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Riley Leonard on the QB competition at Notre Dame football
Notre Dame football product Riley Leonard speaks Feb. 28 at NFL Scouting Combine on the three-way QB battle that looms for the Irish in 2025
SOUTH BEND —Veteran offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock, entering year two of his third tour of duty at Notre Dame football, sees plenty of room for improvement.
“If you look at the way we played a year ago, details are missing all over the tape,” he said Friday after spring practice No. 5. “If we just fix that, the leap that we could make offensively is pretty good.”
Regardless of who wins the three-pronged quarterback competition to succeed Riley Leonard, Denbrock is expecting more from a revamped group of wide receivers. In particular, he wants to see the ball stay off the ground after the Irish dropped 26 passes in 16 games last season.
Seven of those drops were credited to Beaux Collins, the Clemson transfer now headed for a pro career, but six of them belonged to Jordan Faison, the two-sport star who is a rising junior.
In all, 12 different Notre Dame players dropped at least one pass in 2024. After ranking fourth nationally in receiving efficiency in 2023 (88.4 Pro Football Focus grade), Notre Dame dropped back to 53rd in FBS in that category (71.4) under first-year receivers coach Mike Brown.
“We dropped the football way too much last year,” Denbrock said. “We have to make the plays. I don’t know if you’d call them ordinary plays, but the ones that are 100 out of 100, we need to be 100 out of 100. That comes with consistency in depth and route running.”
Virginia grad transfer Malachi Fields won’t enroll until June, but the ex-quarterback had just two drops last season (3.5% drop rate) after totaling…
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Publish date : 2025-03-28 19:31:00
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