Irish Breakdown

Notre Dame Football Offense: Mike Denbrock Can Deliver What's Been Missing

Can Irish offense become more explosive In 2024? That's where offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock comes in.

John Kennedy

Notre Dame Offensive Coordinator Mike Denbrock talks to players at Notre Dame spring football practice Thursday, March 7, 2024, at the Irish Athletics Center in South Bend.
Notre Dame Offensive Coordinator Mike Denbrock talks to players at Notre Dame spring football practice Thursday, March 7, 2024, at the Irish Athletics Center in South Bend. / GREG SWIERCZ / USA TODAY NETWORK
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The Notre Dame offense was terrific last season, but it can be better.

If the team wants to make noise in the national title hunt, and not just make the College Football Playoff, the attack has to crank it up a bit. That's where offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock comes in.

Notre Dame Offense: No more boring

Despite Notre Dame averaging over 39 points per game in the 2023 season, good for a top-ten spot in the nation, it somehow still felt lacking.

Why?

While the overall PPG game average was impressive, these numbers were heavily skewed towards blowout games against lower-level opponents. Against better defenses, the offense was quite predictable and mundane.

Notre Dame mustered only 14 points against Ohio State, 20 against Lousiville, and 23 against Clemson, with all three leading to losses.

For the Irish to have any hope of a true playoff run in 2024, these numbers must change, and Notre Dame must find a way to score more points against strong defenses.

Mike Denbrock is perfectly suited to do just that, coming off a record-breaking scoring season at LSU that featured a Heisman-winning QB. Let's discuss some ways he will help reinvigorate the Notre Dame offense.

Get the Notre Dame offense to use the entire field

To the regular fan's eye, it felt that Notre Dame's offense in 2023 was playing in about a seven-yard box in the middle of the field. Very rarely did it stretch defenses vertically or side to side stretching them thin and forcing them to guard all areas of the field.

This will change with Denbrock leading the charge.

I suspect Debrock will try to be much less predictable in his play-calling than Parker was last year and will be very comfortable pushing the ball downfield more often and forcing teams to also protect the edges of the field.

This alone will help the Irish log more successful plays as they become less predictable.

Create mismatches with the Notre Dame offense

One of Denbrock's historical strengths and one that he excelled at last year with LSU was finding favorable matchups for his athletes. This will become a key for the Irish offense in 2024.

Whether it be monster TE Eli Raridon matched up with a smaller defender down the seam or Jeremiyah Love beating a slower defender over the middle, these matchups will be planned for and created with intent.

This will be a key difference between the Irish offense of the present and the recent past and will pay huge dividends.

Notre Dame Offense: Have no fear

Too often through the first two years of the Freeman era and even going back to the Kelly era, it felt that the Irish offense was shy and didn't take many chances. They seemed to play very conservative offensive football that became easy to predict and defend.

Mike Denbrock is going to change this. He will not be reckless, but will be willing to take strategic chances and will display a willingness to display belief in his players that they can execute high-risk high- reward plays that are fun to run for the players.

This will be a breath of fresh air for fans and players alike who have been waiting for a more explosive Irish offense for some time now.

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Notre Dame Football: Offensive Coordinator Mike Denbrock Notebook

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John Kennedy

JOHN KENNEDY

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