Notre Dame officially names Mike Denbrock as offensive coordinator
It’s official. Mike Denbrock is headed back to Notre Dame.
A longtime assistant under Brian Kelly, Denbrock was announced by the university Wednesday as the Fighting Irish’s offensive coordinator replacement for Gerad Parker, who left earlier this month to become the head coach at Troy. News of Denbrock’s return to South Bend first broke this past Friday.
“First and foremost, Mike is an elite coach across the board,” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said in a press release. “He is a great leader, recruiter and developer, but what I love the most is his competitive spirit.
“Mike not only has a lot of experience, but he has achieved a high level of success at multiple places. He has the ability to mold his offense to utilize his playmakers, while putting defenses in conflict. I want to thank Jack Swarbrick and our leadership for consistently providing us the resources to ensure we can attract the best coaches and staff to join our program.”
Notre Dame pulled Denbrock away from Kelly, with whom he was a graduate assistant at Grand Valley State in 1987, and the LSU Tigers. Denbrock had a major contract extension on the table from LSU, but according to FootballScoop the Irish exceeded the Tigers’ offer. He was set to make $1.8 million annually before bonuses at LSU. At Notre Dame, per FootballScoop, Denbrock will make north of $2 million.
Less than a year after not being able to seal the deal on bringing Andy Ludwig in from Utah and having to settle for an in-house promotion of Parker, the Irish went for one of the most experienced, big-name offensive coordinators in the country and delivered on landing him.
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It’s more than job experience for Denbrock. It’s familiarity with the place and people. He was an offensive tackles and tight ends coach at Notre Dame from 2002-04. He held a slew of titles — from tight ends coach, wide receivers coach and associate head coach to offensive coordinator — under Kelly from 2010-16.
Denbrock also has experience working with Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman, cornerbacks coach Mike Mickens and quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli. Those three were at Cincinnati together within the last five years. Guidugli, Notre Dame’s interim offensive coordinator for Friday’s Sun Bowl, said this week in El Paso he’s excited to reunite with a coach he has a ton of respect for.
“Mike and I had a lot of success together when we were at Cincinnati,” Guidugli said. “I’m looking forward to joining back up with him. I know he’s got a lot of experience at Notre Dame and loves this place. He made that perfectly clear when we worked together at Cincinnati. He has a lot of fond memories.”
Denbrock coached the 2023 Heisman Trophy winner in LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels. With Denbrock and Daniels working in lockstep, the Tigers had the No. 1 offense in the country at 547.8 yards per game.
