Mike Denbrock downplays hopes to become a head coach

Notre Dame brought in an old face to be the team’s offensive coordinator in 2024, Mike Denbrock. Now in his third stint with the Irish, Denbrock has become one of college football’s best respected assistant coaches but has never had a shot at being a head coach.

Now 60 years old, Denbrock was asked about being a head coach one day, but he downplayed his personal hopes to lead a program himself.

“I think this has become more and more of a little bit of a young man’s business,” Mike Denbrock said. “I don’t see — unless something incredible just hits you in the face — that that would be my career path from this point forward.”

Mike Denbrock broke into coaching in 1986 as a graduate assistant at Grand Valley State. Then, in 1987, he worked with Brian Kelly when they were both GAs. By 1992, Kelly was the head coach at Grand Valley State and Denbrock became his offensive coordinator. The two parted ways for a while after that, with Denbrock holding several offensive assistant jobs, primarily as an offensive line coach, before he joined Kelly’s staff in 2010.

In 2017, Denbrock got the opportunity to be an offensive coordinator again, working under Luke Fickell at Cincinnati. That’s where he worked with Marcus Freeman, current Notre Dame head coach and former Cincinnati defensive coordinator. From there, he followed Kelly to LSU before returning to Notre Dame.

Ultimately, Mike Denbrock insisted that he’s happy to be at Notre Dame, working to bring a championship back to South Bend.

“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.” 

Mike Denbrock admits he was close to contract extension at LSU

Prior to taking the Notre Dame offensive coordinator role, Mike Denbrock admitted that he was close to a contract 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,” Denbrock said.

“We’re [Denbrock and Kelly] 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.”