College Football's Top 25 Most Important Players: No. 3 CB Leonard Moore, Notre Dame

The best cover cornerback in college football spent last season getting less and less to do, because quarterbacks stopped throwing at him. That is the highest form of respect a corner can earn, and it is also the problem with ranking Leonard Moore this high.

His value shows up in the passes that never come his way, in the yards a receiver does not gain, in the throws a coordinator crosses off the sheet before kickoff.

Moore is No. 3 on this list because he changes how the other team plays before the ball is snapped.

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No. 3: Leonard Moore, CB, Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Moore earned unanimous All-America honors as a sophomore and was a finalist for both the Jim Thorpe Award, which goes to the top defensive back in college football, and the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, the defensive equivalent of the Heisman.

He was the first Thorpe finalist from Notre Dame since Bobby Taylor in 1993, and no Irish cornerback has ever won it. Opposing quarterbacks looked his way on only 11.5% of the passing plays he was on the field for through the first nine games.

How Moore's presence changed opposing offenses

Moore started 10 games in 2025 and missed two, and still led the Irish and tied for seventh nationally with five interceptions. He added seven pass breakups, 12 total passes defended and a forced fumble.

Against Boise State on Oct. 4 he recorded two interceptions, the first career multi-pick game by a Notre Dame player since Xavier Watts in 2023, and earned Walter Camp national defensive player of the week.

Against Syracuse on Nov. 22 he took a pass 46 yards the other way for his first career touchdown.

The Round Rock, Texas native holds receivers to almost nothing when teams do test him. In the 2024 national title game, Moore lined up across from Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith, the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2027 draft class, and Smith was targeted twice, catching one pass for seven yards. Smith later named Moore the best cornerback he has faced. Indiana receiver Elijah Sarratt said the same.

"I played him when he was a freshman, and he impressed me a lot," Sarratt said. "Just being a longer DB, having the skills he had, he's going to be great."

Leonard Moore & the 2027 NFL Draft

Moore enters his junior year as the consensus top cornerback in the 2027 class, the first year he is eligible for the draft. Athlon Sports draft analyst Luke Easterling put him in the company of Patrick Peterson, Jalen Ramsey, Derek Stingley Jr. and Sauce Gardner, the short list of corners who have gone in the top five over the past 15 years.

He is the reason Notre Dame has a defense worth talking about. The Irish have not had a cornerback taken in the first round in more than three decades, and Moore may end that.

Notre Dame's upcoming revenge tour

The higher stakes come from how last season ended. Notre Dame went 10-2 and missed the College Football Playoff after an 0-2 start, losing the opener at Miami 27-24 and falling to Texas A&M in Week 3. Both defeats came before the Irish reeled off 10 straight wins that were not enough to get in.

Moore has not let it go. On a spring media tour through New York, he gave the season its label.

"We're on a revenge tour now," Moore said. "We got to get back. We got to make it right from last year."

The team motto for 2026 is "Leave No Doubt," and Moore tied it directly to the two losses.

Leonard Moore is elite. Definition of a blue chip CB prospect pic.twitter.com/NuF1LwAOI8
— James Foster (@NoFlagsFilm) April 27, 2026

"We really focused on taking accountability for what happened last year and making sure it doesn't happen again," Moore said. "We need to make sure we come in each and every day and, like we've been saying, leave no doubt in the work that we put in and make sure we get better each and every day."

The rematch is set when Notre Dame hosts Miami on Nov. 7 in South Bend, and Moore knows the danger of circling it too early.

"A loss to Miami and a loss to Texas A&M is always going to be in the back of your mind, especially when you feel like you didn't have your best game," Moore said. "It's definitely a challenge not to look ahead to any game like that. But if you don't focus on one game at a time and you look past any team, you'll really pay for the mistake."

Notre Dame opens the season Aug. 30 against Wisconsin and returns quarterback CJ Carr along with a defense built around its best player. Whether the Irish reach the playoff they missed will come down in part to a corner good enough that the rest of the field has learned to look away.

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