Everything Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock said before Irish host NIU

Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock spoke to the media Tuesday night before the Fighting Irish host Northern Illinois on Saturday. Here is everything he said.

On learning about Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman as a head coach

“I think that whether he’s the head coach or a defensive coordinator or whatever position he’s working with, he’s his authentic self. And his authentic self is a fiery, competitive, demanding leader. And I think that’s what you saw Saturday night. Pretty fun to be around.” 

On getting refocused on NIU after a big win

“All you have to do is watch the tape. I mean, there’s hundreds — literally — of things that need our attention and need a better understanding. Need better coaching, need better technique, need better design. Whatever it happens to be, there’s so much for us to improve on that, to me, it would be hard — and I know he has the same philosophy about it — to look at it any other way than, ‘We’ve got a lot of work to do, and it’s time to go back to work.’” 

On calling the game from the sideline

“I tried to get a feel during fall camp for where we were offensively leadership-wise. And if I felt like there were some alphas in our group that would pull the guys together and kind of have a group chat when necessary — and I felt like we weren’t quite there yet, that maybe that was something that was a role that I needed to fill for the time being until we continued to cultivate more and more experience and leadership on the offensive side.

“And also the youth of our front, the youth of, really, the quarterback — not the youth of the quarterback, but you understand what I mean. I mean the youngness of the system overall. I thought it was going to be easier for me to communicate to everybody immediately on the sideline, maybe, than to be upstairs.” 

On if he’ll continue to coach from the sideline

“For now. Well see. I mean, I’m very comfortable either place. I don’t see it changing this season, but we’ll see. I mean, whatever we think gives us the best opportunity, we’ll do it, because I’m comfortable either way.” 

On what he learned about Notre Dame QB Riley Leonard in game situations

“That he’s a pretty unshakable kid. You know, even when he’s not maybe having as much consistency in his success as he wants to have, he gets refocused really well, really fast and is ready to kind of absorb whatever needs to get fixed. And does a really good job of communicating to me some of the problems that he’s having recognizing who we’re pointing at for protection purposes or whether he didn’t see something [that] I thought he should have seen or whatever. ‘Yeah, coach, I really didn’t even look at that.’ OK, well, next time — just different conversations that we had on the sideline. I thought his ability to really refocus and then re-engage in the game was really good.” 

On the value of having a QB with a calm demeanor with a young offensive line

“I mean, if he’s unflappable, the whole offense is unflappable. So, I think you saw a little bit of that. I mean, there was no panic or worry or concern by anybody on the sideline, other than we got to play better. And in the end, thank the Good Lord, we made a couple plays.” 

On Notre Dame freshman left tackle Anthonie Knapp

“I mean, a warrior. He did exactly the type of things he did on the practice field to earn himself that opportunity, and then went out in the game and put it on tape again. So, obviously, I think he’d be the first one to tell you that there’s a lot of things he wishes he would have done better. But the heart is not to be minimalized in any way, that he played with and the way he attacked his job.” 

On being able to use iPads on the sideline

“IPads on the sidelines are absolutely fantastic for making especially — I think we’re maybe unique in some ways. We’re so young, especially up front. Being able to go back through, play by play, and talk [about] communication and talk about Mike point [identifying the middle linebacker] and how we’re communicating certain fronts and blocking teams, and things like that is really invaluable with that group that hasn’t played a lot of football together. So, I love it.” 

On a wholistic review of the Notre Dame offensive line

“I think just consistency. I think that’s the next thing, right? So, there were times in the game I thought even though they were playing against a really good defensive front, I thought they didn’t just hold their own. They actually were the aggressors. And continuing their development to the point where that’s a play-in and play-out situation is the next step for that group.” 

On if the decision to start young offensive linemen was validated

“I don’t know. We won the game. That’s what I know.” 

On calling a game to help a young offensive line

“I mean, I think you saw some of it. Really, the most important thing in the end is making sure you don’t put them in a compromising position that maybe their development hasn’t made them ready for yet. And it will come at some point. So, how do you judge that? How do you do that? Try to stay out of third and long. We didn’t do a very good job of that, right? So, OK, you’re in third and long. Now what the hell are you going to do? Well, that’s where the screen game kind of came in, in some scenarios. And it’s frustrating for some maybe to have to see us flinging a screen pass on third-and-13, but in front of 107,000 fans with a lot of new faces up front, what gives our football team the best chance to win? And we were doing such a good job and playing so well defensively, the flow of the game and all those things go into the way I call the game and the way I think about playing the game.” 

On what needs to improve with the Notre Dame offense

“They had a specific plan for when we jumped into empty [formations], where they put six guys up and then played games with who they were bringing and who they weren’t. And, coaching-wise, I need to have a much better answer for that than I did during the game. I think, secondly, their third-down configurations. Obviously, that’s something that Mike [Elko] is really well-known for and does a really good job with. There were a couple of times where we didn’t get the point verified, so the quarterback and the line weren’t quite on the same page. And we’ve just got to do a better job in hostile environments, kind of communicating from the inside out. So, even though the center may have told the guard, the guard’s got to tell the tackle, and that communication’s got to spread a little bit better. And it’s just experience more than anything else.” 

On the communication at Kyle Field vs. everywhere else

“Right, and everybody hears it. When you get into those places, that’s not possible. So, I think that’s something that I learned. You know what I mean? That’s one thing about the [in-helmet] communication thing that drove me nuts during the game. So, they will not let you push the button to call the play until they start the 40-second clock. So, let’s say a kid catches a ball, runs out of bounds or gets tackled. [Makes a buzzing sound] I’m pushing [Buzzing sound]. And it won’t let you — especially our third down, I was trying. I knew we were going to be at the line of scrimmage for a minute. I’m trying to get him [Riley Leonard] info as fast as I can, so he and the offensive line could diagnose what’s going on. And they kept cutting me off. Can you imagine?” 

On Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love getting better throughout the game

“I mean, I think it’s a little bit of both. I think most backs kind of hit their stride after a certain number of carries. Or once they get their feet on the ground and get banged a couple times, they kind of get that running back feel, if you will. And I think that was part of it. And I thought we did a better job. And I thought over the course of a game that we became — towards the middle of the fourth quarter on — the aggressors in the football game. And I think he took advantage of that.”