Notre Dame cornerback Leonard Moore lands on Jim Thorpe Award watch list

Notre Dame’s Leonard Moore is among the players named to the Paycom Jim Thorpe Award Watch List, an annual honor presented to the nation’s best defensive back. The announcement puts a spotlight on the Fighting Irish cornerback after a standout season that included unanimous All-America recognition, according to Yahoo Sports.

The Jim Thorpe Award is often treated as the defensive-backs version of the sport’s largest individual prizes, because it tends to reward elite cover ability and impact plays in addition to the more durable metrics. With another season approaching, the watch list functions as an early marker for who is expected to carry the position group, both at the player level and within the broader title-picture conversation.

Moore’s inclusion is notable because Notre Dame has not frequently been the home base for the award’s winning narrative at the defensive back spot. Yahoo Sports’ report frames him as a leading candidate for history-making recognition, positioning the 2026 watch list as the next step in a run that already drew national attention.

Beyond the award watch list, Moore has also been tied to high-end preseason ranking chatter. Yahoo Sports points to ESPN identifying him as the No. 1 returning defender in college football, and PFF placing him at No. 1 among returning cornerbacks. The same report notes that he continues to draw interest from NFL Draft boards as a top cornerback prospect in the 2027 class, which helps explain why the award conversation followed him into the offseason.

For Notre Dame, the name on the ballot matters because the cornerback role often determines how a defense is built and how it spends its attention. A lockdown-caliber player can tighten passing windows, force quarterbacks into less efficient reads, and support the rest of the secondary’s structure. If Moore reaches the level implied by the preseason rankings, it can also change how opposing coordinators game-plan, especially in matchups where Notre Dame has the personnel to press or disguise coverage behind him.

The watch list does not guarantee a finalist spot, and it does not replace what happens once the season starts. Still, it raises the floor of expectations. Moore’s challenge will be repeating production in a year where opposing offenses will have additional film and a clearer picture of what he does best. The early question for Notre Dame becomes whether his game translates into the kind of season-long, defensive-back-wide impact that the Thorpe Award tends to reward.

As the 2026 season approaches, the next thing to watch is how Notre Dame’s defense uses Moore in different coverage concepts and whether he can sustain an elite level across both the passing and situational demands of Big Ten-style and national-caliber opponents. With his name already on the award watch list and his role defined as one of the country’s top returning defenders, the storyline for the Irish defense is straightforward: can Leonard Moore turn preseason acclaim into postseason hardware conversation?