The coordinator behind the best offense in the country this season will reportedly take over Notre Dame’s offense in 2024. Multiple reports Friday morning indicate Mike Denbrock will return to South Bend, leaving LSU after two seasons there under Brian Kelly.
Inside ND Sports’s Eric Hansen first reported the hiring of Denbrock.
Denbrock will replace Gerad Parker, named Troy’s new head coach this week after one season as the Irish offensive coordinator.
Denbrock previously coached at Notre Dame twice before, a position coach from 2002 to 2004 focused on the outsides of the offensive line under Tyrone Willingham and then in a number of offensive roles under Brian Kelly from 2010 to 2016, including as offensive coordinator from 2014 to 2016.
Denbrock had success in South Bend, but the 4-8 debacle in 2016 led to nearly all of Kelly’s staff being dismissed or re-homed, Denbrock landing at Cincinnati as the offensive coordinator.
The success that he then enjoyed at both Cincinnati and LSU burgeoned Denbrock’s résumé to the extent that Notre Dame saw fit to poach him only weeks after he was offered a new contract with the Tigers.
For five years in Cincinnati, Denbrock developed quarterback Desmond Ridder, a former two-star recruit who became a College Football Playoff starter and a third-round NFL draft pick. In the last two years in Baton Rouge, Denbrock worked with Arizona State transfer quarterback Jayden Daniels, turning a dual-threat quarterback who sparked his teammates to celebrate when he left the Sun Devils into a Heisman Trophy winner with the Tigers.
Assuredly, Denbrock owes some appreciation to Ridder and Daniels for his success, but he also made the most of their abilities. LSU averaged 547.8 yards and 46.4 points per game this season, both leading the country.
Denbrock’s time at Cincinnati coincided with Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman’s career-making stretch as defensive coordinator, overlapping for four years before Freeman joined Kelly’s final staff in South Bend. To a notable degree, Freeman has reassembled that Bearcats offensive staff, with then-quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli also in that role at Notre Dame and newly-hired Irish receivers coach Mike Brown in that same role from 2019 to 2022 at Cincinnati.
Freeman is betting on his own past and on Luke Fickell’s coaching tree, but consider that 2021 Cincinnati offense, the one that reached the Playoff, ranked No. 11 in the country with 36.9 points per game and No. 14 in passer rating.
That kind of emphasis matches what the Irish have done in the transfer portal this winter, bringing in receivers Beaux Collins and Kris Mitchell from Clemson and Florida International, respectively, as well as dual-threat quarterback Riley Leonard from Duke.
