Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1529460
BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 23, 2024 53 M ike Denbrock isn't one to take a victory lap. It's too early for that to be appropriate, anyway. But the Notre Dame offensive co- ordinator was adamant throughout August that his group would take time to get going. It wouldn't be "polished glass," in his words, right away. Den- brock believed the Irish would play their best football in November, and it certainly appears that he knew what he was talking about. "Well, that's probably the first time anyone's ever said that to me," Den- brock said, laughing. It's true, though, particularly in the passing game. Notre Dame, led by se- nior quarterback Riley Leonard, aver- aged 5.3 yards per attempt in its Au- gust opener at Texas A&M. The Irish upped that number to 6.4 in Septem- ber, which included a devastating loss to Northern Illinois (which, of course, was not part of the plan). In three convincing October wins, Notre Dame put up 8.31 yards per at- tempt. It also scored 43.6 points per game. So far in November, Leonard completed 52 percent of his passes against Florida State (4 drops did not help) but threw for 8.0 yards per at- tempt, pushing the ball downfield more than ever. If the Irish continue playing at this level, they will make the College Foot- ball Playoff. "I knew there were lots of new pieces that were going to take a minute to jell, let alone a quarterback who unfortu- nately didn't have the availability that, right off the bat, was maybe needed to gain him some valuable experience," Denbrock said, referencing Leonard's multiple surgeries that held him out of most of spring practice. "So, growth was going to be at times a little painful to watch, but it was going to be — and it has been — evident that it's being made. And it's happening before all of our eyes." Denbrock credited his players, be- cause the growth they've shown was not going to happen naturally. They attacked practice after the Texas A&M game, which they knew would be a struggle, and the NIU game, which shocked and embarrassed them. "It sounds cliche to say, but they re- ally take a Tuesday, and they're better on Wednesday than they are on Tues- day," Denbrock said. "They're better on Thursday than they are on Wednesday. And they just continue to have a hunger about them and a mindset about them that has allowed us to get a little bit bet- ter every week." Notre Dame's wide receivers are a large part of that improvement, ac- counting for several of the new pieces. The top five wideouts on the Irish are three transfers who needed time to ac- climate, as well as two sophomores, one of whom dealt with ankle injuries for most of the season's first half. As frustrating as playing with a dual- threat quarterback can be — especially early in the season, when Leonard's in- stinct was to drop his eyes and run when the first read wasn't open — sopho- mores Jaden Greathouse and Jordan Fai- son, and graduate students Beaux Col- lins, Jayden Harrison and Kris Mitchell have stayed the course. "I just think trusting his receivers, trust in the scheme that we have, trust- ing where to go based on the coverage he's seeing," Mitchell said, regarding Leonard's progress. "He's playing a lot faster. He knows he can run the ball. So, he's playing more and more confident with that and the coaches have unbelievable confidence in him that he can make a play." For example, Mitchell detailed, Leonard has been hitting the backside dig route more often as the season has gone along. The dig is often the last read in Notre Dame's system, so if Leonard is finding them, it's a sign he's locked in. "We weren't on the same page at the beginning of the season," Mitchell said. "We're getting better and better at it. We know like, 'Oh, this coverage, the ball's coming to me right here.'" Leonard and Denbrock were also not on the same page at the beginning of the season. But that's improved throughout the course of the campaign, too. Notre Dame's signal-caller has been open about his conversations with his play-caller about which plays he likes, which plays he doesn't and what he's most comfortable running in any given matchup. Once Denbrock has his idea of what the game plan will look like, he'll sit down with Leonard to get his perspective. "When I look at the scheme for Flor- ida State, there's things that I feel like we can do to take advantage of them," Denbrock said. "But if the eye of the quarterback is not the same eye that yours is — and everybody has a differ- ent way of seeing the game and looking at the game — then those things really aren't going to amount to much if he doesn't see him the same way that I do. "Those conversations kind of run so that his understanding of what the overall picture is of what we're trying to do gets communicated to him, so that he can then go out there and operate it." Lately, Leonard and Denbrock have seen eye to eye. They hope that will lead to two more wins in November and po- tentially more in December. ✦ Denbrock noted in August that the Irish offense would not be 'polished glass' right away and that it would play its best football in November. Since the start of October, the Irish were averaging an impressive 8.2 yards per pass attempt while scoring 45.8 points per game. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER Mike Denbrock Is Proving To Be Prophetic Staff writer Jack Soble has covered Notre Dame athletics for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2023. Contact him at Jack.Soble@on3.com. OFF THE DOME JACK SOBLE