The Notre Dame football team is a team with a lot of new faces, and they are just nine days away from opening their season.
First, they have new quarterback Riley Leonard, a transfer from Duke University, and new offensive coordinator, former Louisiana State coach Mike Denbrock.
But Denbrock is far from just a familiar face when it comes to this team and head coach Marcus Freeman.
This will be Denbrock's third stint at Notre Dame, his first coming in 2002 as the offensive line/tight ends coach after two seasons there.
After a five-year absence, he returned to Notre Dame and played seven more seasons there before taking over as offensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bearcats in 2017.
Marcus Freeman and Mike Denbrock served as offensive and defensive coaches, respectively, for four seasons at Cincinnati.
Denbrock returns to the Louisiana State University Tigers after coaching their number one scoring offense last season.
That Tigers team was led by Heisman Trophy winner and No. 2 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft Jayden Daniels.
Denbrock said he sees some similarities between Daniels and current quarterback Riley Leonard.
He also said that while this team still shows a lot of different moving parts, the offense has shown a lot of potential.
“There's a lot of areas that we're growing in and areas that we're still improving in. You know what I mean. I wouldn't say we're a finished product in any way, shape or form, but what I'm most proud of about this team is they're starting to have higher expectations of themselves. They almost demand expectations of each other. We've got some pieces where our mentality on offense has really taken a leap. We've got some guys up front, some guys on the perimeter, some guys throwing passes, some guys catching passes, and we're just going to get better and better. The quicker we can speed up that process, the better.”
Notre Dame opens the season on the road against the Texas A&M Aggies on August 31.
