Notre Dame OC Mike Denbrock receives some much deserved respect, but an early season matchup can prove that right or wrong
We could have some Week One fireworks.
On3 college football analyst Andy Staples continues to prepare his audience for an extremely entertaining 2025 season. In a recent post, he ranked the top ten offensive coordinators in college football. Coming in at No. 2 on that list was Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock.
That is a great spot for Coach Denbrock, who has become one of the more respected offensive minds in college football over the last few years. Back for his second stint with the Fighting Irish, Denbrock did some incredible things between those two tenures at both Cincinnati and LSU. He has had some high powered offensive attacks, that have both majored in running or passing the football depending on the respective team’s strengths.
Denbrock was instrumental for the 2023 LSU offense led by elite quarterback Jayden Daniels. That unit was able to lead all of college football in scoring, averaging an absurd 45.5 points per game. Led by the Heisman Trophy Winner behind center, that team had two 1,000-yard receivers, a 1,000-yard rusher in Daniels, and averaged over 543 yards of total offense per game as a unit.
During his first season back in South Bend, Coach Denbrock led the Fighting Irish offense to a 36.1-point per game average, which ranked tenth in college football in 2024. With a lot of talent returning this season, including running back Jeremiyah Love and wide receiver Jaden Greathouse, folks around Notre Dame are expecting the offense to take a nice step forward. That’s especially true with Denbrock entering year two as the offensive playcaller.
The only offensive coordinator ahead of Denbrock is Oregon’s Will Stein, which is a very interesting argument between the two. One spot below him was Miami assistant Shannon Dawson, who led the country’s leading scoring offense along with star quarterback Cam Ward. The fun part of this list is that we will see Denbrock face off against Dawson in the first game of the 2025 season.
While both coaches aren’t technically competing directly against the other, you can bet that fans are going to be measuring them against the other during that contest. Notre Dame, obviously, has a great defense, and that Hurricane offense is going to look quite a bit different, but this could make for a really fun Week One matchup.
Get your popcorn ready for August 31st, especially if you appreciate some good offensive football.
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