I whole heartedly agree with you, that Riley Leonard did a very good job, and we squeezed every last drop of performance out of him in the limited time he was on the roster.
I'd even argue that we developed him into a significantly better passer as the season progressed, where he could actually make those medium range throws with some consistency. Prior to that, he was much more of a spread-option, run-first QB, who would look at WR1, maybe peek at WR2, and then take off running. Basically, he was like Brandon Wimbush with better short range accuracy.
In the second half of the season, he was actually making regular reads to WR3, and once in a while, even to WR4. However, this was never his strong suit while here. If he had one more year to be developed as a thrower, I think he could have taken that next step.
We were able to cover up his weaknesses with an amazing ground game, and a top notch defense. Unfortunately, we got exposed in the NC game, where Leonard wasn't able to make those medium range throws and exploit the weaker part of the tOSU defense.
There were receivers breaking open, but he couldn't get the ball to them. Part of this was the excellent pass rush that tOSU got with just 4 down linemen versus our banged up offensive line, but he did have time and opportunities to stretch the field.