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The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are one of the stronger teams in college football this season. One of the reasons is their offense. The Fighting Irish made two major changes to their offense during the summer. First, quarterback Sam Hartman has departed for the NFL's Washington Commanders as an undrafted free agent. Former Duke quarterback Riley Leonard replaces him.
The second change Notre Dame made this season was onboarding a new offensive coordinator, Mike Denbrock, who returns for his second stint. Last season, he was with the LSU Tigers.
However, according to ESPN, an anonymous defensive coordinator feels the Irish offense will resemble Denbrock's time at Cincinnati with Desmond Ridder rather than LSU's with Jayden Daniels.
Giving their reason for this decision, the anonymous DC told ESPN that:
“(Notre Dame don't) have the receivers they had at LSU."
Last season, LSU had the likes of Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr. as some of the receivers for Jayden Daniels.
Notre Dame doesn't have a player as strong as Nabers. While players like Tyler Buchner and Jayden Thomas can play well, they are (at the moment) not on the same level as Nabers & Co. were last year.
Notre Dame are more like the Cincinnati Bearcats
The more accurate comparison is the Cincinnati Bearcats teams of 2019–2021. This was the time when Mike Denbrock was the OC at the program, and with quarterback Desmond Ridder, the program had some of its best seasons.
During those years, the Bearcats won two AAC championships and nearly defeated the Georgia Bulldogs in the 2020 Peach Bowl.
However, their best season came in 2021, when the Bearcats became the only Group of Five school to qualify for the College Football Playoffs.
All of these accomplishments were made possible by players who, like the current Notre Dame team, lacked big names. However, they were able to prosper thanks to Denbrock's excellent system and a talented quarterback in Ridder (who recorded figures comparable to Riley's at Duke).
