Fans of all ages are showing their support for Riley Leonard, the Baldwin County native and Fairhope High School graduate who will take the field Monday night in hopes of leading the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to their first college football national championship since 1988.

“The town’s excited, the world is excited, and we’re so proud of you,” his mother, Heather Leonard, said in a YouTube video posted by J. Larry Newton Elementary School, where she teaches.

The video features a compilation of staff, from the principal to teachers, coaches, librarians and his eighth-grade math teacher, and students wishing the quarterback good luck. Even a jokingly issued “You Suck!” made it in, a reference to the text Heather Leonard has been sending to her now nationally known son before games since high school as a way, in jest, to keep him humble.

“Continue to play with that great big heart of yours and your passion that you have. That’s what’s gotten you to where you are, and that’s what makes you so special and why we all love you,” Ms. Davis, an assistant principal, said in the video.

While the region has deep roots in Alabama and Auburn fandom, Fairhope and the surrounding area has gone green this playoff season as Leonard and Notre Dame continue to fight against their opening game loss against NIU, a devastating start to his career in South Bend he says was “completely my fault.”

“Like, that’s not me “taking the blame” or anything. That’s just kind of a fact,” Leonard wrote in an article titled “A Message for My Notre Dame Family” for by The Players’ Tribune in December. It was his first game in blue and gold after transferring for his final college season from Duke. “And after the game, it’s hard to even describe how bad I felt. For myself, I guess, but more than that for my teammates and for the school. I just felt like they’d let me be a part of this special thing here, and I was reckless with it. I felt like I let a lot of people down.”

But his hometown support has never wavered, whether those who watched him grow up or those who are jumping on board to the most high-profile College Football Playoff run from a Baldwin County local the area can claim are Notre Dame fans or not. Some, however, are getting the best of both worlds with the team’s rebound to win out and play for the chance to win the first-ever 12-team CFP. The last time Notre Dame won a national championship, Lou Holtz was their coach.

“All these people at J. Larry Newton think I’m nuts, think I’m crazy. And I am,” Coach Collins confides in the well wishes video. “I am the No. 1 crazy Notre Dame fan in Baldwin County. Go Irish. Good luck Monday night.”

Leonard has had to get used to the spotlight. The three-star recruit coming out of Fairhope High School didn’t even think he wanted to play football, growing up following basketball as a two-sport athlete to receive multiple D1 scholarship offers. When COVID-19 nixed his ability to travel and play, he started focusing on his quarterback training and, with the help and support of his coaches, got him film in front of Duke and landed an offer. He signed as the No. 683 prospect and No. 47 quarterback in the Class of 2021.

His decision to transfer seems to be working out.

“I remember leaving Duke, which I didn’t want to do, but I was thinking to myself I want to go out swinging, I want to compete for it all, and here we are. So, kind of a dream come true for me,” Leonard said at Media Day in New Orleans before the Sugar Bowl CFP quarterfinals.

In his corner the whole time, no matter the shade of blue, Fairhope has been rooting for their hometown quarterback.

Fairhope West Elementary School had a Go Riley Day last week, posting photos on Facebook of students and teachers decked out in green and boasting signs.

“He is the champion of our town,” his high school coach, Tim Carter told The Athletic. “And I won’t say Notre Dame is a beloved university to anybody who is (not) Catholic that lives in the South. … But that’s the kind of kid he is.”

Mayor Sherry Sullivan told Leonard she’d be traveling to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl.

“She wrote me a couple times at Duke,” Leonard told Gulf Coast Media at the game’s Media Day. “… It’s cool that people of that magnitude are reaching out.”

In addition to the mayor, Carter told Leonard he was attending the game, too, as did his little league coach from when he was 6 years old.

“There are a lot of people who have a great amount of impact in my life who are coming,” he said.

He knows people of all ages are looking to him, so the support is not lost on this introspective teenager.

“Fairhope. It means everything to me. I think back to the little kids who are in my shoes now growing up who are from a small town,” he said in New Orleans. “… The support [the Fairhope community has] given me throughout my career has really been a driving factor in my decision making, getting me up and motivated every single day. And they’re unwavering. They’re a group that gameplay is irrelevant at that point. They care more about my character and if I’m being a role model for their children.”

One of the keys to staying grounded through it all, in addition to the “You Suck!” texts and community support, is Leonard's connection to his faith and “simple life,” as he called it at Media Day.

“I actually didn’t begin going to church until the 9th grade. Growing up, all I ever dreamed of was being a starter for the football and basketball teams at Fairhope High School. Like, I remember my mom would be driving us to school, or I’d be walking into class, and I’d just be daydreaming about it,” he penned in the Players’ Tribune letter. “And then it happened!! Freshman year, I made varsity for both. And I thought it was the coolest thing in the world……… for about a week??? But then the high from it kind of faded. And I remember that feeling so strongly. I was just like, Man. There’s gotta be more to life than feeling good for a week about making some team. I felt this weird emptiness inside.

“And that’s when I started to pay attention as all these people in my life were preaching the Bible. Whether it was on a mentor level, like some of my football coaches and pastors in the community, or it was on a personal level, like when I met my girlfriend Molly and she’d bring me to church. Once I started to find my faith, and find a purpose besides just being an athlete, I feel like the world kind of opened up for me. And I ran with it.”

That community will be there for him regardless of Monday’s outcome against Ohio State, another instance of a national championship-starting quarterback who came out of high school as a three-star recruit in Will Howard. Fairhope Brewing Company has been holding watch parties for each game through the playoffs. His alma mater Pirates are quick to share their support on social media. In a landscape where negativity reigns on digital platforms, the comments around Fairhope’s star player are overwhelmingly positive, noting his humility and strength of character.

“The odds are probably against us winning this Playoff. That’s fine. The odds have been against us for months now,” he wrote in the Player’s Tribune letter, which published Dec. 18, two days before Notre Dame’s first-round game against Indiana. “But we’re done being afraid of anything — I know that much about this team. I know that, win or lose, we’re going to do it our way: We’re going to dare greatly. And maybe we’ll stumble again. Maybe we’ll come up short. But as long as our season is still alive, I can promise you, we’re going to try like heck to achieve greatness. If it’s there on that football field, we’ll find it.”