Yes, Brian Kelly will call the plays next season.
But that takes nothing away from the responsibilities Mike Denbrock now has. After Chuck Martin took the head coaching job at Miami (Ohio), Kelly turned the keys to the offensive meeting room over to his most trusted advisor, with the clear objective of making the offense better.
Wednesday, Denbrock gave his first progress report, meeting with the local media to discuss the offense’s progress, life with Everett Golson back at quarterback and a depth chart full of talent but not so much experience.
“It’s awful good to be on the practice field. I really like the attention to detail that the guys are trying to go about,” Denbrock said. “We’re nowhere near where we’re going to be or where we’re going, but the work ethic, caring, their willingness, all those things that you like to see when you’re trying to incorporate some changes to the offense... all those things are in place for us to continue to improve offensively. I like the way they’re going about their business every day.”
The biggest piece in place is at quarterback. For the first time in Kelly’s tenure at Notre Dame, he’ll have a depth chart that fits one game plan. No longer are quarterbacks like Dayne Crist, Tommy Rees and Andrew Hendrix square pegs in mostly round holes. Even the attrition of Gunner Kiel helps streamline a skill set that now exists in Golson, rising sophomore Malik Zaire and soon-to-be freshman DeShone Kizer.
Denbrock talked about what having continuity at quarterback does for this offense, essentially opening up a playbook with built in zone read principles thanks to a mobile quarterback.
Here’s a fairly long snippet from Denbrock that helps explain why the ground game should immediately improve:“Having the versatility we do at the quarterback position opens up a whole assortment of nuances and subtleties to some of the schemes that we were already running,” Denbrock explained. “Putting defenses in a position that if they do want to put an extra defender in the box you can account for him with the quarterback running the football.
“The blocking for the offensive line is very similar to some plays that we ran a year ago, although you add into it a read off of the extra defender in the box by the quarterback and give it or keep it and those types of things... Just the opportunity to get the quarterbacks with their athletic ability out in space and the defense a little bit more than we had are really the things that we’re kind of exploring and looking at and continue to tweak.”
Another factor that will open up the running game is the diversity of the three running backs competing for the starting job. Unlike George Atkinson, who struggled with certain facets of this offense, Cam McDaniel, Tarean Folston and Greg Bryant all seem comfortable as both a runner and receiver.
That allows the Irish not to tailor snaps for their running backs’ skill set, taking away from the sometimes predictable playcalling that came with a running back’s inclusion and personnel grouping.
“I love the versatility of those three guys in particular because I think we don’t have to be, if you will, predictable with who’s in the game and what type of scheme we’re playing,” Denbrock said. “I think we can branch out and do a number of things with those types of guys.”
That happened far too often over the last few years, whether it was Atkinson’s inclusion in the backfield, Theo Riddick used for passing plays or Daniel Smith split out as a glorified blocker. If that’s the biggest thing Denbrock changes it’ll be of help to the offense, and it seems to already be in progress.
We’ve seen in UND.com’s practice reports the usage of Greg Bryant split out wide. Both Folston and McDaniel have also made contributions in the spring passing game and Amir Carlisle’s cross-training ability signifies an added emphasis on including running backs in the passing game.
“You can put those guys in different situations and not pigeon hole them necessarily into, ‘you’re an outside runner, you’re an inside runner,’” Denbrock said. “Those guys can take all the reps at all the different things and you can let them sort it out themselves, which is always a good thing.”
While many wondered if Kelly was going to make a flashy hire at offensive coordinator, ultimately Denbrock’s hiring might be the best thing to happen to the Irish offense. It’s allowed Kelly to keep the identity of his offense to his liking, especially now that the personnel matches his intent.
But Denbrock’s promotion still allowed Kelly to reach outside the program for a quarterback specific coach, with Matt LaFleur coming from the NFL to teach the position. And it’s taken a valued teacher who has coached just about every position group on the offensive side of the ball and plugged him into the decision making process.
Denbrock understands that while the plays will be dictated by Kelly, his stamp will still be all over this offensive identity.
“It’s absolutely driven by coach Kelly as the leader of the offensive unit,” Denbrock said. “He’s the guy who’s obviously going to be calling the plays, so he’s going to have the most influence on what we’re doing. But there’s not a time or a situation where the offensive staff isn’t involved in decision making processes and I think we all bring something different to the table.
“We’ve always had the ability as a staff and we’ve always had the team’s best interests at heart and we’ve always had an opportunity to kind of voice our concerns and change in some instances and stay the same in some instances too. Those decisions obviously get made by coach Kelly primarily but myself as well.”