Mike Denbrock Notebook | Summer Updates
Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock sat down with three members of the media to provide some summer insights into his offense.
On preparing for an opener against a Miami team that has a new defensive coordinator and s several new portal players:
”It’s always a little bit of a challenge when you open the season with coordinator change. You kind of go back like last year. We had to study a lot of Duke tape and then kind of compare that with their personnel that they had on the roster and try to formulate the best plan you possibly can.
“Then you just got to be ready to be right on your feet and make in-game adjustments and get moving once you see what's the structure going to be. Is it the same? Is it different? Is it changed at all? Is it a similar philosophy?
“Minnesota’s defensive coordinator, now at Miami, it's kind of a similar thing. We're gonna have to study a lot of Minnesota tape and see kind of how he goes about calling the game and how he used the personnel that he had at Minnesota. We'll have to get a feel for the personnel from Miami tape and kind of who they've got coming back and how that kind of fits. Then you merge those kinds of things together as much as you possibly can and say, hey, here's what we're planning for and then be ready to adjust everything that you do if you have to and hopefully play some solid football.”
On not having the quarterback competition slanted toward a specific guy and making sure the offense gets what it needs during the battle:
”I think you've really just got to do a good job of having a plan even before practices start about how you're going to structure even situational football things so that there's a real good cross section of everybody getting a similar amount of work in different critical situational play as they possibly can so that you can ultimately make what decision is best for the football team.”
On what he and the offense were able to accomplish this spring that they weren’t able to in year one:
”The amount of retention that our players have based on what we went through a year ago and what we were able to kind of grow into as the season went along, we're so much farther down the road at this point in our preparation for the season than we were at this time a year ago. I mean, even when we were doing our football schools and things like that, it was more last year at this time of just introducing how to do it the right way, what the expectations were, what the standard was, so that everybody had a clear understanding.
“And now, they all understand that. They retain it. It's just a complete build on top of that and then, they gained a lot of knowledge during the season from experience-wise and playing with each other and really understanding the entire scheme of what we're doing offensively. That itself helps you just be that much farther ahead.
“I just feel like we're in a position where we've got an opportunity to really make a real positive move in the right direction.”
On where Notre Dame has improved or should be better in 2025:
”I don't see an area where we shouldn't be better. I think we've got an opportunity at all positions to play at a higher level than we did, at a more consistent level than we did a year ago. We've got talent at every position. We've got capable bodies at every position. We've got pretty good depth at every position. It's an exciting time for us offensively. I think, as the year went along, I thought our players really developed a lot of confidence in what we're doing and how we do it. I think that's just something that we're continuing to build on.”
On how different it feels this summer after being able to watch CJ Carr and Kenny Minchey practice in the spring:
”I think the quarterback position in particular illustrates kind of what I just talked about as much as anything, right? Those guys have been in this system for a year. They've learned it, right? They didn't have a lot of opportunities to play last year, but they had a lot of opportunities to study the details of what their responsibilities were and how to keep themselves out of harm's way and to kind of orchestrate the entire offense.
“I've seen that progression carry to what we're doing now in our football school things and like everybody else, I just think we're farther ahead at that position than we were even with a veteran starter coming in who wasn't able to physically participate in a lot of things that we did.”
On how the offensive system changes with Riley Leonard gone:
”It's going to change to a certain extent. It won't be probably as much quarterback run driven as it was a year ago. I think there's always tweaks in what you do schematically, right? There's things that just fit your personnel better. That's really as much my job as anything else, is to make sure what we end up looking like offensively fits who are the guys that we're asking to do those jobs and that will require us to get out on the practice field and put them in critical situations and kind of dissect what they're best at and then build the offense around that.”
On putting Carr and Minchey in high-stress situations in practice to help them overcome lack of in-game experience:
”As much as it's hard to do, you've got to try to simulate as many of those critical thinking scenarios for the quarterback as you can on the practice field and by just really planning in the practice areas where you can kind of hit those different critical moments, whether that's third down, whether that's red zone, whatever that happens to be, whatever situational football you want to kind of throw into it.
“Then see how they respond, right? And then understand, okay, is this guy who we feel like is best for our football team as the starter, is he able to handle these situations? Or do we have to protect him from a scheme standpoint and a coaching standpoint? Can we let him rip it? Can we cut him loose? Do we have to kind of be a little bit more cautious early on as he grows into this system? All those decisions we're going to have to make as we go.”
On what he’s learned about Carr and Minchey over the last four months:
”I think what I've learned about them the most is that football and being really good at it, it's really important to them. They study the game. They're up in our offices all the time watching tape, going back and watching the plays they did get from last year, watching their practice tape, watching this year's practice tape, watching last year's practice tape. They're students of the game who just seem to love the process.
“You got somebody like that and you got two guys like that, you're in a pretty good position because those guys give themselves an opportunity to continue to grow and get better.”
On when the staff realized Jaden Greathouse is open when he’s one-on-one:
”So much of it is a chemistry thing, you know what I mean? Between the quarterback and the receivers, or the quarterback and the tight end, or whatever it happens to be. Whoever that guy who kind of emerges happens to be, right?
“A lot of times it's the quarterback gaining enough confidence that no matter whether he looks covered or not, I know if I throw it close, he's going to make the play, right? That builds over time and unfortunately, last year, because of circumstances that were outside our control, we lost a lot of that developmental time.
“As the season went along, that confidence continued to build and we got better and better because of it. Now we're in a little bit more position where I think these guys, even though they weren't the guy throwing the ball, the quarterbacks have seen we do have guys who can make plays if you give them opportunities to do it. So let's not be so afraid to cut it loose and let those guys be a part of what we're trying to get done.”
On seeing Greathouse’s confidence build at the end of last season and if he’s ready to be that guy every week:
”We need him to be obviously, right? We want him to continue his progression and I think it did wonders for him understanding himself, right? Kind of fulfilling his own prophecy in some ways where he knew he had the talent to play football that way. Then to have the work that he put in to even refine that some more, have that rewarded and on a big stage in particular, I just think instills a lot of confidence. He's playing very confident football. I think everybody's looking to him as what we all know he can be and will be as a guy who can make plays.”
On calling a higher rate of screens last year than he did at Cincinnati and LSU and if that’s a reflection of Notre Dame’s personnel or a change in the college game with defenses being able to create pressure:
”I think it's a good way to keep defenses off balance and not let them pin their ears back and just kind of get after you. It's also a good way to kind of keep your completion percentage in a good spot and get the ball in some playmakers' hands and hopefully get some bodies on some perimeter players that don't like to tackle and give those guys who can really do something with it a chance in space. That's all a piece of it.
“I think it's game to game would really kind of dictate how much screens are we running, how many do we carry into the game plan and things like that. A lot of it depends on who we're playing against.”
On the challenges of facing a defense that plays a lot of match-man:
”Just making sure that what you have in the game plan is versatile enough to handle that type of coverage and what they're trying to take away from you, right? If they're an on-body coverage defense, like a lot of match defenses are in today's college football, you've got to have guys who can make contested catches, right?
“You also have to have some guys who can separate from that match coverage and take advantage of it. Part of the fun of it as we went through the year last year as we progressed offensively, the matchups that teams tried to defend us with, we were able to take advantage of. We did that with the tight ends at times, we did that with the wide receivers at times, we did that with the running backs at times.
“So I think overall having, obviously it starts with talented players, but beyond that, having enough versatility in what you're doing that if they decide to use the Mike Linebacker to cover Jeremiyah Love, we've have to make sure that in the game plan is a way to take advantage of things like that.”
On the next step for Jeremiyah Love:
”I think for him, just understanding that he's got the ability and will show the ability to everybody that he can be in every down back. He's somebody who has the versatility necessary to not only be electric out of the backfield, but be electric as somebody who can run and catch the football. If that means on third down, if JD’s (Jadarian Price) in the game at tailback, he's in the game as one of the wide receivers, then that's what it means. But also using him out of the backfield more on some option routes and in different things where he's got an opportunity to kind of break people down in space and catch the football and do something special with it.”
On who could be a breakout player in 2025:
“Oh boy. I mean, I hate to start with just with tight ends because I coach the tight end, but I think Eli Raridon is going to have a huge season. He's really come into his own fully healthy, just really playing good football. I like a lot of the young wide receivers. I think their development from where they were a year ago to where they are now, there's an opportunity for two or three of those guys to really break out.
“I think a healthy Jordan Faison is a problem for a lot of teams. He had an ankle partway through the year that hindered him a little bit, but when he was healthy, boy, was he explosive. I look for him to have a really big year. I think Will Pauling is a great addition to the wide receiver room. Malachi Fields obviously is a nice addition to the wide receiver room. God, who else? There's a good number there. There's a lot of guys I could list that I really like the trajectory of where this whole group is going.”
On what the tight end room looks like if Raridon doesn’t break out:
”I'm really happy with Jack Larsen's ability to continue to get better. I think he's in a position to really contribute this season. Coop (Cooper Flanagan) is a wild card. We don't know exactly when he's going to be available to us. Kevin Bauman is a guy who now that he's kind of fought his way through, ‘Ok, I'm not going to get hurt again.’ It takes some time with that. He had some devastating things happen to him a couple years in a row, or more than a couple years in a row, and now he's been through a full spring healthy. He looks a thousand percent better than he did a year ago.
“I think you're going to see some good things from Tyrus Washington, who is the transfer from Arkansas. I've got a long relationship with Tyrus since my days at Cincinnati, trying to talk him into coming to Cincinnati. And like I told him in football school on Monday, it took me about seven years to get your ass on a practice field. I'm going to go at you pretty good here and see what you got.
“I like the depth that he's going to be able to provide to that group. I wouldn't discount young James Flanigan, who's coming in here. He's got size, he's got power and he's a mature kid for his age. So I think we've got plenty of depth there and I like where that group is going.”
On what a healthy Ashton Craig provides at center:
“I think you saw a lot of it last year. He's just a force in the middle of what we do. He's a good communicator, very smart, understands how to really kind of adjust the things that we need to get done up front. I just think the stability of good Lord willing, having that guy being the mainstay of what we're doing, the stability that that brings is, I mean, it's irreplaceable.”
On how Charles Jagusah is similar to former LSU offensive lineman Will Campbell:
”No. 1 gifted with a lot of God-given ability. I think number two, both of them are kind of like, you know, you can't fool me more than once type of guys, right? So they may make a mistake on a play, but you're not going to get them twice. They never make the same mistake twice and they have the ability to make sure that they correct whatever needs correcting and it happens like between reps.
“Those are unique qualities to have, and not to mention he's a big, powerful dude who could probably play a number of different positions along the front. In an effort to make sure, you know, we got the best five guys out there. He's kind of anchoring himself down inside a little bit.”
Want the latest scoop on the Fighting Irish? Sign up for our newsletter and become an ISD Premium Subscriber: Sign Up for ISD
Under Armour Notre Dame Fighting Irish PLACT Gold Rush Rival Raglan Pullover Hoodie
