Notre Dame QBs in tight battle
Coaches see situation as different from that of Ohio State in 2015
For an offseason assignment, handed down by offensive coordinator Mike Sanford, each of Notre Dame’s quarterbacks selected and studied a great quarterback. And it’s apparently only coincidental that Malik Zaire and DeShone Kizer ended up studying two former rivals, guys who famously competed for a quarterback job.
Zaire chose Steve Young; Kizer chose Joe Montana. Zaire says one reason he chose Young was because the Pro Football Hall of Famer, like Zaire, is left-handed.
“I’m a fan of all lefties,” Zaire says, grinning. “I have appreciation for everybody who’s lefthanded.”
And Kizer’s choice of Montana, also a Hall of Famer? Around here, he’s best known as the former Irish great, which meant there was no lack of source material.
“I think he got lucky with that one,” Zaire says, and the grin gets a little wider.
If the goal is to learn from guys
who won championships, Montana and Young fit the bill. If there are other parallels — Kizer and Zaire are locked into an intense competition to win Notre Dame’s starting job — well, no one’s denying them.
“We’ve got two really good quarterbacks,” Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly says. “They’re both guys that can lead us to a championship.”
Zaire has shown signs of being a spectacular dual-threat quarterback, first in a win against LSU in the Music City Bowl in 2014 and again after winning the job last summer, with a 19-for-22, 313yard passing performance in a rout of Texas.
But he suffered a broken right ankle against Virginia in the season’s second game. Kizer came on and threw a 39-yard touchdown pass in the final seconds to beat the Cavaliers and only grew from that point, leading the injuryplagued Irish to the cusp of the College Football Playoff.
So when Kelly calls it “an excellent quarterback situation,” he’s not wrong. But if it’s the definition of a good problem to have, it’s still a potential problem.
PICKING MEYER’S BRAIN Last summer Ohio State had three talented, accomplished quarterbacks vying for one job. Though it was whittled to two when Braxton Miller moved to receiver, the competition between Cardale Jones and J.T. Barrett ultimately didn’t play out the way the Buckeyes had hoped.
There were many factors, but Ohio State didn’t play up to its potential until late in the season — too late for a team loaded with talent. The overwhelming pick to repeat as national champion instead missed the Playoff. When Ohio State finally played to form in the Fiesta Bowl, Notre Dame happened to be the opponent. Perhaps not coincidentally, Barrett had regained the starting job.
“We owe him one,” Zaire says, chuckling, “because he got us.”
The comparisons aren’t exact, but the situation is similar enough that Kelly called Buckeyes coach Urban Meyer during the offseason. He asked for advice and inquired about what Meyer would have done differently in hindsight. Kelly said Meyer told him Ohio State struggled to find an offensive identity.
“That’s what they were missing,” Kelly says. “They went back to who they were against us and who they wanted to be. They spread it out. J.T. had some easy throws. They got it to (running back) Ezekiel (Elliott) in space, and that’s who Urban had wanted them to be and they never were that.”
All of which, Kelly says, is why he thinks Notre Dame is in decent shape. Barrett and Jones had very different skill sets, but he says the Irish don’t have to change much with Kizer or Zaire.
“There’s no overhaul of the offense if one is in vs. the other,” he says. “Just some play selections that would be different.”
Trent Dilfer, the former NFL quarterback who runs the Elite 11 organization, has worked with both quarterbacks. He’s high on both.
“If I’m Brian Kelly, I feel like I can’t mess this up,” says Dilfer, and he’s not saying the coach should feel stress; it’s just the opposite. “Either one of them is going to be the right answer.”
That might be. They’re both smart, dynamic leaders. When Kelly says he’s looking for the “Larry Bird” quality — a guy who makes teammates better — well, both have markers for the trait.
Zaire, a fourth-year junior, is well-acquainted with internal competition. He battled with and supplanted Everett Golson, who had quarterbacked Notre Dame to an undefeated 2012 regular season and into the Bowl Championship Series title game. At 6 feet tall and 225 pounds, he’s a very dangerous running threat.
“But the misnomer on Malik is he’s a run-first guy,” Dilfer says. “He’s actually a very, very gifted passer. He has a knack for completing the ball, a knack for making big plays with his arm, a knack for changing speeds — he doesn’t have to throw fastballs all the time. But he has such physical prowess as a runner that he brings a unique dynamic to the college game.”
Likewise, Kizer, a third-year sophomore who is 6-4 and 230 pounds, was initially stereotyped as a pocket passer. Kelly says coaches learned Kizer could run almost by accident. After he replaced injured Zaire, Notre Dame’s coaches stripped virtually every quarterback run from the game-planning for Georgia Tech, Kizer’s first start. Instead they handed the football, over and over again, to C.J. Prosise.
Then, like so many other Notre Dame players last season, Prosise got banged up. By default, the zone read was reinserted. And as it turned out, Kizer was an effective runner. He isn’t Zaire in the open field, but he’s mobile enough to be a threat. Combine that with passing ability and a prototypical NFL quarterback’s physique, and the potential is tantalizing.
“Physically he looks the part and has all the juice he needs to be a big-time player,” Dilfer says. “DeShone has the ability to challenge the field with his arm when his feet aren’t right. That’s a gift. A lot of guys can challenge the field when their feet are right, when they’re on balance, in an ideal situation. But DeShone has the ability, when his feet aren’t right, to still get the ball where he wants.”
FRIENDLY BUT NOT FUN None of that addresses the intangibles that accompany a quarterback competition and its outcome. Both quarterbacks say they like and respect each other and that the competition is friendly. But it’s not exactly fun.
“It’s frustrating,” Kizer says. “It’s hard to experience the highs of being an elite athlete but also experience the stress of coming in here and competing with another guy.”
And last spring, at least in one interaction with reporters, Zaire’s frustration seemed to boil over.
“You just really wonder,” he said then, “what it’s going to take to finally convince people that I’m able to do the job. I don’t make the decision. I’m going to keep balling and do what I need to do.”
Zaire told USA TODAY Sports he wasn’t frustrated but rather thankful and appreciative for the opportunity to compete. He says his study of Young last spring helped. Through a friend, he got Young ’s cellphone number. They texted and eventually talked, and the takeaway, according to Zaire, was simple:
“Understand sometimes things may not go your way, but if you go out and take advantage of the opportunity — at the end of the day, you have to stay prepared, at all times,” he says. “I think (Young ’s) messages related well to me.”
Zaire concedes nothing. The competition is intense — though he, like Kizer, says it’s more “me vs. myself ” than the other quarterback. But sometime soon, one or the other will win the job.
Kelly insists the locker room won’t be splintered, because the quarterbacks’ teammates recognize that both guys can play. But he also knows that if the eventual starter doesn’t play well, “You open yourself up to all the noise: If there’s a bad series or a bad game, ‘Why don’t you go with the other All-American?’ ”
That’s overstating the situation by more than a little. At least so far, neither quarterback is an All-American. But both are listed on the preseason watch list for the Maxwell Award, given annually to the country’s best player. And Dilfer says Kizer and Zaire are among the 10 best college quarterbacks.
Kelly says, “All options are on the table,” including playing them both — maybe even at the same time. Neither of those options actually make much sense, of course. Or would make either quarterback happy.
“Going into the season, I think we would both like it if one guy is out there,” Kizer says. “As long as we continue to grind and rely on the coaches to make a decision, I think we’ll be all right.”
Kelly says he has a decent idea how it will go — but he’s not sharing it. There’s thought that Kizer might have the inside track. Along with his physical abilities, his 11-game body of work would seem to dwarf Zaire’s short time as starter before he was injured.
“But then you put the Texas film on and see how easy it was for Malik,” says Kelly, referring to the 2015 season opener. “Or you put on the LSU game and see how easy it was for him as well.
“That’s why we are where we are. We’ve got two really good quarterbacks … and we’ve got to let them both compete.”