Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1547079
14 OCT. 17, 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY ERIC HANSEN S ometimes Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock's harshest critic of his play-call- ing in Irish football games is, well, Mike Denbrock. "Oh, sure I am, when it doesn't work," said the man curating and creat- ing an offense that was tied for 15th in the nation in scoring heading into the matchup with Stanford Oct. 10. "In be- tween series, I'm like, 'What the f— are you doing?' That's human nature. "Scenarios are running through my mind like every second. When you're in the moment, of course, no, I'm not thinking about that. But when [the op- ponent] has the ball … and I have some time to think …" Denbrock had a lot of thoughts about play-calling and other topics related to the Notre Dame offense — most of them G-rated — after a practice heading into a game against Stanford, the nation's No. 133 team (out of 138) in both total defense and scoring defense. The opposing defensive challenges figure to intensify considerably after Stanford. All six of Notre Dame's re- maining regular-season opponents rank among the nation's top 50 in total de- fense, beginning with No. 8 BYU Oct. 17 in Provo, Utah. The Cougars were 21st in that stat category in early October. Behind the second-guessing is a bal- ancing act involving trust, risk, patience and the occasional willingness to make an unpopular decision. Denbrock pulled back the curtain on all four recently while also revealing where he believes the Irish offense still needs to grow. Here are the most revealing takeaways: WHY GOOD ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH YET Situational football sits at the top of the Irish offense's to-do list. "It's third-down conversion rate," Denbrock said of Notre Dame's No. 76 ranking coming out of its road test at North Carolina Oct. 3 after finishing 13th in third-down efficiency with a first- year starting quarterback last season. "We're below it. Some of that is off- set a little bit by how we call the game on third down, knowing we're going to go for it on fourth down. But still third- and-mediums, we've got to be better there. We'll mix in a run, but we're going to have to throw the ball. It's third-and-6 — we've got to get to a position where we are a little more automatic in those situ- ations, and we haven't done as good a job in those areas as I'd like us to do. "Then, I think finishing red-zone op- portunities with touchdowns has got to continue to always be a big piece of im- provement as the season goes along. Some of that's me. Some of that's execution. Some of that's a little bit of everything." The Irish returned their starting quar- terback in CJ Carr, who was fifth nation- ally in pass efficiency in 2025 and seventh five games into this season. But Denbrock expected the pieces around Carr — par- ticularly the offensive line, the running backs and their ability to work together — to take longer to develop. HARSHEST CRITIC Offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock pulls back the curtain on the trust, risk and second-guessing behind his play calls Down the stretch, Denbrock's offense — which was tied for 15th in the nation in scoring (41.2 points per game) through Week 5 — will face final six opponents that are ranked among the nation's top 50 in total defense. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER