Notre Dame QB Couldn’t Wait to Find His Girlfriend After Orange Bowl Win

Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard raised the bar on boyfriend goals after his team’s Orange Bowl win on Jan. 9.

During a postgame interview with SiriusXM’s Alyssa Lang, Leonard, 22, said he was looking for his girlfriend, Molly Walding, to give her a special souvenir from Notre Dame’s 27-24 win over Penn State — which secured Leonard and his team a spot in the College Football Playoff National Championship game on Jan. 20.

Holding four oranges in his hand during the interview, Leonard told Lang, “I’m looking for my girlfriend, hopefully I can give her one. She loves oranges!”

Lang asked the quarterback if Walding will eat the orange or save it as a keepsake for a while, Leonard said, “That’s a good question…I don’t know.”

Walding, a student at Auburn, was in attendance at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami to cheer on her beau at the big game, sporting a custom denim jacket with Leonard’s name on the back.

She shared multiple photos on her Instagram Story during the game, including a shot of confetti falling on the field and the words, “PINCH ME!!!”

In another photo, Walding posed for a selfie with Leonard and wrote, “I’M GIDDY! Turning dreams into reality.”

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The couple celebrated their seventh anniversary on Dec. 21. In an Instagram post on the day, Walding shared a video and wrote, “Celebrating an Irish win and celebrating 7 years of us!!!!!! I couldn’t be more thankful for you @riley.jleonard.”

Notre Dame’s win came down to the final moments of the game and a big second-half performance from Leonard, who went into concussion protocol after taking a hard hit in the first half of the game but was able to return.

The quarterback credited his teammates for keeping him motivated in the second half. “You know, whenever I get down, they’re the first ones to come up and tell me that they believe in me and that means the world to me,” he said.