Everything Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock said in first press conference since returning to Fighting Irish
Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock spoke to the media Friday for the first time since becoming a member of the Fighting Irish coaching staff for the third time in his career. Here’s everything Denbrock said.
On why he’s at Notre Dame again
“I was thinking about that because I knew I’d probably get asked about it. I felt like I was in a really good place, had a really good job, enjoyed what I was doing, enjoyed living in Louisiana. But, it’s Notre Dame. I think you guys that have known me forever, it seems like, know how much I love this place and what it means to me and how much I’ve enjoyed my time here.
“You couple that with an opportunity to work with the type of student-athletes that are attracted to this place, the high-achievers that come through here, that was obviously a factor. And then being a little closer to family was good. I grew up in Michigan about an hour and a half from here. My wife’s from Buffalo, so we’re a little bit closer to her family as well.
“And I have a true belief in Marcus Freeman and his vision and what he believes in from working with him in the couple years we spent at Cincinnati. Watching him and his leadership abilities and the inspiration that he gave to the players that were under his charge was something that was attractive to be a part of. I think it was a little bit of all those things.”
On the hiring process
“Everything was kind of settling in. I had some other discussions with a couple other opportunities that didn’t seem like the right thing to do because of just liking where I was and enjoying where we were living.
“When it did happen, the phone rang and we just kind of were talking back and forth a little bit. [Freeman] mentioned the possibility, and he said why don’t you talk to [your wife] about it. So I went home and we talked about it a little bit. I didn’t know really how serious it was at that point. And then over the course of a week or so it became more serious. And then it got really serious. I talked to Jack Swarbrick and some other people and it ended up being what we felt like was the right decision to make for our family.”
On how close he was to singing an extension with LSU
“It was pretty close. We had agreed on terms of a new three-year contract. It was waiting for board approval and those types of things. The timing just happened to work out in our favor.”
On if he ever wants to be a head coach, which he said he’d like to do when he was previously at Notre Dame
“I think this has become more and more of a little bit of a young man’s business. I don’t see — unless something incredible just hits you in the face — that that would be my career path from this point forward. I’m very content leading an offense and helping Marcus and this program win a national championship here. I want to be part of that. I want to do that here with these student-athletes and this coaching staff. I just don’t see that as something that is real attractive to me these days unless it was something that you just couldn’t just turn down.”
On how feasible it is to win a national title at Notre Dame than it was when he was previously an assistant here on two occasions
“I mean, I certainly think the landscape has changed some in regard to the playoff system we have and the access we have to it. I know there has been a lot of debate this week back and forth about whether that’s an advantage or disadvantage and all that. I’ll leave it to the experts to decide all that.
“I think we have access to that becoming a real possibility. I think we’ve got a roster that is moving in a really positive direction where those possibilities are maybe even more real than they’ve been in the last few years. Combine that with what I hope is a really good offensive system that I hope these guys run to perfection and Al Golden dialing up the defense that he dials up, and we got the opportunity to do something special.”
On how he’s a better coordinator now than when he left Notre Dame after the 2016 season
“Experience is the best teacher. Even though I had been in that role before since leaving here the last time, it’s kind of been a lot more where it was my show to run. You’re always going to have influences from the head coach and he’s always going to have a voice in what you do and how you do it and that’s OK. I’m unbelievably fine with that.
“But I was able to break away and develop my own way of doing things. My own system. My own style of offense, if you will, and how that fits what I think, based on the personnel we have available to us, what the best way to do that is.
“Been able to adjust it the way I want. Been able to add to it the way I want. Been able to subtract from it the way I’ve wanted. That’s the biggest difference now. Experience is a great teacher, number one, and number two, the system that we’re going to run and its development is something I’m in complete control of.”
On Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman’s trust in Denbrock’s offense
“That was part of our conversation. He was familiar with a good piece of it from some of the things we did at Cincinnati. And there will be some elements of that that are alive and well in what we do here. We added a lot of things to that the last couple years that I think benefit it and make it better. And hopefully we’ll add a few things this year, whether that was some of the things they did a year ago that the kids are familiar with and do a good job of executing or whether that’s a new idea from the Miami Dolphins or Philadelphia Eagles or wherever it comes from or another college team. Always open to whatever we’re doing to try to be better and how we’re doing it.”
On Notre Dame’s culture of running the football
“I do believe that still. And I think everything you do has to be built around a strong running game. Now does that mean that it’s going to be 60 times a game? It doesn’t mean that. It means that when we do call runs that we give our guys a chance numbers-wise, number one. Number two, we put them in a position from a scheme standpoint to take advantage of what the defense is trying to do. And then we execute it. But I think any great offense revolves around the ability to be able to run the ball.
“Now, having said that, I think I’m more open than I was years ago to not just pounding my head against a brick wall and just understand that the game has changed and the more athletes you can get out in space and create mismatches is also a good way to play offense. There will be a good balance of that. There will be afternoons when we may run it 50 times and there will be afternoon when we may throw it 50 times.”
On the quarterback run game with Notre Dame QB Riley Leonard
“I think today’s college football, it’s important when you get against elite defenses to be able to have some element of that in what you do. It doesn’t have to be the major factor. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the deciding factor. But there are going to be instances almost in every football game — and I think that happened here last year with Sam [Hartman]. There were times when he had to get out of the pocket and make a play with his feet. And it led to some pretty positive results. So those things will be an element of what we do for sure.
On what he’s been focused on the last couple months and what his priorities are for the spring
“I think number one is getting to know the players better. Understanding their skill sets as much as I can while they’re running around in shorts and t-shirts. And then trying to get implemented so they have a clear understanding of what the plan looks like. And trying to give them as thorough a baseline as we possibly can right now as far as knowledge of the workings of the offense. How we shift, how we motion, how we align, how change tempos. Different personnel packages that we’re going to use.
“Hopefully throughout the spring we get to a point where we put the assignment portion behind us so over the summer and in fall camp begin to dig into the details process where it’s not anymore a thought process of what their assignment is but it turns a lot more toward execution.
“Playing against good teams and beating good teams is about executing in situational football. To do that, you got to understand the details of what you’re doing and why we’re asking you to do it so you can execute at a high level. That’s ideal. Ideal is by the end of spring I don’t have to worry about assignment football anymore. These guys understand how to line up, where to go, how to do it. And then over the course of the summer when we reteach it again they get an opportunity to kind of dig into the details a little bit better whether that’s from how we run routes to how we run the ball or what adjustments we make from a line-call standpoint. Maybe in the middle of a play, I do it in the play call, or the quarterback adjusts it, or whatever we’re asking them to do. There is more detail in how they handle their job.”
On where things stand between him and Brian Kelly
“We’re friends and have always been friends. We have a relationship that spans over 30 some years. That won’t change. I don’t know that he was real happy with my decision, but I think he understood it. He knows the reasons why. But I have a lot of respect for Brian. I consider him a friend and always will.”
On his Arena Football League history
“It’s interesting because I think one of the advantages in some ways over the course of my career that I’ve had is an opportunity to coach on both sides of the ball. And even though it’s Arena Football, the fundamentals of being a football player are the same regardless of what kind of football you’re playing.
“I think it’s given me a perspective that helps me understand defensive adjustments. I think it helps me anticipate what those are going to be and adjust what we’re doing and have more answers for what the problems may possibly be before they show up so we’re rolling a little smoother.”
On his relationships with all the position groups as the OC and tight ends coach
“It will be a challenge, of course, not being the quarterbacks coach and being the coordinator. It always takes a little bit of coordination. I think as long as you’ve got people that you know and trust in those position rooms with those players, that takes the burden off of me and lightens up.
“I know what type of teachers are on this staff. I know how they teach the game. I’m comfortable with how their rooms are and the camaraderie within the rooms and the team building that goes on and those things. I don’t necessarily have to concern myself with that.
“I love to be involved in all of it, and I will be involved in all of it. I’ve already warned the coaches and the players. I’m going to be in the offensive line room. I’m going to be in the quarterback room. And to do that, I’ve got to have someone working with me that I feel like can handle the tight ends when I’m not with them and we’ve done a good job with the hiring process and all that. I feel comfortable with that.
“As much as anything, it’s incumbent on me to get around to the different position groups and establish relationships with those guys so it’s not just some old guy yelling at them on the practice field but we actually have a relationship beyond football. So that will be important to build that over time.
“As much as anything I try to do a really good job of making everybody on the offensive unit understand that we’re all in this together and this is our offense. This is Notre Dame’s offense. This isn’t my offense. This isn’t one coach’s deal. This is all of us together, and that’s the only way we’re going to be as strong as we need to be.”
On his initial communication with Notre Dame QB Riley Leonard
“Riley is very competitive, energetic, curious. Listen, all the players — I’ll speak in general terms here rather than specifically about Riley — but I’ve been overwhelmed by the eagerness of this group to get the details of what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. They want it, and they want it now. Which is awesome. I’ve kind of been like, ‘Listen, we got time. Just slow down a little bit.’ Let’s get this done first. Let’s follow the process that we’ve kind of outlined for them. Riley fits right into that. He wants specifics. He wants details. He wants absolutes, which at this point I can’t really give him 100 percent of the time nor can I any of the other players on offense. But he’s somebody that loves the game and you can telll by talking to him that it’s important to him to know everything he needs to know about what he’s going to be out there doing.”
On the Notre Dame tight ends
“Those guys have been fantastic. We got together this morning after their team run and went through some stuff that I thought we needed some detail work on. The whole group, offensively as a unit, unbelievably pleased with how they’ve picked things up. How smart they are. I had forgotten. They can handle it. Until they tell me ‘whoa’ by screwing up a bunch of things and not doing them the right way, we’re going to keep feeding them through a firehose as much as we can and see how far we can possibly push this thing. When they tell me slow down by not doing the details and different things, then we’ll slow down. But until then we’re going to keep pushing them forward.”
On comparing LSU’s Jayden Daniels to Notre Dame’s Riley Leonard
“I don’t know that I’ve had enough time with Riley to really answer that question correctly, to be honest with you. What I do see between the two of them that’s very similar is their competitiveness and their want to be reality good at what they do. That’s a characteristic that goes beyond. Riley has it, but I think the other quarterbacks on the roster have it as well. So i wouldn’t discount their want to be really good at what they want to do either.”
On how much he knew about Leonard before taking the job and how much he knows now
“I’ve kind of had to catch myself up a little bit. Obviously, I caught a little bit of — listen, any time I had an opportunity to, I was watching Notre Dame football. I watched the Duke game live. I’ve watched it some on tape. As many of the Duke games that I could catch with our schedule or who we were playing or when we were playing, I watched them because I was fascinated by some of the things he was doing especially early in the season and wanted to see more of him. As we go, him like all the other guys, I’m going to have to truly get them on the grass and get a field for what are the things they do the best and then we’ll tailor things toward that.”
On how much terminology changes going from one program to the next
“What they did within the system here a year ago, whatever we can rob from that that the kids are familiar with and makes sense to them we will. I’m not too old to learn myself. So if I’ve got to learn new words, I’ve got no issue with that. A lot of the terminology that we’ll use has carried over from Cincinnati to LSU to here. And some of it has changed along the way. We changed some of it at LSU and we’ll change some of it here. They’ll be a mix of that. If there was something that was more familiar with them than me introducing something new to them and it means the same thing, the word really to me, it could be ‘rumpelstiltskin.’ I don’t really care what it is.”
