CONFIDENT KIZER SAYS SKY’S THE LIMIT
DeShone Kizer paused the video and rattled off everything that would have to be perfect for him to run the play as called in Notre Dame’s opener last season against Texas.
The defensive tackle is in the correct spot, but not the Longhorns’ best defender, a linebacker who’s in blitz position off the edge of the formation, right where the run is supposed to go.
“So now I’m up there checking the play,” Kizer told USA TODAY Sports, letting the tape roll again and watching himself make the change from his seat at the back of the Fighting Irish quarterbacks meeting room. “Instead of running at Malik Jefferson, let’s run it inside where I’m away from him. That’s exactly what we get to. So now we’re inside zone, I read that end, we cut back off of him and we’re off to the races.”
No quarterback prospect in next week’s NFL draft has been picked apart quite like Kizer since he declared after Notre Dame’s 4- 8 finish and his own uneven play. Depending on whom you ask inside the league, he could be just the fourth or fifth quarterback taken after North Carolina’s Mitch Trubisky, Texas Tech’s Patrick Mahomes, Clemson’s Deshaun Watson and California’s Davis Webb. But if you want to buy Kizer as a worthy first- round pick, this is a good place to start.
In the spread offense era of college football, where most coaches keep things simple for players and try to win with pure speed and precision, Kizer had what former Irish offensive coordinator Mike Sanford calls a “really rare” level of control — the ability to not only choose and manipulate protections but also to manipulate the calls themselves. Run to run. Run to pass. Pass to run. And not just a “kill” call to a predetermined alternative. The playbook was at Kizer’s disposal.
Of course, that can cause problems when you’re running with a bunch of fresh-
man receivers trying to remember hand signals and route depths with the game on the line. ( Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly simplified things late in the season for a reason.) But Kizer has left little doubt he has the mental bandwidth required of an NFL quarterback. And for a stretch during his nearly two seasons as the starter, Kizer’s size ( 6- 4, 230 pounds), skills and production in that complicated system suggested he should be a candidate for the No. 1 overall pick.
“Name a college quarterback who goes into the game- plan meetings on Monday and throws his notes at the coaches,” Kizer said. “No one else gameplans the way I do. No one else prepares the way I do. No one else knows football the way I do. No one else is as big as I am. No one else is as powerful a runner as I am. Pat Mahomes might throw the ball 80 yards and I can only throw the ball 72, but I guarantee he can’t throw an out route the way I can.
“No one else can do what I can do. And I’ve figured out in this ( draft) process, if I can maximize all my potential in every aspect of the game — this is bold — I do have the ability to be the greatest quarterback to ever play. Imagine taking ( Tom) Brady’s intellect and preparation and putting it on a guy with Cam Newton’s body. Why can’t I be the greatest? The only thing stopping me from it is me. That’s what’s driving me now.”
There are two primary threads of concern among NFL scouts and coaches about Kizer. The first is accuracy. Kizer completed 62.9% of his passes as a redshirt freshman in 2015 and 58.7% in 2016, when he and coaches kept trying to adjust his mechanics. Operating mostly from the shotgun, Kizer wasn’t consistent on which foot was back at the snap and didn’t know it until he saw the tape. He admits he had other worries as things unraveled — competing with junior Malik Zaire, getting booed going into the tunnel, getting benched.
Since December, Kizer has worked with a quarterbacks coach, Zac Robinson, on honing his identity as a passer. He has continued to concentrate on not over- striding. In private workouts with a half- dozen NFL teams, Kizer said, he’s throwing the best of his life.
The second concern is less quantifiable. Is Kizer committed to doing what it takes to be great? Or is he more concerned with living the life and getting the spoils of being good?
Part of the perception, Kizer thinks, stems from one of his regrets last season: He wasn’t visible enough as a leader. He’s naturally introverted in his preparation. Yes, he was often the first one out of the locker room. But he says that was to get away from the high emotions of practice. He’d see his tutor, do his homework and then come back late at night, when he could dim the lights in the QB room, put on country music and let himself become the player he was watching on the screen, alone.
“For ( anyone) to say I don’t love the game or I don’t have the passion to be great — go spend one day in the Kizer household, I dare you,” Kizer said. “My dad told me when I was 12, ‘ I’m not paying for your college. Either you’re going to the military or you’re getting an athletic scholarship.’ And Lord knows I was never killing anyone and I wasn’t getting killed. So sports have always been my life. Winning has always been my life.”