Michael Fredrick Denbrock Hired as Offensive Coordinator (2023)

[allenm5333]

He did develop him.

Daniels was nowhere close to being a top QB or Heisman winner when he left ASU

He was super young at Arizona State..

 

[Free Manera]

Michael my brother in Christ please do not call any more QB runs until CJ learns how to protect himself. He almost snapped his neck by lowering the crown into a LB's hip.

Instead, please consider giving the ball to one of the two NFL RBs on the roster who would like to play football also.

 

[NDRock]

Michael my brother in Christ please do not call any more QB runs until CJ learns how to protect himself. He almost snapped his neck by lowering the crown into a LB's hip.

Instead, please consider giving the ball to one of the two NFL RBs on the roster who would like to play football also.

Think it's pretty clear by his play calling of the QB runs, that he was on team Minchey. No way Carr makes it through unhurt running the RL package.

 

[Some Irish Bloke]

Team sucks all over the place. 2016 again.

As pissed off as I was the past couple of days, I think comparing this roster to 2016 is absurd. We lost on the road by 3 to a top 10 opponent. We spotted them 2.5 quarters and still had a chance to win that game.

Shit needs to get better for sure, particularly the play calling and LOS play on both sides, but to act like the season is over after playing lousy and barely losing in the 12 team CFP era is something else.

Beat Aggies.

 

[Some Irish Bloke]

Michael my brother in Christ please do not call any more QB runs until CJ learns how to protect himself. He almost snapped his neck by lowering the crown into a LB's hip.

Instead, please consider giving the ball to one of the two NFL RBs on the roster who would like to play football also.

11 carries for Carr. 10 for Love. 6 for Price.

I know some have corrected about the calls being RPOs vs. true screens, but if you have a young QB and its 2nd and 2, perhaps don't give him the "option" on a critical drive and just pound the rock with your stable of RBs. Just a thought. Or heaven forbid you take a shot to Greathouse, Fields or Raridon on 2nd and 2, though the OL wasn't playing very well so I at least get the hesitancy to throw downfield.

 

[ViewsFromTheDome]

11 carries for Carr. 10 for Love. 6 for Price.

I know some have corrected about the calls being RPOs vs. true screens, but if you have a young QB and its 2nd and 2, perhaps don't give him the "option" on a critical drive and just pound the rock with your stable of RBs. Just a thought. Or heaven forbid you take a shot to Greathouse, Fields or Raridon on 2nd and 2, though the OL wasn't playing very well so I at least get the hesitancy to throw downfield.

It appears the only RB runs in the entire playbook are draw plays

 

[Fbolt]

Denbrock will adjust

 

[RDU Irish]

Denbrock will adjust

To a new wardrobe bereft of ND gear hopefully.

 

[Fbolt]

Harsh

 

[IrishLax]

We had the #9 offense last year (advanced stats) and a top 5 scoring offense in raw stats (darn near #1 if adjusting for missed field goals)... all of this with pretty "meh" talent.

The only cause for concern is that Denbrock's best offenses at LSU and ND all heavily relied on the QB run game to open up everything else. And we had three quarters of nonsensical play calling before we hit a bit of a groove in the 4th quarter looking for explosive passing plays.

Bottom line -- if your QB isn't a dynamic run threat then you have to get the defense to back off and not crowd the box / attack the line of scrimmage. The only way to do that is to throw the ball down the sideline or between the hashes.

 

[Some Irish Bloke]

Bottom line -- if your QB isn't a dynamic run threat then you have to get the defense to back off and not crowd the box / attack the line of scrimmage. The only way to do that is to throw the ball down the sideline or between the hashes.

With how well Fields bounced back after that fumble, how good Raridon looked and how good we know Faison/Greathouse are in the slot, this really shouldn't be a major issue, honestly. Just upsetting we weren't able to do it Sunday PM.

 

[1219Booopa]

Hire the OC from PSU

 

[RDU Irish]

With how well Fields bounced back after that fumble, how good Raridon looked and how good we know Faison/Greathouse are in the slot, this really shouldn't be a major issue, honestly. Just upsetting we didn't even try to do it Sunday PM.

FIFY

Lax is dead on - get use to Carr getting more carries than the RBs.

 

[BeatSC]

11 carries for Carr. 10 for Love. 6 for Price.

I know some have corrected about the calls being RPOs vs. true screens, but if you have a young QB and its 2nd and 2, perhaps don't give him the "option" on a critical drive and just pound the rock with your stable of RBs. Just a thought. Or heaven forbid you take a shot to Greathouse, Fields or Raridon on 2nd and 2, though the OL wasn't playing very well so I at least get the hesitancy to throw downfield.

Exactly! They just got 8 yards easy up the middle but I would hate to build on that. Carr blew the read despite all his studying but Denbrock blew it by giving him the option. Love and Price have to be shaking their heads.

 

[BeatSC]

With how well Fields bounced back after that fumble, how good Raridon looked and how good we know Faison/Greathouse are in the slot, this really shouldn't be a major issue, honestly. Just upsetting we weren't able to do it Sunday PM.

Rairdon dropping three easy balls is not a good look. Could have been a breakout game for him and in some ways did well but can’t ignore 3 balls hitting you in the hands. Those three drops worse than the price fumble. Btw only reason we were inside the 5 was due to great bounce out for 30 yards from price and then he gets benched. Stupid imo.

 

[FightingIrishLover7]

Rairdon dropping three easy balls is not a good look. Could have been a breakout game for him and in some ways did well but can’t ignore 3 balls hitting you in the hands. Those three drops worse than the price fumble. Btw only reason we were inside the 5 was due to great bounce out for 30 yards from price and then he gets benched. Stupid imo.

Rairdon ran about 90% of the snaps. I'm guessing he was battling fatigue. Not giving him a pass, but something to think about given the extremely thin TE depth.

 

[BeatSC]

Michael my brother in Christ please do not call any more QB runs until CJ learns how to protect himself. He almost snapped his neck by lowering the crown into a LB's hip.

Instead, please consider giving the ball to one of the two NFL RBs on the roster who would like to play football also.

When I glanced at this thread I saw hire and thought for a second I saw FIRE and got a little excited. If he calls another Parker-Esqe game demote him for it. Fumbles get the bench but no fumble hurt us as much as his pathetic play calling at the expense of two all American level RBs just itching to touch the ball. He should apologize.

 

[MPClinton22]

Maybe we need Carr to switch numbers so Denbrock realizes it's not Riley Leonard out there anymore? Because rushing Carr more than Love is completely unjustifiable

 

[Some Irish Bloke]

Rairdon dropping three easy balls is not a good look. Could have been a breakout game for him and in some ways did well but can’t ignore 3 balls hitting you in the hands. Those three drops worse than the price fumble. Btw only reason we were inside the 5 was due to great bounce out for 30 yards from price and then he gets benched. Stupid imo.

Definitely a mixed bag for Raridon, especially on the easy catch and run on the RPO when he looked up field before securing the catch. That's week 1 garbage he and the staff will clean up.

But he made some big plays in the 4Q when we needed him and I don't think he has an overarching "hands" issue, at least not one we've ever heard of before. He should absolutely be a weapon up the seams and over the middle of the field that Denbrock should use to exploit teams selling out for the run.

 

[SportsingHard]

We had the #9 offense last year (advanced stats) and a top 5 scoring offense in raw stats (darn near #1 if adjusting for missed field goals)... all of this with pretty "meh" talent.

The only cause for concern is that Denbrock's best offenses at LSU and ND all heavily relied on the QB run game to open up everything else. And we had three quarters of nonsensical play calling before we hit a bit of a groove in the 4th quarter looking for explosive passing plays.

Bottom line -- if your QB isn't a dynamic run threat then you have to get the defense to back off and not crowd the box / attack the line of scrimmage. The only way to do that is to throw the ball down the sideline or between the hashes.

I like the statistical wake up call. I have zero doubt Denbrock can succeed with Carr at QB despite our offensive talent being overrated everywhere but QB/RB. I just hope he's done playing ultra-conservatively. We don't need that against A&M.

 

[Dale]

Too much pulling. Not enough zone or Duo.

1H was too experimental on both sides of the ball

 

[Dale]

 

[BabyIrish]

Based on that there were a total of 5 WR screens. 4 in the first half with three coming in the first drive. 1 in the second half. 2 of the 4 in the first half were successful. 1 went for no yardage. The other was the fumble by Fields. The screen in the second half was the INT which occurred in the fourth quarter, and a full quarter had progressed without calling a WR screen.

There were two TE middle screens in the second half. First fell for an incomplete pass but certainly was wide open if Carr was accurate. Second was successful.

To my very untrained mind, that does not seem like a lot of WR screens or at least is being made out to be.

 

[Old Man Mike]

We have many IE'rs who see two things in a row and can't get it out of their heads, multiplying stuff by thousands. Human, but unhelpful.

No reader should ever pay any attention to that unless it's accompanied by something sounding like someone actually studied the issue.

My guess is that lots of alcohol helps dull the analytical faculty should such a faculty exist.

 

[PutuporShutup]

For me it's the same old story. How many people here were extremely confident Miami would focus on defending the run and try to take away the short easy throws? Pretty much everyone. That's exactly what miami did and ND played right into it. The only screens successful were due to faison making a great play. If we went in with a game plan to run RPO with screens as the option, then you have to be prepared. Greathouse blocked terrible, and his effort blocking looked even worse. That can't happen if it's your initial game plan.

Why the screens are getting blown out of proportion is we turned it over on 2 of the 5 screen passes because we were poorly executing them. They are supposed to be safe plays to run. That's on the coaches first. The operation did not look coached well. Pretty much 4 of the 5 screen passes had significant execution issues. But we ran the screen 5 times.

I think Miami's secondary was still ripe for being exposed, and we didn't even try to despite them having one of the worst secondary's in all of college football last year (yes they made changes). ND had one of the best secondaries and miami challenged ours, but ND wouldn't challenge Miami's. Only explanation, is ND coaches knew our oline wasn't prepared or ready.

 

[NumbersGuy0520]

When almost your entire offense is predicated on runs, screens, and short throws, you have to operate with such high efficiency to convert into points because the expected yards per play will be small. You are trading upside and variance to mitigate risk.

This can work against inferior teams (where expected yards per play will be higher), but it’s not what we should have done in a matchup like Miami, where their pass coverage is theoretically exploitable. Especially if we believe CJ Carr is capable of making throws downfield.

That is my issue. Sure, roughly one screen out of every 4 pass attempts is high, but it’s not abysmal. But for whatever reason (lack of confidence in the OLine, lack of experience for CJ, etc), we decided to sign ourselves up for a game plan where we would need to execute every play with high efficiency, which took away a perceived advantage going into this game (a better downfield passing game than we’ve had in the past).

I’m of the mind that, for the better part of a decade now, we have been understandably risk averse when it comes to downfield passing, but we would have won this one if we had done it.

 

[Valpodoc85]

This maybe the MF meme lose a game early, a real head scratcher then pull things together. I'm really interested to see how it works out with A&M. Early on last year the OL was a mess. RL didn't have a passing TD for a number of games The D was nonexistent for the NIU game.
Hold on. Irish fans this is college football

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Denbrock has been coaching since the end of the Reagan administration and after one three point loss he's a one hit wonder Joe Jerkoff that can't walk and chew gum at the same time according to a few.

Desmond Ridder has made over $4M in the NFL, but yes, let's hear more from the people that can't find their own dicks with a map and an hour head start.

He's been there around this roster every single damn day since February. Highly likely he knows what they can and cannot do. Certainly looked like there were adjustments made, particularly in the fourth quarter. I get that losing the game was disappointing, but madon, after every loss the armchair stuffed animal parade thinks he's Bill Walsh.

 

[calvegas04]

Hire the OC from PSU

We Are

 

[Some Irish Bloke]

Denbrock has been coaching since the end of the Reagan administration and after one three point loss he's a one hit wonder Joe Jerkoff that can't walk and chew gum at the same time according to a few.

Desmond Ridder has made over $4M in the NFL, but yes, let's hear more from the people that can't find their own dicks with a map and an hour head start.

He's been there around this roster every single damn day since February. Highly likely he knows what they can and cannot do. Certainly looked like there were adjustments made, particularly in the fourth quarter. I get that losing the game was disappointing, but madon, after every loss the armchair stuffed animal parade thinks he's Bill Walsh.

I agree. I also think there's a big difference between holding a guy to a higher standard (because he's earned that reputation) and thinking he's no good because we lost by 3 on the road to a top 10 opponent.

I expected better from him, but the adjustments were good in the 4th quarter. Would like to see more steady usage of Love/Price and less designed QB runs. In key situations, he could've done better to protect his young QB from making a mental mistake (RPO on 2nd and 2 the glaring example) and just ride the wave of momentum with Love/Price, i.e. just hand the damn ball off there down one score.

I'm glad Denbrock is our guy. He's demonstrated many times that he's better than what showed on the field Sunday. On to the next one.