Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock warned the media before the season that the Irish offense might take some time before it figures out how to gel thanks to him being a new offensive coordinator, Riley Leonard being a transfer quarterback and the Irish have three transfer wide receivers.

That’s panned out to be true as Notre Dame’s offense appears to be hitting it’s stride heading into the final games of the season.

So was it as slow as Denbrock expected for the offense to develop?

“Slower than we wanted–maybe that’s the better way to answer that question,” Denbrock said. “Obviously getting it done as fast we could would be the ultimate goal but it’s a process that takes the time that it takes to become more consistent. We’ve made great strides there. We have a lot more to do and there’s a lot more there. There’s a lot more meat on the bone for what this offense can produce and what we can do if we can continue to put the work necessary to get better.”

With Notre Dame’s offense improving it’s behind a clear improvement from Riley Leonard in the passing game. It’s straighforward on why that improvement has come for Irish head coach Marcus Freeman.

“I just think it’s the confidence,” Freeman said this week. “He has confidence in what he’s being asked to do. He’s making fast decisions. They’re not always perfect. But he’s making fast decisions and confident decisions. We all know he has the ability to tuck the ball and run and create a first down out of nothing. But he’s really doing a great job of building that relationship with Denbrock so they know exactly what each other are thinking, how comfortable each one feels with each call. Then the confidence he has in those guys around him has been tremendous. It’s just continuously building on week by week what he’s done.”

And Freeman believes Leonard is settling in.

“You’re the quarterback at Notre Dame and in the first two weeks, he saw the highest of highs to the lowest of lows,” Freeman contineud. “He was able to say, ‘OK, I get it.’ And now put your head down and go to work and do the things it takes to make yourself as the quarterback of this place the best quarterback you can be. He’s continuously doing that and doing a heck of a job at it.”

Leonard is the first to admit the transition to Notre Dame from Duke took time. He consulted with a number of former Irish quarterbacks including last year’s starter Sam Hartman and 2022’s starter Tyler Buchner who has returned as a walk on receiver this season.

“Obviously, Notre Dame is a very spiritual place and I think allowing Jesus to come into my life and change the way that I walk into a football game has really helped me out a lot,” Leonard explained after Notre Dame’s win over Navy. “I think I was hesitant and put a lot of pressure on myself, but me and Coach Freeman were talking about it one time— I feel like I certainly did the first couple of weeks thinking what if I mess up, what if this happens? At the end of the day, if I go into a game thinking ‘even if’– even if everything falls down and we hit rock bottom, my Lord and Savior is always going to be there for me. Nothing’s going to change with that. So that’s been the biggest thing.”

That relationship between Leonard and Denbrock has grown. Leonard used to just run the ball if Denbrock called a play Leonard was not comfortable with. Now both have figured out before that point how to get to a comfortable spot. That’s come over breakfast taking and talking about life and faith together.

“Riley is a joy to coach,” Denbrock said. “He’s hungry for the knowledge it takes to play the position. He works really hard at his off the field preparation and then when he gets on the field, he shows great leadership and the ability to bring other people along with him. It’s always a little bit of a get to know your process between an OC and especially someone who is coming into the program. We’ve had our bumps in the road but hopefully we’ve gotten a lot of those things behind us and we are communicating I think at a very high level right now. He’s doing a really good job of understanding the things we want him to do and need him to do and executing at a very high level.”

Denbrock and the staff had a chance to self scout during the bye week and the what they determined is that the offense has grown. Denbrock sees the commitment the players have made has allowed them to get a little bit better every day and there allowed the offense as a whole to get a little bit better and more consistent each week.

So do the Irish know their offensive identity now?

“I still think our ability to run the ball is something that we have to be able to do,” Freeman said. “We’ve done a really good job of doing that, which creates some ability to throw the ball down the field. And that’s what we have to continue to do. We still have to be able to run the ball no matter who’s the person running the ball. And be able to take some shots down the field when teams are going to add an extra hat to the box. We’ve really worked on that. We’ve worked the fundamentals of every position on our team. We have to continue to enhance to improve. I still want to be an offense that runs the football, creates explosive plays down the field, takes advantage of those explosive plays. We’ve done that, but we’ve got to continue to get better at it.”

Notre Dame can show the next step in that evolution offensively Saturday when they take on 1-8 Florida State in a primetime affair at Notre Dame Stadium.