Notre Dame QB Riley Leonard on his ‘faith-based mindset’ amid injuries
Notre Dame football QB Riley Leonard credits his faith for a positive perspective on this trying six-month health stretch, including two surgeries
SOUTH BEND — As Riley Leonard and his fellow Notre Dame football quarterbacks learn Mike Denbrock’s offensive system this spring, they keep hearing about the teaching technology that’s headed their way.
Cognilize, the German-designed flight simulator that helped propel Jayden Daniels to the Heisman Trophy last season at LSU, is squarely on Denbrock’s radar as he ramps up for his third go-round with the Irish.
“I can’t imagine the capabilities it has,” Leonard said after a recent practice. “Obviously, it helped Jayden out a lot.”
Experienced through a virtual reality headset, the program wasn’t in place at LSU last year until its third game at Mississippi State. Using motion capture and artificial intelligence, Cognilize could load a game-plan specific menu of plays each week for Daniels to improve his processing speed.
Under the guidance of longtime LSU staffer Jack Marucci, director of performance and innovation, the program could simulate what opposing defenses might do that week and ultimately grew to nearly 900 variations from LSU’s offensive playbook.
The startup phase in the 2023 offseason reportedly took months to complete, and Marucci recently told Rivals.com the hope for LSU is to eventually build out the program to include other position groups.
Asked if he’d used at least a prototype of Cognilize, Leonard shook his head.
“We haven’t yet,” he said. “I think that was our plan for the summer once we got the offense installed and kind of knew what we were doing. I saw that on Instagram, and (Denbrock) has mentioned it before, so I’m excited to use it.”
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How VR technology helped Jayden Daniels
Hired in December after two seasons as offensive coordinator at LSU, Denbrock saw firsthand the benefits of Cognilize.
After passing for 27 touchdowns against 13 interceptions in 2021-22, including his final year at Arizona State, Daniels saw his production explode last fall. He finished with 40 touchdown passes and just four interceptions in 12 games.
Just three of those picks and all 10 of his rushing touchdowns came after Daniels started using the VR headset in his weekly preparation. A devastating scrambler, Daniels averaged more than 100 rushing yards per game once Cognilize came online.
Notre Dame football QB Riley Leonard on the healing process for his right ankle
Notre Dame football QB Riley Leonard says he’s ‘over the hump’ after two right ankle surgeries since his mid-January arrival on campus
“We had a company come in and help us design it and work through that,” Denbrock said. “I thought it was very helpful to (Daniels). It’s kind of like reps when you’re not out there actually physically having to do all that much.”
Quarterbacks don’t actually have to make throws, for instance, to improve their reaction speed. Daniels was seeing things develop 70% faster than normal by the time the season ended.
“It would probably make me sweat because I’m fat and out of shape,” Denbrock said. “I don’t think it’s that taxing on them, but at the same time, the mental reps that they can bank, the different looks and the different things that we could give him to try to help his development and his vision, whether it’s a movement key or a coverage recognition or whatever that happened to be … I thought was very helpful.”
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The visuals included accurate representations of enemy stadiums, right down to where the 40-second play clock would be located.
Nothing had been finalized as of last weekend, but Denbrock made it clear he believed in the product and was in favor of using it with his new crop of Notre Dame quarterbacks.
“I hope we can,” he said. “We hope. We hope. We’re working on it.”
‘More gashes, less negative plays’ in Mike Denbrock system
Rather than constrict Irish signal-callers as he installs an offense that led the nation in scoring last season, Denbrock is looking for ways to empower Leonard and Co.
That means giving them the freedom to change plays at the line, even after the headset communication system is turned off with 15 seconds left on the play clock.
Notre Dame football QB Riley Leonard endorses the brace on his right ankle
Notre Dame football quarterback Riley Leonard has returned to spring practice thanks to the Mike Bean-designed TayCo Athletic Brace on his right ankle
“He gives us the ability to check out of plays, flip plays, get us to a different look if we see something different from the defense,” redshirt freshman quarterback Kenny Minchey said. “We didn’t do as much of that last year, but I’m a lot better with it as far as identifying what I’m seeing on the defense and then flipping a play to get us in the best position.”
This idea of “having more control at the line of scrimmage,” Minchey said, should lead to more dynamic outcomes once the ball is snapped. Through nine spring practice sessions, Minchey noted “more gashes and less negative plays” for an offense that is facing one of the nation’s top returning defenses.
“There are so many different spots you can go with the ball in each play,” Minchey said. “The biggest thing is creating explosive plays and putting the ball where the defense tells us to go with the ball, not where we decide it should go. …
“We identify what we see from the defense and get us to plays that are kind of perfect against that defense. But really every play, it’s kind of good vs. everything.”
Steve Angeli, the third-year quarterback who led Notre Dame to a Sun Bowl win over Oregon State, likes the freewheeling nature of Denbrock Ball as well.
“Not playing under center anymore, just playing in shotgun, is definitely a switch but it feels good,” Angeli said. “We’re able to make more plays. Coach Denbrock has put me and the offense in great positions throughout spring to make plays.
“We’re explosive. The ball is being thrown around a lot. A lot of gashing runs are able to go. We’re very multiple and diverse now with what we’re doing. Not that we weren’t last year, but there’s really a wide spreadsheet of what we do.”
‘This is our offense,’ Riley Leonard says
Even as he works back from March 22 surgery, his second right ankle procedure of 2024, Leonard is getting a taste of the Denbrock system.
While working with quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli and grad assistant Kurt Rawlings, Leonard is being reminded just how much fun it can be at the controls of a wide-open attack.
“They allow us to run practice and operate like we would in a game,” Leonard said. “They’re really hands-off. This is our offense. When you’re behind the center, you run the show. If you want to check out of it, you check out of it. You just have to own up to it whenever you make a mistake.”
Even then, the teaching point is made in a collaborative manner.
“It’s like, ‘Alright, cool, let’s learn from it,’ “ Leonard said. “Those guys are super awesome as a player because they instill so much confidence in you. We’ll just be watching film: ‘Hey, Riley, what would you do here?’ I give an answer. ‘Great. We support it. Do what you want. We put the offense in play. You utilize it however you want to utilize it.’ “
The rising senior noted he had similar latitude at Duke, where he spent his first year with legendary coach David Cutcliffe and then teamed the past two years with offensive coordinator Kevin Johns, now an offensive analyst at Oklahoma.
“With my coaches in the past, they did the same thing,” Leonard said. “The were super supportive. Coach Johns would always tell me I got the keys to the car, and that’s kind of set me up for this. I was pretty accustomed to being in control of the offense there.”
Whether it’s mental reps or half-speed run-throughs on the field, Leonard can already tell he’s in for a fun fall in the Denbrock system.
“I love it,” Leonard said. “Obviously, Jayden Daniels excelled in it last year. I’m not nearly as fast, but I feel like we’re both pretty athletic and have a similar-ish game. I think I fit in pretty well with it. It’s similar to Duke’s offense that I’ve been running for a couple of years.”
Just wait until Leonard gets a chance to use that VR headset.
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for NDInsider.com and is on social media @MikeBerardino.
2024-04-14 08:09:25
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