Grayson’s path was different from Joey’s,” Gordon explained. “Two different scenarios. Everyone was in the mix with Joey going into the official visits. Grayson was probably leaning Notre Dame going into the visit. The visit helped him make his decision. Joey had already set his decision date for June 20th, two weeks before the visit. Grayson didn’t have a set date, but he was ready to make his decision once he got back.
“It was a great visit,” Gordon continued. “Being around the other recruits and current players was big for him. He spoke about brotherhood and how comfortable he felt. Him and Joey kept using the word “family” when they talked about the visit.”
Landing the talented teammates shows great cohesiveness in the Notre Dame recruiting operation right now, and the success of the June 13th recruiting weekend could lead to more additions to an already impressive top 5 class.
Shaun M. Davis