Quick hitters: Notre Dame OC Mike Denbrock on QB Riley Leonard, a possible go-to WR

Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock spoke to the media after the Fighting Irish’s second fall camp practice on Thursday. Here are some of the key points from Denbrock’s meeting with the press, including an update on the progress of quarterback Riley Leonard and some candidates to be Notre Dame’s go-to speedster as a pass-catcher.

On what he knows about Notre Dame’s offensive personnel now that he didn’t know in the spring

“I think the thing that’s pretty obvious when you watch us now, as opposed to when we started spring football, is just the overall knowledge that they have of what we’re asking them to do and how to execute that consistently. That’s probably the work that these guys did in the summer.

“I take my hat off to them. They’ve really put in a lot of work themselves. Obviously, we were able to be with them a little bit in June, but most of the month of July was player-driven, and they drove it. And it’s been fun to watch kind of the maturity of their understanding move from where we were in the spring to where we are today.”

On how he stays patient getting this Notre Dame offense where you want it to be for the season-opener

“You’ve heard me on the practice field. There’s nothing patient about … [laughs]. I wish I had some more patience, to be honest with you, but I think it’s an understanding that it is a process and that this isn’t going to be a polished piece of glass at Texas A&M. This is going to be something that evolves as the season moves along.

“We’re going to, I believe, continue to get better and better at what we do, but mindful that we’ve got to go into the lion’s den here early in the season. And that kind of helps their eagerness or their urgency to get it accomplished and get it moving. And it does the same thing for me.”

On Irish offensive players being quicker Thursday than they were Wednesday

“I thought we were. I don’t know if that was because the sun wasn’t out, beating down on them as much today as it was yesterday, but it’s hot out there. But we want to play with a tempo and a pace to what we do, that keeps the pressure on the defense and play from a position of strength. And that means also our conditioning and how we go about playing from play to play. So, that’s something that fall camp is really designed to help work on, and [I’m] just always trying to emphasize that point to those guys.”

On Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard’s competitiveness

“I think you can see it in how he reacts to coaching or how he reacts to what he knows was a misread or something that he could have done better. And his reaction is always one of self-reflection. And that speaks to being a competitive person, because you want to be successful. And if there’s someone around you or something you could do better to make that a reality, that burns pretty bright. And it’s pretty easy to see that coming from him.” 

On if Leonard got everything done he needed to get accomplished over the summer

“Everything? I’m not sure, but you can see there’s clear progress as far as his understanding and knowledge of what we’re doing. And we purposefully have set the summer up and really fall camp here to try to help catch him up from some of the things that he missed in the spring, if that makes sense. So, we’ve tried to kind of help him with that process. But he did a great job himself over the summer of developing that himself and filling in some of the blank spots.” 

On which Notre Dame receiver can provide the most speed like Will Fuller back in the day

“I’m hopeful that Kris Mitchell can continue to kind of grow into that role. I think KK Smith is a very talented young man who just has to continue to practice it and put it on tape every day. But I think there’s a couple guys that we have that can play that role. I think it’s going to be a little bit by committee. It won’t be where we try to play it as much as we could to make sure if we were going to throw it, it was going in Will’s direction. Or a TJ Jones or whatever. I don’t know that we’re there yet. I think it’ll be a little bit more by committee. But, hopefully, that’s not the case. Hopefully, somebody just becomes a dominant force and does it consistently and earns themselves that opportunity.”

On the stage of progression of the Notre Dame offensive line

“We are in the polishing process. But listen, I think you know of any group, you look at the receivers, you look at the offensive line. I think, on our offense right now, those are the two groups I would look at and say I’ve seen the most progress in those two rooms. And credit goes to Mike Brown and obviously Joe Rudolph. I think they’re both tremendous teachers of the game.

“We don’t have a lot of experience up front, but those guys are so bonded. Those guys communicate really well, even though they don’t have a lot of snaps under their belt. And the hope is that the confidence continues to grow with them so that even when they get into a hostile environment, even though they don’t have a lot of experience, they lean on one another. And that’s been evident so far. That’s just something we’ve got to continue to build.”