Notre Dame set to hire LSU's Mike Denbrock as offensive coordinator

Marcus Freeman is turning to a familiar face to lead the Notre Dame offense. LSU OC Mike Denbrock has been hired as the offensive coordinator for the Fighting Irish, On3’s Pete Nakos has confirmed.

Denbrock returns to Notre Dame after spending the past two seasons as the Tigers OC. LSU led the nation in total offense and scoring offense this season, thanks in large part to a record-setting year from Heisman winner Jayden Daniels.

The Tigers have averaged 547.8 yards per game and 46.4 points per game thus far in 2023.

Denbrock is replacing Gerad Parker, who left for the head coaching job at Troy earlier this month.

Mike Denbrock is back at Notre Dame for the third time. He was previously an assistant with the Fighting Irish from 2002-04 and from 2010-16.

Marcus Freeman is very familiar with Denbrock as the two previously coached together at Cincinnati. Freeman was on staff at Cincinnati from 2017-20, serving as the defensive coordinator for the Bearcats. Denbrock was the offensive coordinator at Cincinnati from 2017-21. Cincinnati reached the Peach Bowl in 2020 and advanced to the College Football Playoff in 2021.

Denbrock helped develop an impressive quarterback during his time with the Bearcats in Desmond Ridder, who was drafted in the third round of the 2022 NFL draft.

Mike Denbrock was named a finalist for the Broyles Award this season, which is given to the best assistant coach in college football.

Marcus Freeman praises new Notre Dame WR coach Mike Brown

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman already made one new hire recently, bringing Mike Brown over from Wisconsin to coach receivers.

Brown and Freeman have their fair share of history together but will now reunite in South Bend. In a recent press conference, Freeman spoke about what Brown will bring to the table for the Fighting Irish.

“We added Mike Brown to our staff, which we announced last week,” Freeman said. “Mike’s obviously a guy that I worked with closely at Cincinnati and to me, the things that I remember most about our time together was the developer that he was of the entire room.”

“I’ve seen him truly develop that room at Cincinnati and I know people look at the draft picks that came out of that room but to me, it’s the from top to bottom seeing him develop young people.”

Before Wisconsin, Brown was on Cincinnati’s coaching staff during Freeman’s final two seasons with the Bearcats, and in his four seasons with the program had three wide receivers selected in the NFL Draft.