Everything Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock said before Irish vs. Stanford

Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock spoke to the media Tuesday night before the No. 11 Fighting Irish (4-1) host Stanford (2-3) on Saturday. Here’s everything he said.

On what he looked at as far as third down offense during the bye week

“Everything, to be honest with you. Are we concept-wise attacking defenses the way we need to? Are we formatting who is in the primary spots where we believe the ball is going to go enough? Is our protection the way we want it? Are we getting the slide the right way? Are our backs doing a good job in blitz protection? I think you look at all that stuff because our consistency on third down has to be so much better than it’s been.”  

On what’s happening on first and second down affecting third down

“There’s no doubt. We’ve been average as dirt on first down. It’s got to be way more consistent, because you’re right. I mean, third-and-2s and third-and-3s, they’re a heck of a lot easier than third-and-9s and third-and-what we had Saturday. What was it? Third-and-34 or whatever it was? Those are fun play calls. Those are awesome. I love those. I mean, we actually tried to punt it.”

On if third and long makes him want to call different things on first and second down

“Certainly. I mean, there’s nothing that’s off the table. And I always start with me first. So, I’ve got to make sure scheme-wise and what we’re doing on first down, in particular, is more on point. Or that I give the quarterback the information he needs to adjust what we’re doing, probably a little bit more consistently and a little bit better. I think that helps. And I think he’s to the point now and we’re to the point now offensively where that’s way more possible than it was three weeks ago. So, I look for that to get a lot better.”  

On what he saw from Notre Dame QB Riley Leonard during the bye week

“I think what’s most exciting to me is the continued growth of confidence and understanding of what we’re doing. I think we’ve seen glimpses of what it can really turn into and become here. And we’re at about the point in the season where it’s time for that to kick into gear. I’ve seen that progress over the last couple games, and now that’s continued into last week, continued into this week. Hoping that that translates to the way we play on Saturday.”  

On what he worked on with the Notre Dame offensive line during the bye week

“In the situation that we’re in — rest, rest as much as you can. But no, I think what you can do is you can plug even some of the younger kids that maybe haven’t gotten an opportunity to play as much yet into some 11-on-11 situations and see what makes them tick. Maybe they’ve been relegated most of the year so far to the scout team or the look team and haven’t had those opportunities to go best-on-best. And the bye week, while you’re resting some guys that maybe need a blow because of the number of snaps that they’ve taken to this point in the season, it gives you a chance to interject some of those guys in there and go, ‘Hey, that guy holds up pretty good.’ So, it’s a good way to evaluate those guys and see how much growth they’ve had from fall camp to now and whether they’re getting better.”  

On why Leonard is a candidate for a significant step forward

“Because of what I’ve seen him do out there on the practice field. I mean, it’s got to start there. It’s got to start somewhere. And that’s been as good as I’ve seen. Last week and the week before, the way he practiced and threw the ball with confidence and the way people kind of like went, ‘Wow, that’s a dude.’ You know what I mean? That whole aura that’s surrounding him right now is really positive, and I think everybody’s kind of feeding off that.”  

On where Notre Dame tight end Mitchell Evans is in his comeback from an ACL injury

“We all wish right out of the chute — and I think the bye week was good for him. I do. I think it gave him a chance to kind of take a deep breath and go, ‘You know, I’ve got to get better here. I got to get better there.’ And he’s got to play more consistently, and I think he’s got to just trust that he’s healthy enough to play as consistently and as fast as he wants to play and needs to play.

“I think he’s better because of the bye week, because he got a chance to kind of reassess. We got a chance to cut some film up, sit down, go over it, and look at the areas where I thought he needed to excel a little bit more. And he’s completely on board and ready to do that, so I look forward to it.”  

On where Notre Dame right tackle Aamil Wagner is five games into his first season as a starter

“I loved, from the beginning, his consistency. And he’s an incredibly intelligent young man that even though he didn’t have a lot of experience from a game atmosphere standpoint, nothing that was thrown at him by our defense — which as you guys know, throws a lot at him — shook him. He was always able to kind of pull himself back and refocus on the task at hand. And he’s continued to do that.”  

On if Wagner’s weight concerns were ever an issue

“No, I don’t think it was. I guess I judge all of it on: How are you performing? And I would probably perform better 20 pounds lighter myself, you know what I mean? So, it’s like where does all that fit in? Well, if you’re doing the most consistent job and winning 90% of your battles — you’re not going to win them all — then you’re doing a pretty good job.”  

On if Wagner is strong enough for his duties despite being on the lighter side

“Yeah, I thought his numbers, weight room-wise, over the summer really were indicative of him being in a position to physically be able to handle it, for sure.”  

On some good run defenses and poor pass defenses coming up on the Notre Dame schedule

“We have to be able to run the ball, no matter how good they are at stopping it, because that right now is what we’ve been able to lean on offensively for any type of consistency while the passing game continues to become what it needs to be. That can’t change. Now, the minute we can add some more consistency in the passing game to that, we’re going to be able to run the ball against good defenses, because they’re going to have to actually defend the pass. And so, our focus has been on growing and understanding and learning even more about what we need to do to get better throwing the football while still continuing to have the consistency that we’ve had running the ball.”  

On if it’ll be a good problem to have trying to reinsert Billy Schrauth in the starting lineup when he’s healthy

“I just want to get him back, and we’ll worry later.”  

On what Schrauth does well

“It’s just the demeanor that he plays with, the toughness that he plays with. It just makes us better. It just does. So, listen, it’ll be some interesting competition and some hard decisions that have to be made when he is healthy enough to kick it into gear and come back. But we’re anxious to have him back.”  

On how Notre Dame having a run-heavy offensive identity affects play calling especially against good run defenses

“You better be locked down in the scheme that you’re using against what they’re doing. And what a lot of defenses do and try to do is outnumber you in the box. So, what can we do with an athletic quarterback and some really talented backs to try to offset that? Can we read an edge guy? Can we read a second-level guy? Can we get the ball out on some RPOs to kind of loosen them up a little bit so we can hand the ball off? All those things go into kind of planning it.”