Michael Fredrick Denbrock Hired as Offensive Coordinator (2023)

FWIrish4 · Tuesday at 4:48 PM

From the II pod: We’re only running play action on 15% of pass plays. For context, Ole Miss is ~60% and Texas (more conventional offense) is ~40%.

Linebackers and safeties knowing 85% of the time Carr turns to an RB means it’s a run has absolutely got to make things harder than it needs to in the run game.

The 15% is same ratio as last year with Love/Price in the backfield (truly inexcusable IMO). For whatever reason, it seems like Denbrock does not heavily utilize it. This makes question my original positive intuition that we’re holding stuff back for bigger games.

Fbolt · Tuesday at 5:04 PM

Miami (Season Opener): In the tight 27-24 loss to the Miami Hurricanes, the offense had to rely more heavily on the passing game late, using play-action to slow down Miami’s pass rush.

Texas A&M: The 41-40 heartbreak against the Texas A&M Aggies forced Notre Dame into a continuous shootout. This was one of the few games where the pure volume of play-action calls spiked into double digits to keep the defense honest. [1, 2]

Dale · Tuesday at 5:10 PM

Fbolt said:
View attachment 3064877
Miami (Season Opener): In the tight 27-24 loss to the Miami Hurricanes, the offense had to rely more heavily on the passing game late, using play-action to slow down Miami’s pass rush.

View attachment 3064878
Texas A&M: The 41-40 heartbreak against the Texas A&M Aggies forced Notre Dame into a continuous shootout. This was one of the few games where the pure volume of play-action calls spiked into double digits to keep the defense honest. [1, 2]

PFF has the Miami game at 23% and A&M at 9% FWIW

26% vs Pitt as the high mark

tirishman505 · Tuesday at 5:23 PM

IrishInOntario said:
I think there is a coordinated effort among the ND staff not to do anything unnecessary that could lead to a loss to an inferior team, that might ultimately cause ND to miss the playoffs down the road if they eat a 2nd loss vs BYU, Miami or SMU.

I think they know how good their defense is. I think they're confident that they can work on things during practice in the pass game and not reveal a bunch of them vs overmatched teams and I think they're pacing themselves through what they hope will be a long season.

Style points won't really matter at this point in the year anyways, so there is an emphasis on heavy rotation, developing depth and trying to master the basics of both the offense and defense before getting exotic.

Like it, or nor, I think the ND staff feels like that's their path back to the pkayoffs.

This feels true to me. OSU ran this strategy last year. The danger is when you get to the playoffs you might not be able to flip the switch.

Dale · Tuesday at 5:33 PM

IMO a thing with both coordinators, so maybe it is a thing with Freeman is they game plan for the opponent in mind with installs, maybe to a fault. For example just went through the PFF game logs as referenced above and you get a lot of 10% and a handful of 25ish% PA usages. So sure we have a base playbook but you hear from Freeman often in pressers that is the look they gave us, or we took what was given etc. We also saw back to Golden mentions of overwhelming with installs in camp and moving to again a base with weekly opponent specific installs.

So I’m not sure I would call that conservative and definitely not bad coordination. It’s maybe overly meticulous at times is what people are sensing?

allenm5333 · Tuesday at 5:36 PM

Dale said:
IMO a thing with both coordinators, so maybe it is a thing with Freeman is they game plan for the opponent in mind with installs, maybe to a fault. For example just went through the PFF game logs as referenced above and you get a lot of 10% and a handful of 25ish% PA usages. So sure we have a base playbook but you hear from Freeman often in pressers that is the look they gave us, or we took what was given etc. We also saw back to Golden mentions of overwhelming with installs in camp and moving to again a base with weekly opponent specific installs.

So I’m not sure I would call that conservative and definitely not bad coordination. It’s maybe overly meticulous at times is what people are sensing?

Valid points. Why it warmed my coaching get when Ash said f it and went with the bear front against Michigan State and said sick ‘em

Huntr · Wednesday at 8:44 AM

allenm5333 said:
Valid points. Why it warmed my coaching get when Ash said f it and went with the bear front against Michigan State and said sick ‘em

Yeah, and it had Sparty in absolute hell for a quarter and a half.

jerseyborn1971 · Wednesday at 9:24 AM

402puck said:
Where would that leave Notre Dame's offense who is scoring *checks notes* 40 points per game??

Tied for 28th behind Toledo, Maryland, Georgia State and UCF.

Dale · Wednesday at 1:41 PM

Huntr · Wednesday at 2:08 PM

4 verts, let's go!

Dale · Wednesday at 2:44 PM

If NDs WRs are as bad as everyone nationally wants to say I assume someone will man us up heavily at some point? Hmm

Only seen man coverage on 15% of passes according to that

rtrn2glory · Wednesday at 2:45 PM

Dale said:
PFF has the Miami game at 23% and A&M at 9% FWIW

26% vs Pitt as the high mark

The fact we only PAP 1/4 times we threw it with Jeremiah Love is questionable.

Dale · Wednesday at 2:52 PM

25% is pretty standard in the NFL. The RPOs heavily inflated college numbers

arrowryan · Wednesday at 2:58 PM

My biggest complaint with the play calling is Denbrock calls the game as if he doesn’t have a future pro at QB.

Would I like the run game to be operating at full potential? Obviously. But maybe try using Carr’s arm to open up the running game? He’s calling the offense like it’s 2022.

This is the best QB they’ve had since 2009, but they’re going to keep forcing Aneyas Williams and Nolan James.

Dale · Thursday at 1:19 PM

SWirishfan · Thursday at 3:51 PM

MFMF: "Mike Denbrock not saving plays for later in the season."
Me: Bullshit

Jiggafini19Deux · Thursday at 3:53 PM

It would seem arrogant and stupid for coaches to operate that way, and it's also the kind of thing fans would probably believe is happening.

allenm5333 · Thursday at 3:54 PM

Dale said:

“Our first three opponents weren’t good enough. This has let us keep things in our bag for BYU and Miami”

I 100% believe ND has some stuff to show and tendencies to break

Jimmy3Putt · Thursday at 4:44 PM

If they aren't self scouting and setting up tendencies, then this coach staff isn't who I thought they were.

irishff1014 · Thursday at 6:59 PM

SWirishfan said:
MFMF: "Mike Denbrock not saving plays for later in the season."
Me: Bullshit

Right.

At the same point you need to give these teams some other looks. Do an end around with one of the speed guys, show an all go route. Make these teams prepare. We do it on special teams.

Notre Dame Joe · 2026-09-25T05:08:18-0400

He's just never going to have a great running strategy.

Irish#1 · 2026-09-25T07:01:55-0400

Jiggafini19Deux said:
It would seem arrogant and stupid for coaches to operate that way, and it's also the kind of thing fans would probably believe is happening.

I don't agree with arrogant, but I do agree with your premise. Coaches have their playbook and design it around their teams strengths and weaknesses. Plays are added as the season goes on with some for that weeks opponent but Denbrock isn't looking at the playbook and thinking, I need to save that play for BYU, Miami, etc.

Jimmy3Putt · 2026-09-25T07:07:59-0400

Irish#1 said:
I don't agree with arrogant, but I do agree with your premise. Coaches have their playbook and design it around their teams strengths and weaknesses. Plays are added as the season goes on with some for that weeks opponent but Denbrock isn't looking at the playbook and thinking, I need to save that play for BYU, Miami, etc.

The run game has been as vanilla as possible. Repeatedly showing the same looks. I hope he’s saving some different plays run from the same sets. Play actions, counters, boots, etc.

Irish#1 · 2026-09-25T07:25:39-0400

Jimmy3Putt said:
The run game has been as vanilla as possible. Repeatedly showing the same looks. I hope he’s saving some different plays run from the same sets. Play actions, counters, boots, etc.

Agree, the run game has been vanilla. Would love to see some creativity.

Jiggafini19Deux · 2026-09-25T07:49:47-0400

They're doing whatever they're doing and winning. It's not as entertaining and flashy as some of you want it to be, however, and THAT would appear to be the issue more than anything else. In the end, it's a 3-0 team.

Seems like it doesn't matter who the OC is or what he's calling, there's an issue among a certain contingent of fans with whoever and whatever that might be in any given year. Nobody is above criticism, but there's clearly a pattern when it comes to offensive coordinator. The internet knows more.

Jimmy3Putt · 2026-09-25T08:19:01-0400

Denbrook is setting records here so it’s difficult to find things to legitimately complain about.
I just think it might be asking too much of our young line and backs to just line up and beat/over power the man in front of them over and over again from the same looks.
It puts our guys at a disadvantage.

Mix it up and get a little creative in the run game. Be quicker to adjust when the defense is crashing down on the same looks they watched all week in film study.

NDdomer2 · 2026-09-25T10:33:13-0400

I think the concern comes from the fact that we're not having great success against teams we know aren't the caliber of team we think we are and how that plays out against similar caliber teams come playoff time.

SWirishfan · 2026-09-25T11:34:16-0400

irishff1014 said:
Right.

At the same point you need to give these teams some other looks. Do an end around with one of the speed guys, show an all go route. Make these teams prepare. We do it on special teams.

The O, and thus the OC, needed some innovation this season to account for the drop off in RB talent. If the sum total of that innovation is motioning in the TE to sit behind the B-gap, then the OC is stupid.
Mike Denbrock has shown over many years that he is a great OC and not stupid. Therefore, some logical conclusions (none of which are mutually exclusive) are:
1. The team could beat the first half opponents with a vanilla game plan, and he is hiding better stuff for later
2. The OL and/or RB will get better with more game reps
3. The WRs are coming on and, for this year, we really are a pass first to set up the run team
4. He and CMF are working under the Kiffikin assumption that Love and JD are coming back for their unused years

Michael Fredrick Denbrock Hired as Offensive Coordinator (2023)

Well-known member

I've been around

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

24 Karat Shamrock

Well-known member

Well-known member

24 Karat Shamrock

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Last Seen: A moment ago

Minister of Delayed Gratification

Well-known member

KooL

Well-known member

Well-known member

Livin' Your Dream!

KooL

Livin' Your Dream!

Minister of Delayed Gratification

KooL

Local Sports vBookie

Last Seen: A moment ago