SOUTH BEND — As Riley Leonard and his fellow Notre Dame football quarterbacks learn Mike Denbrock's offensive system this spring, they keep hearing about educational technology heading their way.
Cognilize, the German-designed flight simulator that led Jaeden Daniels to the Heisman Trophy at LSU last season, is on the radar of Denbrock as he prepares for a third round against the Irish.
“I can't imagine being capable of this much,” Leonard said after a recent practice. “Obviously, that was a big help to Jayden.”
The program, experienced via virtual reality headsets, wasn't introduced to LSU until last year's Game 3 at Mississippi State. Cognilize uses motion capture and artificial intelligence to allow Daniels to load a menu of plays based on his game plan each week to speed things up.
Under the guidance of longtime LSU staffer and Director of Performance and Innovation Jack Marucci, the program is able to simulate what opposing defenses will do any given week, ultimately leading to LSU's The offensive strategy has grown to nearly 900 variations.
The ramp-up phase of the 2023 offseason reportedly took several months to complete, and Marucci recently told Rivals.com that LSU's hope is to eventually expand the program to include other position groups. He said the goal is to build.
When I asked if he had at least used the Cognilize prototype, Leonard shook his head.
“Not yet,” he said. “Once we established the offense and kind of knew what we were doing, I think that was the plan for the summer. So I'm looking forward to using it.”
Kenny Minchey:'Gunslinger' Kenny Minchey flashes 'wow' factor with Notre Dame football this spring
How VR technology helped Jaden Daniels
Denbrock, who was hired in December after two seasons as LSU's offensive coordinator, saw the benefits of Cognilize firsthand.
Daniels, who had 27 touchdowns and 13 interceptions in 2021-22, including his final year at Arizona State, saw his productivity 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 a VR headset in his weekly preparations. A devastating scrambler, Daniels averaged over 100 rushing yards per game once Cognilize was online.
“We engaged a company to help us design and do the work,” Denbrock said. “I thought it was very helpful for (Daniels). It's like a rep when you're not going out, where you have to actually physically do a lot of things.”
For example, a quarterback doesn't have to actually make the throw to improve his reaction time. By the end of the season, Daniels was seeing things develop 70% faster than he normally would.
“I'm overweight and out of shape, so I'll probably sweat a lot,” Denbrock said. “I don't think it's as much of a burden on them, but at the same time, the mental reps that they can accumulate, the different looks and the different things that we can give him, his growth. And being able to offer to help with his vision, like movement key or coverage awareness, whatever that happens to be…I thought that would be very helpful.”
profile:How Arena League coaching prepared Mike Denbrock for Notre Dame football
The visuals included an accurate representation of the enemy stadium, right down to where the 40-second play clock was located.
Although nothing was finalized as of last weekend, Denbrock made it clear that he believes in the product and is in favor of using it with Notre Dame's new quarterback.
“I hope we can do that,” he said. “We hope. We hope. We're working on it.”
Mike Denbrock System: “More injuries, fewer negative plays''
Denbrock is looking for ways to empower Leonard and others, rather than stifling the Irish signal-callers by establishing an offensive line that was the top scorer last season.
This means you have 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.
“He gives us the ability to check out plays, flip plays, take a different look if we see something different with the defense,” said the redshirt freshman quarterback. Kenny Minchey said. “I wasn't able to do that last year, but I'm a lot better at identifying what I'm seeing on defense and switching plays to get into the best position.”
This idea of ”more control at the line of scrimmage” should lead to more dynamic results after the ball is snapped, Minchey said. Through nine spring practice sessions, Minchey noted that the offense facing one of the nation's top returning defenses has “more gashes and fewer negative plays.”
“There’s a lot of places you can take the ball on each play,” Minchey said. “The most important thing is to create explosive plays and put the ball where the defense tells us to put it, not where we think it should go. …
“We identify what we see from the defense and make the perfect play against that defense. But really every play is good against everything.”
Steve Angeli, the third-year quarterback who led Notre Dame to a Sun Bowl victory over Oregon State, also likes Denbrock's free-spirited nature.
“It's definitely a switch to no longer play under center and just play shotgun, but it feels good,” Angeli said. “We can make more plays. Coach Denbrock has put me and the offense in great positions all spring to make plays.
“We're explosive. The ball is flying around a lot. We can go a lot of gas runs. We're very diverse and diverse in what we're doing right now, which wasn't the case last year. We have a really extensive spreadsheet of what we do.”
“This is our offense,” Riley Leonard says.
Even as he returns from March 22 surgery, his second surgery on his right ankle in 2024, Leonard is getting a taste of Denbrock's system.
Working with quarterbacks coach Gino Guduguri and graduate assistant Kurt Rawlings, Leonard is finding out how much fun it is to control a wide-open offense.
“It's allowed me to practice and be as active as I would be during a game,” Leonard said. “They really don't touch. This is our crime. When you're behind center, you lead the show. If you want to check out, check out. When you make a mistake. must always admit that.”
Even then, teaching points are developed collaboratively.
“It's like, 'Okay, okay, let's learn from this,'” Leonard said. “They're so great as players because they give you so much confidence. We just watch film: 'Hey, Riley, what would you do here?' to answer. 'wonderful. we support it. Please do what you want. We started the attack. Use it how you want to use it. “
The rising senior noted similar generosity at Duke, where he spent his first year under legendary coach David Cutcliffe and then spent the past two years as an offensive analyst at Oklahoma. He teamed up with offensive coordinator Kevin Johns, who served as the defensive coordinator.
“My coaches in the past did the same thing,” Leonard said. “They were very supportive. Coach Johns always told me he had the keys to the car, so that prepared me for this. I was pretty good at controlling the offense there. I was used to it.”
Whether it's mental reps or half-speed run-throughs on the field, Leonard already feels he's having some fun falls in the Den Block system.
“I love it,” Leonard said. “Obviously, Jaden Daniels was better in this area last year. I'm not that fast, but I feel like we're both pretty athletic and have similar games. I I think it fits that pretty well. This is similar to the Duke offense that I've been running for several years.”
Just wait until Leonard gets a chance to use the VR headset.
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for NDInsider.com and is active on social media @MikeBerardino.
