SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Mike Denbrock’s message to Riley Leonard on Saturday after the booing stopped, but not the outrage, was more big picture than X’s-and-O’s-oriented.
Specifically:
“I think No. 1 is Notre Dame is a tough place to be quarterback,” the ND offensive coordinator said Tuesday night after practice, roughly 72 hours removed from a stunning 16-14 Irish upset home loss to four-touchdown underdog Northern Illinois.
“And you're going to feel that here over the course of the next whenever — until we get this offense functioning at a much higher level. And he understands that. He's a mature guy. He understands what he's tasked with.”
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And Denbrock, in turn, in his third tour of duty with the Irish football program understands he’s living a parallel existence when it comes to having his potential, his thought process and his expertise questioned.
A year after presiding over the nation’s No. 1 offense in points per game (45.5) and yards per game (543.5), at LSU — which now, incidentally, is No. 66 in both categories after opening with USC and FCS school Nicholls State.
The AP 18th-ranked Irish check in at 104th and 110th, respectively, this week heading into Saturday’s rivalry renewal with Purdue (1-0) at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Ind. (3:30 p.m. EDT; CBS-TV).
“I also think it's important for me to always evaluate and recognize what I can do to help him more,” Denbrock said of the senior and Duke transfer. “I’ve got to help him more. And whatever that looks like and whatever that ends up being, you'll see a little bit of that on Saturday.
“But the fact of the matter is, he's got to be comfortable playing quarterback within this system and the things that we're asking him to do. And that falls on me to make sure that I get that right.”
On Tuesday, it wasn’t just Leonard’s functionality that was called into question, but his health. And Leonard was very slow to get up late in the first half Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium after NIU defensive tackle Devonte O’Malley grabbed Leonard’s jersey near his left shoulder and flung him hard to the ground.
Leonard threw the ball out of bounds slightly backward but laterally, for what was ruled a fumble, before he hit the turf, with his left arm tucked under his body. The reports, which Notre Dame did not confirm, of a weekend MRI and a labrum injury to Leonard’s left (non-throwing shoulder) aren’t in question.
It’s his Saturday availability that is.
And an ND source was adamant to Inside ND Sports that Leonard was full-go for practice and would play against the Boilermakers on Saturday. At least one media outlet, citing sources, reported the opposite to be true.
The Irish media relations department started a new injury policy this season in which they provide the media with a game-availability rundown on Monday and then an updated version an hour before kickoff on Saturday. Leonard was not on the Monday list of players out for the game or even listed as questionable, and he was listed as No. 1 on the depth chart.
The policy also means coaches won’t answer injury questions during the week in press conferences, though ND head coach Marcus Freeman has brought up some injury updates on his own.
However, Denbrock was posed Tuesday a question about Leonard that presumed the injury and went as follows: If he can't be the runner that we all know that he is, what are some of the things that you do to compensate?
To which Denbrock responded: “I guess my answer to that question would be, ‘I have no indication right now that he can't be the runner we need him to be.’”
But how soon will Leonard be the quarterback the Irish need him to be and thought he would become?
Two ankle surgeries, one in January and a clean-up in March caused Leonard to miss almost all of spring practice. He was fine by the summer, but he missed valuable time in terms of learning a new offense, new teammates and a new way of operating in a game in which he needed to lean into his somewhat untapped passing skills more.
Was it a calculated risk with the missed time of how quickly Leonard could get comfortable in the offense this season?
“Yeah,” Denbrock acknowledged. “Listen, nobody wants to hear from me that we're really just two games into this, because the results Saturday — we all know — were absolutely unacceptable on every level. But the reality is, when you look at it, it sounds like an excuse. That's why I hate to even bring it up.
“But it's not an excuse that he's two games into what we're asking him to do, and he learns every single snap that he's out there, good and bad. And, hopefully, that process, I can help speed that process up by some of the ways that I structure things, so that they are hitting his mind and his skill level the right way.”
Leonard has played every one of Notre Dame’s 129 offensive snaps to date. The 6-foot-4, 216-pound Fairhope, Ala., product has completed 38 of 62 passes for 321 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions. He has run the ball 23 times for 79 yards and a TD.
"I've been seeing people in the media talking bad and all that,” ND running back Jeremiyah Love offered on Tuesday night. “I think he's a great quarterback. Everybody has bad games. I've had bad games before. Shoot, Riley came out today and practiced hard. Nothing's changed."
But the bottom line must start to change, and both Leonard and Denbrock know full well. They also knew the offense wouldn’t be a finished product in the opening weeks of the season, but how soon will it start tangibly moving in that direction?
“It looks like a long and dusty trail right now, doesn’t it?” Denbrock said. “No, I mean, listen, there's signs. There's just such incredible inconsistency across the board. One play, it's a running back. One play, it's an O-lineman. One play, it's a receiver. One play, we're not making the best decision with the ball.
“Whatever happens, I mean we're all taking turns. And we've got to get to the point where — one by one, position group by position group — we eliminate ourselves from that equation. Then comes consistency. Where does that happen? It happens right out there [nodding toward the practice field].
“And the more consistent we show ourselves in practice and the reps that we're taking and the things we're asking them to do, confidence builds. And you carry that to the game.
“I didn't think we were a very confident group, for whatever reason, going into the game on Saturday. And it showed in the way we played. The mistakes that we made on the practice field during the week reared their ugly head during the game on Saturday, and it cost us.”
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