Judgment Call At Quarterback Remains At Notre Dame

Full disclosure: I believe DeShone Kizer will be the starting quarterback for Notre Dame at Texas on Sunday, Sept. 4. That outing partially fulfills the prophecy that the 6-4 1/4, 230-pound Kizer “will play on Sundays some day.”

Untested and at his nadir last year at this time, Kizer proceeded to have the greatest individual sophomore season ever at Notre Dame, ranking among the top 7 in single-season passing efficiency at the school, rushing for the fourth-most yards by a signalcaller (520) and the most touchdowns (10) in one year, and leading three fourth-quarter comeback wins — plus putting the 10-1 Fighting Irish ahead 36-35 at Stanford with 30 seconds left on an 88-yard march.

Deep down, the opinion here is that head coach Brian Kelly believes it too, although he would never share that — nor shouldn’t need to — with the public at this point.

That’s because 6-0, 225-pound Malik Zaire has a “wow factor” that makes it too difficult to anoint someone else the automatic starter while Zaire lost his position because of an injury. Saturday’s Blue-Gold Game was yet another example of why Kelly does not want to make the call at this point.

On his first four possessions against a Blue defense that featured a stronger overall unit than the Gold defense Kizer faced, Zaire was 1-of-5 passing for 11 yards, and three of the four series were three-and-outs. Whereas Kizer appeared a little smoother, efficient and consistent after starting the final 11 games in 2015 — plus throwing the clutch game-winning touchdown in the closing seconds at Virginia while replacing the injured Zaire — the southpaw was a little more wild with his passes and not as sharp with his runs, carrying three times for four yards.

And then in series 5 for Zaire, while backed up at his own eight-yard line, it happened:

• He launched a perfectly placed 50-yard rocket that traveled about 60 yards in the air on which cornerback Nick Coleman had textbook coverage, but Torii Hunter made the one-handed snag at the only spot where the ball was catchable.

• Two plays later, Zaire out-did the pass to Hunter with a marvelous individual effort. On third-and-9, from the defense’s 41, Zaire appeared dead in his tracks on a blindside blitz from linebacker Asmar Bilal — only to do a quick, reverse pirouette to his right to evade him. While still under heavy duress and rolling to his right, Zaire patiently waited until the final second to deliver a 28-yard strike down the field to a well-covered Justin Brent.

• On the ensuing play on the zone read, Zaire started to his left, and then made a quick cutback to the middle and to his right to race for a 13-yard touchdown.

“What he did today … my mouth dropped,” said none other than Kizer after the game of that series. “I don't wish anything bad upon him. I'm enjoying it just like you guys are enjoying it. He's an amazing athlete.”

That’s why in one of the oddest of odds (literally and figuratively), both Kizer and Zaire are at 22/1 odds by Sports Bet to win the Heisman Trophy in 2016. Meanwhile, Nevada Sports Books is a little less on the fence, putting Kizer at 20/1 to win the Heisman and Zaire 25/1.

That 92-yard drive by Zaire in the second quarter knotted the game at 7-7 — symbolic of the dead heat, perceived or otherwise, between the two QBs. Alas, there would be only one more series, not that either was going to procure a final decision from Kelly on who ultimately would be the starter in Austin.

Kizer answered Zaire’s score by driving his Blue team 65 yards with three completions, highlighted by a perfectly placed 13-yard outside route to freshman Kevin Stepherson on 4th-and-8 from the defense’s 38. Yet once the Blue had a first down at the Gold 11, it had to settle for a 22-yard John Chereson field goal with 27 seconds left until halftime for a 10-7 lead. A fade pass into the end zone to Stepherson failed, and on third-and-five from the six, a Kizer keep while faking the jet sweep managed only two yards.

Finishing with a field goal instead of a touchdown was a bit of negative residue left over from 2015. In last year’s two regular season losses to Clemson and Stanford, the opposition scored touchdowns on seven of its eight red zone possession (a field goal on the eighth), while Notre Dame tallied only three touchdowns on seven chances (once coming up with no points at all), which proved crucial in two two-point setbacks.

“We just had that conversation yesterday at great length — that we'll have to spend a lot of time in the red zone,” said Kelly of Kizer. “There were a couple situations today where the ball was in the middle of the field and he decided to roll left and throw, where he could have easily rolled to the right and thrown.

“Just little things like that, we've got to continue to grow in the red zone with him and come up with some touchdowns instead of field goals.”

After heating up on the fifth series, Zaire had only 27 seconds left on his final possession of the scrimmage. A dropped pass by Miles Boykin that could have picked up 20 yards on the first play hurt, but a 12-yard completion to Boykin and an 18-yard toss to Hunter provided a chance for a “Hail Mary” into the end zone that fell incomplete.

“I wish we had more drives,” lamented Zaire about both quarterbacks sitting the second half while he was just beginning to get warmed up.

For Zaire, the spring has been mainly about catching up to an offense that was tailored to Kizer’s strengths in 2015.

“I have my own repertoire of different plays that I can go out there and do,” Zaire said. “… I think that it would go a lot smoother if I was able to have the same mind-set and be parallel with some of those …

“We've got a new team. Last year's team is different than this year's team, so getting acclimated and adjusting to those guys, building chemistry not only with the tight ends and receivers and running backs, but also the o-line.”

That is partly why Kelly is torn about having to make the decision between the two. Zaire had at least earned the right to compete on even ground, but the spring had the double-barreled adjustments of returning from a fractured ankle and re-acclimating to schemes.

“What we didn't have today were some communication errors that we had earlier in spring,” said Kelly of Zaire’s progress. “I thought he really accelerated that end of his game, where I thought he was a little rusty earlier in the spring. Really did a nice job today and clear communication with his offensive line.”

The summer provides more opportunities to hone their craft — and their overall physical development.

“What size we want them, what weight we want them, how they are moving in that direction is very, very important in terms of their durability,” Kelly said. “These are guys that are going to run the football, as well.”

While Zaire has acknowledged that his relationship with former Irish quarterback Everett Golson could be frosty at times (Golson transferred to Florida State at the end of last spring), there might be more of a bond with Kizer.

“The good thing is that we had a relationship before all of this even transpired,” Zaire said. “So I think that the starting position — I'm glad he's on the roster and I'm glad that we are in a position that we can both be better, and I think it's going to help the team in the end.

“It’s good to have that relationship with another guy. We talk a lot but I think the most important thing is we always push each other to help our team win.”

“Our quarterback's meeting room has one initiative and that is to be a championship quarterback to represent everyone else in the room,” Kizer said. “When I'm out there I'm trying to represent everyone else in the room, and when he's out there he's trying to represent me and everyone else in the room.”

The quarterback dynamics such as this can be awkward anywhere. It can be at the NFL level, as it was with future Pro Bowl QBs Joe Montana (the righty) and Steve Young (the lefty) in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Or it can even be like the Matt LoVecchio-Carlyle Holiday dynamic in 2001 at Notre Dame. Both arrived as freshmen in 2000. LoVecchio had the best freshman season ever by a quarterback at Notre Dame (just like Kizer did as a sophomore), including 11-to-1-touchdown to interception ratio and rushing for 300 yards. Like Kizer, he led the Irish to the Fiesta Bowl. Yet one year later, it was Holiday who took over as the starter by the third game while the offense faltered from an identity crisis.

Kelly anticipates no such setbacks, but if Kizer is indeed the starter, the minute in a series, quarter, half or game he falters, the groundswell of support for the back-up — almost always the most intriguing or popular player among many fandoms — will ascend. It’s no wonder that Kelly wants to take his time on making any formal announcement about the starter.

“I think I'm going to have to make a judgment call,” Kelly admitted.

“I've never had in my entire career two quarterbacks that you could run the same system of offense with. At Cincinnati, I had a 6-6 quarterback that was a pocket passer, and then I had a 5-10 quarterback who was more of a perimeter-run player. These two guys can do the same kind of things and run the same offense.”

Managing those personalities and not creating internal turmoil might be Kelly’s top task in 2016. Naming the starter down the road will be both a relief and bittersweet.

“I can't keep them both happy,” Kelly acknowledged. “Somebody's going to be unhappy. I love them both. They both are committed. They are both great competitors. But somebody's going to be unhappy.”

Nothing that consistent victories can’t allay.