Wednesday afternoon was Media Day for the Notre Dame football and as I’m sure you’ve heard by now head coach Brian Kelly stated that both DeShone Kizer and Malik Zaire will play in the opener on the road at Texas. Will they rotate each series? Will there be specific packages for each? What will happen against Nevada?

The answers to those questions were not divulged by Kelly. We’ll wait and see how it plays out.

I’ve been a fierce critic of messing around with any semblance of a two quarterback system. Still, I understand the predicament that Kelly is in right now and that there wasn’t going to be an easy solution available to him. If it was me I would have announced a starter and rode that guy all season. In the event that your picked quarterback struggles, then you bring in the backup and deal with a potential controversy.

I feel for Kelly because as he mentioned today, the quarterbacks were so close during practice and more snaps wasn’t going to change anything. I can’t blame him for this situation, although I still would have picked one starter anyway.

Here’s what I hate about the decision. First, it’s a huge load of responsibility for the staff to deal with. It’s true the offense ran very smoothly, especially when Kizer came in with so little experience, and that the Kelly/Denbrock/Sanford triumvirate exceeded expectations in 2015. However, dealing with this quarterback juggling leads to so many scrutinized decisions that will trickle down to so many aspects of the offense.

Two, how comfortable are these quarterbacks going to be? Sure, Kelly has only committed to playing them both against Texas so you’d think they’d be fine knowing that upfront. But, it’s still an audition for future games. One interception might send you to the bench permanently and it’s never a good situation for a QB to have that mindset.

Three, in the event that both quarterbacks play really well the “audition” simply continues to the next week. The juggling continues into the future just waiting to collapse at the worst time.

Four, this set up if it continues past Texas has the chance to swallow up the entire season and not in a good way. The thing about quarterback controversies is that they are like cockroaches–they can survive anything. If Zaire gets pulled and Kizer throws an interception people can claim Kizer wouldn’t have done that if he wasn’t cold. If Kizer gets pulled and Zaire comes in and does okay but not better people can claim Zaire would be much better if he could get into a rhythm. If Zaire gets pulled for Kizer and then goes back in later to turn the ball over or play poorly he shouldn’t have been pulled in the first place! On and on and on the arguments will go everywhere surrounding the team.

People often say, “I trust Kelly to do the right thing” but it’s not about trusting Kelly. I mean, he’s entirely fallible as a play-caller and gameday head coach and given enough time and short preparation time there will be mistakes handling two-quarterbacks. He might be better at it than most coaches, but mistakes will happen. I’m talking about can you trust the whole process? To me, that would be an emphatic no.

The receiving corps is young and desperately needs to build a rapport with a quarterback. Both short-term and long-term it’s better to give as many reps to one guy as possible. And the worst part is that Texas would have to prepare for both quarterbacks anyway had Kelly waited until the game time to tip his hand.

Now we wait until the first offensive snap to see who trots out on to the field as the 1A quarterback.

News & Notes from Wednesday’s Open Practice

Jay Hayes was spotted wearing a walking boot but fear not he should be fine. The defensive end is 4 days into a 10-day recovery from a high ankle sprain. Let’s pray it’s not a lingering injury.

Asmar Bilal continues to work with the 1st-team defense at weak-side linebacker during the media viewing practices. However, during his presser Kelly said that Martini is getting work at middle linebacker but is getting most of his work at the weak-side which is in “good hands” with Greer and Te’von Coney.

Kelly will ride the hot hand at running back describing Folston as the “inside” runner, Adams as the “outside” runner, and Dexter as the one who can do a little of both.

 

The confidence and compete level of Tony Jones and Chase Claypool has impressed Kelly. Then he turned around and said that both “probably won’t play very much.”

McGovern and Boykin were cited as players who will contribute this fall and that Kelly wasn’t sure if that would happen before camp. The former received the first reps at right guard today but left late in the practice to receive an IV.

Josh Adams continues to be used sparingly in practice as he’s nursing a hamstring injury. Studstill and Cage returned to practice for this viewing period with the former safety getting most of the 1st-team reps. Cage was with the 2nd-team while Jarron Jones remained with the starters.

Mike Elston stated during Media Day that they polled recruits and less than 10% watched the Showtime series last year. Hello, new B/R deal!

Defensive line coach Keith Gilmore said true freshman Julian Okwara is “expected to play.” Not sure I believe that but if so that’s a decision that could be on SRSB watch. That’s Stupid Red Shirt Burning.