Mike Denbrock Says Notre Dame Offense Still Evolving Ahead of Wisconsin

Notre Dame’s offense came out of fall camp with a clearer read on itself than it had a year ago. Even still, Mike Denbrock is not promising it will look finished when the Irish open against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field next weekend. Camp answered some questions and left others for the week ahead.

Asked at his post-camp media availability whether he feels confident in what the offense does well and can build around at this point, Denbrock started with progression.

“Yeah, I mean, we’re getting there,” he said. “You know, I mean, camp is over, but, you know, preparation and development is ongoing, right? And that’s something that we’ve kind of talked about in a unit meeting offensively yesterday as far as, you know, it’s important every day to keep the main thing the main thing, and that’s get better.”

On the week that separates camp work from Wisconsin prep, Denbrock addressed where that leaves the unit on Sept. 6.

“So, there’s a whole lot of things we can still be a lot better at, that we’re going to focus on here over the course of the next week and then get a little bit more into game prep as we go,” he said. “But, you know, we’re not going to be a finished product week one. This is going to be an evolution of who we become over the course of the year.”

What that evolution builds from is something Denbrock did not have last August.

“But I think obviously we’ve got a little bit better idea than we did going into last year about what our strengths are and how to really take advantage of those things,” Denbrock said.

A Clearer Picture of the Offense

Denbrock did not say which strengths he meant. There is a strong case that the answer is the quarterback, and that it points somewhere his Notre Dame offenses have not gone yet.

His first two years back in South Bend produced run-heavy offenses, and in both cases the personnel dictated it. Riley Leonard was a dual-threat quarterback in 2024, and the Irish leaned on his legs alongside Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price all the way to the national championship game. In 2025, with CJ Carr a redshirt freshman, the offense leaned on Love and Price even harder. Carr still threw for 2,741 yards and 24 touchdowns against six interceptions, completing 195 of 293 attempts.

The resume he brings into 2026 is a different one. Carr is an established starter, and the two backs who absorbed the workload around him are gone. If Denbrock has a better idea of his strengths than he did a year ago, the most obvious one is under center – and taking advantage of it means throwing it more than this offense has under him.

Sorting Out the Receiver Rotation

The receiver rotation is the part still being sorted. Denbrock was asked which of the younger players outside the first group have impressed him and declined to name anyone.

“Yeah, it’s been a little bit of a this guy this day, that guy that day,” he said. “I like that we’re developing some really nice depth there and some really quality go-to pieces when they’re called upon. So, you know, there’s a good collection of a number of guys. I’d hate to just point out one or two guys, to be honest with you, because I really like what that room is doing.”

Notre Dame is replacing both backs from those offenses, and Marcus Freeman recently said the room has five players who could conceivably play. Denbrock did not push back on that.

“Aneyas I think is the leader from, you know, a standpoint of having experience and played in big games and kind of understands what it looks like,” Denbrock said of Aneyas Williams.

The movement behind Williams came late in camp. “Kedren Young has really come on in the last week as well,” Denbrock said. On Nolan James Jr.: “Nolan James has looked incredible during camp, and all those guys can get out and play out in space and run and catch the football, which is exciting.”

‘Those young guys’ are freshmen Jonaz Walton and Javian Osborne, both of whom are already fighting for reps behind them, with the usual caveat.

“I mean, you hand them the ball and it looks fantastic, and then you ask them to pick up a blitz and it doesn’t look so fantastic, but that’s young players, right?” Denbrock said.

The Wisconsin opener will tell Notre Dame which receivers outside the first group Denbrock can actually call on, and how much of the passing game he trusts before the schedule gets heavier. A backfield with five viable options can absorb a slow start on the ground; an offense asking Carr to carry more of it needs targets who separate in September, not in October. Williams, Young, and James, the three with college carries to their names, have a season’s worth more to sort out among themselves, but the receiver rotation has to produce a pecking order faster than that, and the next week is where Denbrock starts building one.