SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Even with a three-man quarterback competition at the heart of spring practices for Notre Dame football, Mike Denbrock expects an evolution in the Irish offense. That’s because in his second year in this stint as Notre Dame’s offensive coordinator, Denbrock can focus on more than just getting a new offense to be functional.
“I would describe year one as finding out who you can be, teaching scheme, trying to get your place offensively to being competitive in all aspects, so that you can win some football games,” Denbrock said Friday after the team’s fifth spring practice. “What gets lost sometimes is enough valuable time to teach and dig into really the detail of everything that you’re doing. Year two offers you an opportunity to really dig down and drill down on specific details of everything.”
Notre Dame’s runner-up finish in the College Football Playoff last year wouldn’t have been possible without an opportunistic offense that finished the season 10th in scoring average with 36.1 points per game. But the Irish have plenty of room for improvement on an offense that finished No. 55 in the FBS in yards per game (399.1) and No. 101 in passing yards per game (198.1)
“If you look at the way we played a year ago, details are missing all over the tape. If we just fix that, the leap that we could make offensively is pretty good," Denbrock said. "That’s without adapting scheme and changing this and changing that. That alone, being on top of our business at all positions and understanding the game better, understanding the scheme better, that starts with the quarterback position, because we put so much on that guy. But that’s everybody.”
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Clarity at the quarterback position is going to require patience as Steve Angeli, Kenny Minchey and CJ Carr show their potential.
“At this point I would tell you it’s going to be incredibly difficult, because all three of the guys are playing very consistently,” Denbrock said. “They’re making good decisions with the ball. They’ve got a good understanding of our offense, which is obviously a benefit again from what we just discussed as far as going into year two and having a full year under their belt. It’s gonna come down to probably some very specific things in the end. We’ll evaluate those things as we go. But all three guys to this point in spring have done a really, really nice job.”
How different will Notre Dame’s offense look without quarterback Riley Leonard? In some ways, it may look very different. There’s likely no way any of those three quarterbacks could rush for 906 yards and 17 touchdowns like Leonard did last season. But there may be things those quarterbacks can do better as throwers, too.
“From a passing game standpoint it will look pretty similar in a lot of ways,” Denbrock said. “Obviously, there’s always little changes here and there. But where it’s gonna probably look the most different is in the run game where we’re going to have to not be as quarterback heavy as a run team.
“How do you make up those yards? What do you do? Do you get into running some direct snap things? Do you get into using motion as a weapon a little bit more? How do you account for them screwing an extra guy down in the box? You hope you do that by having some dynamic players on the perimeter, so when you do that we’re gonna sting your butt.
“It’s a balancing act. We’ll get the run game situated around whoever ends up winning the job. But when the decision gets made, that’s how that will kinda fit together.”
That’s not to be totally dismissive of Angeli, Minchey and Carr as runners. But it’s hard to imagine them being counted on consistently to convert short-yardage situations with their legs or break long runs like a running back.
“Riley was dynamic at what we asked him to do with some of those things,” Denbrock said. “I don’t know that any of those three guys couldn’t do those things at times. I don’t think it’ll be as big of a piece of what we were. They’re not guys that can’t make a couple plays with their feet or move in the pocket and do some things.
"I don’t think we’ll completely go away from some of that stuff. But it won’t be as featured quite as much, because he was just so dynamic doing it.”
Improving at wide receiver
For a second consecutive season, tight end Mitchell Evans finished as Notre Dame’s leader in receptions. He caught 29 passes in eight games to lead the Irish in 2023. He tallied 43 receptions in 16 games last season.
Even with the long playoff run, only two wide receivers finished with more than 30 receptions: Jaden Greathouse (42) and Beaux Collins (41). Averaging fewer than three receptions per game shouldn’t be the peak of the position for a team. Denbrock was particularly bothered by the number of drops the Irish had.
According to Pro Football Focus data, nine Notre Dame wide receivers combined to drop 18 passes on 261 targets (6.9%). That’s double the rate of Ohio State — 11 drops on 319 targets (3.4%) — which had arguably the best group of receivers in the country. Notre Dame’s quarterback competition shouldn’t prevent the wide receivers from making strides in their own games.
“We dropped the football way too much last year,” Denbrock said. “We gotta make the plays. I don’t know if you’d call them ordinary plays, but we need to make the plays — the ones that are 100 out of 100, we gotta be 100 out of 100. That comes with consistency in depth, consistency in route running.
“For a receiver, to be honest with you, it really shouldn’t matter who the quarterback is. I need to understand space and spacing and depth and specifics of techniques of route running. Going into year two, I know [wide receivers] Coach [Mike] Brown’s had a great opportunity to really have a whole year with these guys now. You can see that starting to come along. I like the depth we have there. We gotta get some guys to emerge and play more consistently.”
How can the receivers eliminate those drops?
“More than anything it’s just confidence and consistency in what you’re doing,” Denbrock said. “We were not very confident in anything we did in the passing game a year ago. That I think you’ll see take a huge leap into year two. I think that will come from a number of positions not just the wide receivers. It comes down to focus and concentration as much as anything.”
Six of the 10 scholarship receivers on Notre Dame’s roster this spring haven’t played more than a season with the Irish: sophomores-to-be Micah Gilbert, Logan Saldate and Cam Williams and early enrolled freshmen Elijah Burress, Jerome Bettis Jr. and Scrap Richardson. Even junior-to-be KK Smith has only seven game appearances and three career catches.
Denbrock sees that group stepping forward early this spring.
“I’m not ready to single anybody out,” Denbrock said. “I just like the direction of the entire group. They just seem like their understanding of what we’re asking them to do is at a whole ‘nother level than it was a year ago.
"It kinda gets back to the same discussion we started with. The details are so important in everything that we do. The things that they’re doing and showing on the practice field now are way more detail-oriented than they were at any time last year, even at the end of the season. We’ve been able to make some progress just because of them understanding what to do better.”
Time for Eli Raridon to elevate
Nearly half of Eli Raridon’s 11 receptions last season came in the five-game stretch to end his junior year. The 6-foot-7, 251-pound tight end caught five passes for 40 yards and one touchdown in those final five games. His other six catches for 50 yards and one touchdown came in the first seven games of the season but only after going catchless in the first two games.
Even though Raridon, who has twice needed surgery to repair a torn ACL in his right knee, finished the 2023 season healthy, Denbrock sensed it took Raridon a few games into last season to start feeling himself and getting better.
Raridon is already entering his final season of expected NCAA eligibility, because he played in five games before his season-ending knee injury as a freshman. That means he’s running out of time to tap into the potential many saw in him as a recruit out of West Des Moines (Iowa) Valley. Rivals ranked him as the No. 5 tight end and No. 198 overall in the 2022 class.
But a big season for Raridon could be coming.
“Eli’s got a chance to become one of the really good ones here,” Denbrock said. “Incredible size, good movement skills, toughness. I really like where he’s heading as a player. It’s been nice, because him now getting through the season mostly healthy last year kinda helped him build confidence that, ‘Hey, I’m OK to do this again.’ And do it at a high level. He’s just gonna continue to climb.”
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