Michael Fredrick Denbrock Hired as Offensive Coordinator (2023)

[Irish#1]

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'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.

I think a contributing factor to "The Sky is falling" reactions is the fact that we convinced ourselves that Miami wasn't that good and probably not worthy of a Top 10 ranking. Beck is garbage, defense has a bunch of transfers, can't gel that quickly, etc.. I have no clue how good Miami will be at the end of the year, but they certainly played like a top team Sunday.

 

[GreenGemsOmally]

I think a contributing factor to "The Sky is falling" reactions is the fact that we convinced ourselves that Miami wasn't that good and probably not worthy of a Top 10 ranking. Beck is garbage, defense has a bunch of transfers, can't gel that quickly, etc.. I have no clue how good Miami will be at the end of the year, but they certainly played like a top team Sunday.

Yeah, they played really well like a team that went 9-0 before losing to a spooky GT team (same GT team that should have beaten Georgia, one of our best wins last year), a weird loss to Syracuse (who was also a 10 win team) when they thought they were shoe-ins to the playoff, and then their QB quitting vs Iowa State.

Miami was a LOT better than we gave them credit for and that's on us for overlooking them just because Cam Ward left and thinking the team would just steamroll.

 

[Some Irish Bloke]

I think a contributing factor to "The Sky is falling" reactions is the fact that we convinced ourselves that Miami wasn't that good and probably not worthy of a Top 10 ranking. Beck is garbage, defense has a bunch of transfers, can't gel that quickly, etc.. I have no clue how good Miami will be at the end of the year, but they certainly played like a top team Sunday.

I definitely agree. Told several people "I'm nervous how confident I am about this game" on Sunday afternoon, if that makes sense but I think it does to most posters. On paper, we seemed to have the more stable roster situation, but that's why you play the games. We were a little conservative to start the game and took a while to get points offensively, coupled with a clunky start defensively.

By the time we had all cylinders firing, it was too little too late.

Beat A&M and I'm sure most of us will feel very good about this team and our playoff hopes this year. We missed an opportunity but it's time to move on. It's that simple. Just unfortunate there's a bye week which means most will dwell on this even longer.

 

[BleedBlueGold]

If ND played their aggressive style on D and didn't abandon Love/Price, I put odds on ND winning at almost 100%. Credit to Miami for playing better, but it took +2 TO, a miracle catch for a TD, and an average kicker making two clutch FGs to beat ND, who clearly didn't play well and who's coaches, for whatever reason, called conservative games on both sides. I will not be convinced otherwise.

Edit: Sorry, I thought this was the Miami thread.

 

[NumbersGuy0520]

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.

This - one thousand times this.

People acting like he’s bad at his job have lost it. Denbrock has been around the block long enough and has a large enough sample size of success.

At the same time, it is more than fair to be critical. Even the most experienced coaches will mess up on occasion, and we lost what was a very winnable game. To just immediately assume that he called a good game, almost by definition due to his tenure and experience, would be fallacious.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Did the game plan hurt them a bit on Sunday? Yes.

I think it was probably a bit too conservative early on and it cost them. Didn't really know what to expect from Miami, but you have to take some shots and be brave regardless. Not like Miami knew what to expect from ND either.

I like Denbrock. I think he's great and I'm happy to have him. Easy to start projecting onto coordinators after a disappointing loss. Just remember, when Parker left and Denbrock came in, it was and still is a really really good thing.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Hire the OC from PSU

ND beat the OC at PSU with Denbrock as OC 8 months ago.

 

[BeatSC]

Don’t think many of us critics are in an island and just pissed because we lost. The general college football pundits are winding wtf when you waste a resource like love and price in favor of the failing quick pass behind the line of scrimmage game. Riley Leonard is showing why he should have been given a chance to air it out more often as well. Second half of Ohio State game proved that plus a 15/20 preseason game. Denbrock ain’t going anywhere for now but he better show us something better against A&M.

 

[FDNYIrish1]

ND beat the OC at PSU with Denbrock as OC 8 months ago.

The guy who called a game without a WR completion lol. Season brings out all the nut jobs

 

[BabyIrish]

I agree that Denbrock wasn’t perfect or was his best work. I’m just not understanding some of the arguments. If 7 of the passses were screens, that leaves 23 additional passses that in theory would have went down field to stretch the defense. So 23% of the calls were short passes, the rest of the 77% were intermediate or deep shots. I’m just not sure what he’s supposed to do to change it up to make people happy.

I definitely agree that having Greathouse block for Faison seemed to be a poor decision. It never was executed at a high level.

 

[Dale]

I agree that Denbrock wasn’t perfect or was his best work. I’m just not understanding some of the arguments. If 7 of the passses were screens, that leaves 23 additional passses that in theory would have went down field to stretch the defense. So 23% of the calls were short passes, the rest of the 77% were intermediate or deep shots. I’m just not sure what he’s supposed to do to change it up to make people happy.

I definitely agree that having Greathouse block for Faison seemed to be a poor decision. It never was executed at a high level.

- 11/32 attempts were screens which is 31%.

- 69% were between 0 - 10 yards.

- Carr completed both of his deep passes, both in the 2H. 4/6 on throws over 10 yards with 0 turnover worthy throws.

That is all to say, we could have thrown down field more, the only possible justification is not having the protection to do so.

 

[NumbersGuy0520]

I agree that Denbrock wasn’t perfect or was his best work. I’m just not understanding some of the arguments. If 7 of the passses were screens, that leaves 23 additional passses that in theory would have went down field to stretch the defense. So 23% of the calls were short passes, the rest of the 77% were intermediate or deep shots. I’m just not sure what he’s supposed to do to change it up to make people happy.

I definitely agree that having Greathouse block for Faison seemed to be a poor decision. It never was executed at a high level.

Just adding context on the remaining 77%. 22 of CJ Carr’s 30 pass attempts were within 10 yards or less of the LoS. So I wouldn’t call the non-screens “intermediate or deep shots.” Screens aside, it was a primarily short passing attack.

Edit: Dale beat me to the punch.

 

[FWIrish4]

- 11/32 attempts were screens which is 31%.

- 69% were between 0 - 10 yards.

- Carr completed both of his deep passes, both in the 2H. 4/6 on throws over 10 yards with 0 turnover worthy throws.

That is all to say, we could have thrown down field more, the only possible justification is not having the protection to do so.

Maybe helping the tackles with a chip from the TE or RB periodically is a good idea. Pretty much left those guys on an island unfortunately.

 

[Notre Dame Joe]

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.

I thought our one completion on the last drive was also a screen or at least a very short pass with some blocking. Which is a bad play call in that situation.

 

[BabyIrish]

I thought our one completion on the last drive was also a screen or at least a very short pass with some blocking. Which is a bad play call in that situation.

It was one of two te screens thrown in the second half which I accounted for.

 

[BabyIrish]

- 11/32 attempts were screens which is 31%.

- 69% were between 0 - 10 yards.

- Carr completed both of his deep passes, both in the 2H. 4/6 on throws over 10 yards with 0 turnover worthy throws.

That is all to say, we could have thrown down field more, the only possible justification is not having the protection to do so.

I went back and still only saw 7 myself. But I’m no expert (and I genuinely mean that).

But we’re all the routes by every receiver on those short throws that were non screens all short routes within 10 yards of the line scrimmage? I’m not trying to be an ass I’m generally curious. Because if other receivers ran longer/deeper routes, then was that Denbrocks fault that carr choose to check it down often? Was Carr gun shy himself? Did he have the time to throw downfield?

That’s why, while I understand some of the criticism at Denbrock, I just thought it’d be good to dive deeper into the facts. Maybe they tell a different story than the group think of “Denbrock sucks, he should have been left on the tarmac in Miami”

 

[Free Manera]

I went back and still only saw 7 myself. But I’m no expert (and I genuinely mean that).

But we’re all the routes by every receiver on those short throws that were non screens all short routes within 10 yards of the line scrimmage? I’m not trying to be an ass I’m generally curious. Because if other receivers ran longer/deeper routes, then was that Denbrocks fault that carr choose to check it down often? Was Carr gun shy himself? Did he have the time to throw downfield?

That’s why, while I understand some of the criticism at Denbrock, I just thought it’d be good to dive deeper into the facts. Maybe they tell a different story than the group think of “Denbrock sucks, he should have been left on the tarmac in Miami”

Jamie U. noted 11 so that seems like the number.

Agree I don’t think we can always know where the primary target was without knowing the play calls. But you can tell that on a lot of the short, non-screen throws they were not checkdowns; they were more like timing plays. You can usually see a QB work through progressions horizontally or vertically if that’s what’s happening.

This is the issue I had with the playcalling though - intent. Miami was trying to take away the run (they weren’t actually taking it away though! Look at Price’s drive). Just hand it to your back even if it’s not a great look because sometimes you just have to run the ball.

Same thing with shot plays, I thought it had to be more deliberate. With the headset communication now coaches can just say something like “if it’s man take a shot to Fields” or whatever.

 

[Bane]

I think a contributing factor to "The Sky is falling" reactions is the fact that we convinced ourselves that Miami wasn't that good and probably not worthy of a Top 10 ranking. Beck is garbage, defense has a bunch of transfers, can't gel that quickly, etc.. I have no clue how good Miami will be at the end of the year, but they certainly played like a top team Sunday.

I'm still uncertain on Miami. Beck is still Beck, he threw a couple of very risky balls and got lucky. He'll throw his fair share of picks. Even if Miami doesn't pan out to be a top 10 team, this loss is still not the end of the world.

 

[Free Manera]

I'm still uncertain on Miami. Beck is still Beck, he threw a couple of very risky balls and got lucky. He'll throw his fair share of picks. Even if Miami doesn't pan out to be a top 10 team, this loss is still not the end of the world.

For sure. The first two TDs both could have been picked which obviously flips the game. Both were bad, off platform throws. The WR bailed him out on the first one by doing an awesome job flattening out and getting in front of the CB at the last second. And then the Shuler one was begging to be picked. A floating duck to the deep middle. He was not nearly as good as I thought on rewatch, it just turns out their WRs were vastly underrated.

 

[Dale]

If Cristobal wasn’t the coach I would bet Miami to win the title right now

 

[stlnd01]

Time will tell but Miami appeared to be very good on both lines. I don't think Beck is some world-beater but he is a solid and experienced college quarterback. Good enough, anyway. A week ago we were all saying all their WR and DB transfers will need time to gel, that's probably still true.
If that all holds they seem like a team that could very much compete for the ACC title and win a playoff spot.

 

[NDPhilly]

Miami v UF is going to be a very good game, look like Miami is a 3pt favorite as of now.

I’m still in tbd mode on FSU. I don’t trust Castellanos and their talent is a step down from UF / Miami.

 

[Dale]

Miami v UF is going to be a very good game, look like Miami is a 3pt favorite as of now.

I’m still in tbd mode on FSU. I don’t trust Castellanos and their talent is a step down from UF / Miami.

I’m less impressed every day with the FSU win. Alabama loss more than FSU win. So many clips of low effort. Bad stuff out of locker room. They’ve shown like 5 times now they just can’t or maybe the players don’t want to prep for option offenses. Fuck they might lose to Navy if they played them. Ty Simpson also passed over how many times for starter for a reason. Would be surprised if he’s the Week 14 starter.

 

[FightingIrishLover7]

If Cristobal wasn’t the coach I would bet Miami to win the title right now

I hear what you're saying - but also, I think he might be actually turning a corner now. Especially with a better DC.

 

[Dale]

I hear what you're saying - but also, I think he might be actually turning a corner now. Especially with a better DC.

It tends to be in smaller you would never expect it ACC games where he strikes. Even against us there were a few moments where I was like huh. Timeout usage stuff in the 1H. 4Q offensive approach.

 

[FightingIrishLover7]

It tends to be in smaller you would never expect it ACC games where he strikes. Even against us there were a few moments where I was like huh. Timeout usage stuff in the 1H. 4Q offensive approach.

I totally get it. He's been suspect. Inconsistent as all get out. But, I think he may be taking the proper turn and the culture is getting better too (relative to them).

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Miami doesn't leave the state of Florida until November 1st when they play at SMU.

Their four road games are FSU, SMU, Virginia Tech and Pitt.

 

[2013Irish]

Miami doesn't leave the state of Florida until November 1st when they play at SMU.

Their four road games are FSU, SMU, Virginia Tech and Pitt.

They're going to lose to VT or Pitt. Florida teams going up north for cold weather football rarely goes well.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

They're going to lose to VT or Pitt. Florida teams going up north for cold weather football rarely goes well.

Define cold weather. They're in Coral Gables, FL. Anything below 50 could be considered "cold" to them. Below 40, that's catastrophic.

I recall them losing bowl games that were cold, most notably the Sun Bowl vs ND. They didn't do well at Soldier Field a few years ago vs ND either.

I doubt they'd stand a chance in an on campus playoff that was as cold as ND vs IU last year, I'll give you that.

I'd be curious to see what their record is when they play in under 40 degree weather.

 

[Bane]

Miami v UF is going to be a very good game, look like Miami is a 3pt favorite as of now.

I’m still in tbd mode on FSU. I don’t trust Castellanos and their talent is a step down from UF / Miami.

I also don't trust Castellanos to make it through the entire season playing like he does with his build.