How much will Notre Dame change its offense with Riley Leonard gone? Irish mailbag

SOUTH BEND, Ind.

And just like that, Notre Dame is halfway through spring practice.

If you think its been difficult to get a read on what the Irish have accomplished, youre probably not alone.

Thanks to the truncated schedule and limited player availability, the spring schedule has felt more like an introduction for Notre Dames next roster than a massive step forward.

But after a 16-game season, thats probably just fine for Marcus Freeman.

The real work comes in August, anyway.

Advertisement As for your spring questions, were talking quarterback choices, wayward basketball programs, roster adjustments and new/old motivational tactics, plus a few other wild cards.

Lets get started.

Lots of questions about who will be the starting quarterback, but my question is how much does Mike Denbrocks offensive playbook change based on who the quarterback is? In other words, will the starting quarterback dictate the playbook or will there be more subtle differences in play calls in the same system? Mmazurek I asked Denbrock a version of this question last week, although I couched it more with the differences in play calling from Riley Leonard to whomever wins the job during training camp.

From a passing game standpoint it will look pretty similar in a lot of ways, Denbrock said.

But where its gonna probably look the most different is in the run game where were going to have to not be as quarterback-heavy as a run team.

How do you make up those yards? What do you do? Do you get into running some direct snap things? Do you get into using motion as a weapon a little bit more? How do you account for them screwing an extra guy down in the box? You hope you do that by having some dynamic players on the perimeter, so when you do that were gonna sting your butt.

Its a balancing act.

Well get the run game situated around whoever ends up winning the job.

But when the decision gets made, thats kinda how that will kinda fit together.

What does that all mean? Surely Denbrock doesnt expect the passing game to look similar to the Georgia game when Leonard passed for 90 yards.

Going the entire season without a 300-yard passing performance is hardly ideal, but the Irish made it work with Leonard rushing for basically 1,000 yards with sacks removed.

Whether its Steve Angeli, Kenny Minchey or CJ Carr, that rushing performance wont be repeated.

And thats probably fine considering Notre Dames wealth of running back talent.

Replacing 184 rushing attempts, 906 yards and a record 17 rushing touchdowns from the quarterback is no joke.

Advertisement To me, the three quarterback options available to Denbrock are all more similar than different, with Leonard more of the wild card.

Carr and Minchey are more agile than Angeli.

Minchey probably has the strongest arm.

Carr, in limited viewing, has the best touch.

But whatever Denbrocks next version of Notre Dames offense turns out to be, the differences based on the quarterback choice will be subtle.

Data is an increasingly important asset everywhere.

What protections did Notre Dame have to limit player ranking data going out the door with Chad Bowden? What valuable data did Bowden, if any, take with him out the door Notre Dame may need to work to replace? Sean M.

There arent protections per se because Bowden helped create much of this data in the first place.

Its not like Notre Dame can wipe Bowdens memory on the way out the door.

This isnt that different from your defensive coordinator leaving for a rival program and having intimate knowledge of your personnel, tendencies, strengths and weaknesses.

One of Bowdens strengths at Notre Dame was creating basically a three-year rolling roster where the Irish identified future depth charts, future depth chart holes and the traits the staff wanted to fill them (i.e.

skill sets).

That data included the costs associated with pulling a player out of the portal, basically a working budget of how much players might cost.

Assuming Notre Dame wanted to stick with Bowdens model, obviously the USC general manager is going to know it forward and backward.

But theres no reason to think Mike Martin would just keep rolling with how Bowden did business, in part because that business is about to change if/when the House settlement passes and Notre Dame shares that $20.5 million with its athletes, with football expected to get roughly 75 percent of that figure.

That doesnt even get to the idea of Martin seeing scouting differently than Bowden.

Its worth noting Notre Dame held onto director of analytics Anthony Treash, who was brought into the program by Bowden and somebody Bowden wanted to take to USC.

The analytics Treash uses are proprietary to him and an evolving organism as more and more data becomes available to coaches.

Does that mean USC will have a better understanding of how Freeman likes to call the game, whether thats fourth down calls or fakes? Probably.

But that also assumes Notre Dames strengths and weakness next season are the same as last season.

Clearly, theyre not going to be.

Bottom line, theres nothing Bowden took that Notre Dame has to replace.

And as much working knowledge Bowden has of Notre Dame, its not like Notre Dame doesnt know how Bowden does his business, too.

Advertisement There has been lots of discussion about how Notre Dame is resting starters, putting players on a pitch count, reducing spring practice time/reps on the whole as a response to the longest season in college football history.

Are Ohio State, Penn State and Texas doing something similar? Or is Notre Dame taking a unique approach? Andrew W.

Great question.

Ohio State is doing something similar, holding out safety Caleb Downs, wide receiver Jeremiah Smith and defensive back Davison Igbinosun from most contact, which Notre Dame is doing on some level with Jeremiyah Love, Aamil Wagner, Jaden Greathouse, Drayk Bowen, Jaylen Sneed, Adon Shuler, Bryce Young and Josh Burnham.

Its worth remembering that Ohio State lost a lot more than Notre Dame, so there are fewer players worth holding out.

Penn State hasnt explicitly said its going to hold guys back during spring practice, but thats been common under James Franklin in the past.

The questions beneath the question here is whats the best practice when theres past precedent to follow? Wagner talked to reporters late last week and basically said hes not taking any contact during spring ball and using the lighter load to get an extra lift with Loren Landow onto his schedule.

On paper, this all makes sense considering Wagner played 973 snap on the offensive line last year.

In practice, it means offensive line coach Joe Rudolph is down four potential starters for all of spring practice, with Anthonie Knapp, Billy Schrauth and Ashton Craig all limited by injury.

Rudolph made the point that instead of Wagner taking 15 spring practices, he took 21 winter practices and three extra games against Georgia, Penn State and Ohio State.

When you look at the practice plan from that point of view, its easy to understand why the Irish are doing what theyre doing.

There was always going to be a hangover from last season.

Thats true for Ohio State, Penn State and Texas, too.

Youre given two options to make Notre Dame go from fringe contender to something more this coming season: Select any former Notre Dame quarterback from 2000-24 OR select any two non-quarterbacks (one offense, one defense) from the same time frame to add to this roster.

For the sake of argument, assume youre getting the best college version of whatever player(s) youre adding.

Terence M.

A new twist on a classic question, I love it.

Advertisement As much as its more entertaining to pick two players to round out Notre Dames roster Golden Tate and Harrison Smith? Louis Nix and Will Fuller? the best option for this version of Notre Dame would be junior year Jimmy Clausen or junior/senior year Brady Quinn.

Either quarterback would change everything Denbrock could call and how the rest of the offense would operate.

Youd be swapping out a quarterback with either zero experience or one start for a multi-year starter.

The idea of Clausen or Quinn running play-action to Love, then dropping passes over linebackers to Greathouse or Malachi Fields feels like College Football Playoff level good.

Maybe even better.

Its bizarre to think Quenton Nelson, Zack Martin, Mike McGlinchey and Ronnie Stanley are barely worth considering for this question with how well Notre Dame has stocked its offensive line.

Still, its a conversation worth having if Notre Dame would be better off rolling with Angeli/Carr/Minchey and giving the offense Tate/Fuller/Michael Floyd and the defense either a future Hall of Fame safety or an NFL level defensive tackle.

Ill go with the quarterback upgrade to Quinn or Clausen ...

but I could be convinced otherwise.

A recurring story from this past season was about how Marcus Freeman wanted the team to remember the pain of that loss to Northern Illinois in order to prepare and focus for upcoming games.

How does he intend for the team to keep that same late-season focus and energy with a new team and missing so many leaders (and a defensive coordinator) from this past year? Colin K.

Its an interesting question and honestly Im not sure how Freeman would handle that.

As much as he pushed the Northern Illinois narrative all season, including during his pregame speech before the Sugar Bowl against Georgia, carrying it over to a new season feels stale.

Notre Dame has had so much turnover on the depth chart and staff that going back to that well doesnt make much sense on paper.

The biggest beneficiary of Northern Illinois and its lessons is probably the head coach himself.

And the schedule is different too: Notre Dame doesnt have a game the week after its next prime-time opener on the road at Miami like it did after Ohio State (Marshall) and Texas A&M (Northern Illinois).

How Notre Dame prepares for Texas A&M following an idle week after Miami is a different challenge than a late-night return to South Bend before immediately jumping into the next game week.

March would be much more fun if Notre Dames mens team could match some of the success of the womens basketball team.

Micah Shrewsberry clearly took over a rebuilding project and was given a long runway with a seven-year contract.

What are your thoughts on the rebuild two years in, and could Shrewsberrys seat get hot next season if the team performs similarly? Leo D.

Obviously, this question was submitted before the womens team flamed out in the Sweet 16 for a fourth consecutive season despite having a backcourt that had been advertised as the best in the sport.

Notre Dame didnt even have the best guard on the floor against TCU when Hailey Van Lith ran the game with 26 points, nine rebounds and four assists.

Hannah Hidalgo, Sonia Citron and Olivia Miles combined for 34 points (10-of-44 shooting), 11 rebounds and six assists.

TCU out-scored Notre Dame 34-16 during the final 15:51.

It was a comprehensive loss for Niele Ivey, who needed to make a tournament statement this year.

As for the mens team, Tae Davis and J.R.

Konieczny are out the door in the transfer portal.

The former is a blow.

The latter is not.

Assuming Markus Burton stays and Notre Dame can add a legitimate big in the portal like Nevadas Nick Davidson the Irish are in his final five with Texas, Clemson, Washington and Virginia theres no reason Shrewsberry shouldnt at least get Notre Dame into bubble contention next season.

Davidson is a 6-foot-10, 238-pound skilled big who averaged 15.8 points and 6.5 rebound last season while shooting 37.1 percent from 3-point range.

He also logged at least 30 minutes in 18 of the seasons final 20 games.

After last seasons portal disasters, Davidson would be an instant impact player to balance the roster with a talented incoming freshman class.

Advertisement Absolutely, Shrewsberrys seat would get warm if Notre Dame repeats the listless season of this past winter when the fan base checked out on the mens program.

Hes spent a tremendous amount of capital in some of those postgame rants, including calling out the fan base for quitting on the team after Louisville, only to watch the actual team look like it quit the next game against SMU.

Notre Dame was a poorly coached basketball team that played with a low basketball IQ much of last season, even in some wins.

Notre Dame doesnt need to move mountains in Year 3 of Shrewsberry, but it needs to finish in the top half of the ACC and making Selection Sunday at least worth watching.

Considering the first-year coaching successes at Michigan and Louisville this season, theres no reason for the Irish to remain this anonymous in the sport.

(Top photo of Riley Leonard and Steve Angeli: Kevin C.

Cox / Getty Images).

This article has been shared from the original article on theathleticuk, here is the link to the original article.