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.
On one hand, I feel for Kelly, there’s been little to no separation between the 2 QB’s, and as he put it they are easily 2 of the top 5 playmakers he’s got. He obviously feels it would be wrong to bench one, and possibly risk alienating him right off the bat.
On the other hand, it seems like there’s no way this ends well. On a minor level the fans and media will dissect every decision. On a more important level it will be tougher for the player to get into a rhythm with rotating QB’s with major differences in styles and even handedness.
However, maybe the 3 QB gurus can figure out a way to make this work. Probably a slim chance but maybe the best happens and they pull all the right strings, make all the right calls and ND gets a convincing win over Texas with a 2-headed monster. Maybe they’ll get lucky and someone’s performance will stand out or Gotta hold out some hope at this point.
Ah, there’s the mid-camp sense of impending doom we all know.
So what’s the lesson we should learn from this: <pre><pre></pre>only recruit well every other year at QB so there is a clear difference between players<pre><pre></pre>
Darn the new formatting! now I think I get it <pre>test-test<pre>
nevermind. I’ve failed. This must be KG’s doing. No sarcasm font allowed.
I have it on high authority that sarcasm font is completely unnecessary.
Or, you could just put it @like this@ as we all know what that means from the old site.
It gets a little complicated, but basically, to give you the cool little editor box with the toolbar buttons we had to take away HTML code ability, which means no more <b></b> or <i></i> or <img src=””/>. For all of those it’s a positive to lose them, but yeah, we haven’t worked out a replacement for the actual sarcasm font yet – the last time I tried it I broke the site. So, not revisiting it anytime soon. 🙂
I would suggest going with KG’s recommendation – if you just put @ signs around the text we’ll all get it.
No worries. I just tried to look at the “site Rules” page and tried to follow the instructions there for sarcasm font. Now I feel better that it wasn’t me it was the site.
I don’t like this either. If you go with one, you make the other guy unhappy. But going with two has the potential to keep both QB’s unhappy and/ or always playing tight. Bill Walsh had 2 pretty good guys in Montana and Young, but only played one unless there was an injury.
i also agree with the notion that this will be tougher on the receivers, not being able to get totally in synch with one guy, and that unit is a big question mark this year to begin with.
hopefully this will work out better than the whole Golson affair.
By the time Steve Young got to San Fran in ’87, Joe Montana was already a 2-time Super Bowl MVP and champ and only 31, obviously not about to lose his job to a talented guy. Totally different than what we’ve got today with neither QB having that kind of resume or experience to have an edge as “the guy”.
I’d be fine with this if I had any confidence in the defense. To me, this team’s success relies on something like a 35 ppg output on offense because I just can’t convince myself that this defense is going to be any better. With that much pressure on the offense already, then we’re gonna play around with the quarterback position, it just seems like there is so much more potential for this to blow up in everyone’s faces than to turn out to be a positive.
1000 times this.
Fire VanGorder.
I have a bad feeling that I’ll be saying that a lot this season.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m agnostic about VanGorder this season. Clean slate.
I read on 247 that the defense simplified coverages a ton and will be playing a lot more single high safety man under type stuff. I think our corners are pretty good, so if they can just play and the free safety can just play free safety with simpler responsibilities, I’m hopeful we’ll be better. Given the slate of offenses we face, we almost have to be better, right? Right? I’m hopeful.
Would you rather use the blueprint from 2012, Golson named the starter, Rees came in for injuries and clutch passing situation?
That ended up working much better than expected admittedly. Although that was simpler because the fans/media pretty much universally wanted Golson. It was more of a higher ceiling vs higher floor debate between the 2.
This situation is different, because while you could argue that Kizer could fill the Rees role, both him and Zaire are both clearly talented and can win at the highest level albeit in different styles.
Still, I think I would rather have a starter named, perhaps internally they know who the guy is and are just using this as a misdirection to confuse Texas’ game planning.
Eric, this should make you feel much better. Pete Sampson posted a pay article on it, so I won’t paste too much, but this passage was too juicy to leave behind:
Oh boy…
http://www.scout.com/college/notre-dame/story/1697323-crossing-the-lines
Sounds promising!
Everyone here is all doom and gloom because of your fear and preconceived notions about “2 QB system” that you’re blind to what’s really happening here. Kizer was the MAN throughout last season, spring, etc. Zaire came from nearly nothing as witnessed in the spring game. There was no doubt in hardly anyone’s mind that Kizer was going to be the #1 because he had the record now that Zaire didnt, he had the trust of coaches and players, he was the real leader of the team, etc etc etc.
Fast forward today and now Zaire has overcome ALL of that against him and now he’s literally neck-and-neck with Kizer? That tells me Zaire is proving his value and his worth and that once games get started, he will earn his way back to be THE starter. This is no different than the Music City bowl, remember?
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-notre-dame-quarterbacks-music-city-bowl-spt-1216-20141215-story.html
“Both of them can help us win,” Kelly said. “I’m going to play them both because (they) have different traits and we need to find a way to win, and I think both of them can help us win.”
Even though Kelly admitted that he would play both, ONE guy got the bulk of the plays and proved himself superior. I have no doubt Malik will do so again. This is very good news for us
Ok, at this point I’m finally convinced that you are actually Malik’s mom. Glad you found your way over here from the old site Mrs. Zaire!
I am Malik’s rage-filled ego looking for a path to get out.
Malik doesn’t seem to have any problems letting his ego out. Not sure how many times we’ve heard/seen “wears his emotions on his sleeve” in the last few days, but they’ve about worn that phrase out.
I will take up for clearwall somewhat because the Irish Illustrated guys were just discussing how big a jump Malik has made this camp. They say he used to miss three throws, then make three great throws, but now his throws are almost all awesome. Apparently he’s been looking like what we hoped Golson would look like but never did. So it’s not just clearwall. The II guys who’ve seen the QBs in spring and fall camp are in agreement about how great Zaire looks. Or was it Mike Frank’s podcast I was listening to? Either way.
Pretty sure it was Mike Frank/ISD Power Hour.
I think you’re reading too much criticism into my “bat guano crazy”–I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think Zaire is a good QB. Clearwall has taken it to the extreme without evidence since last December, but now he’s actually got some evidence. Zaire is a good QB and I’m not anti-Zaire at all.
Clarification to my clarification–it’s not that liking Zaire or thinking he’s a good QB is crazy, it’s that Clearwall is crazy for Zaire.
Unless I dozed off for part of their podcasts the II guys are surprised by this announcement.
While I still think you’re bat guano crazy over Malik, I do agree that this hints towards Malik making a major move in camp. The assumption that Kizer would start has always been based on him being a “known” vs. Zaire’s largely unknown, as most people other than you think that the Texas game, starter but subbed out for Golson on passing downs against LSU, and a series at the end of a blowout loss to USC isn’t enough to say “yes, Malik is the man.”
Most of the talk I’ve seen (admittedly mostly from Prister and Sansom, et al) is that Kizer is the one more likely to check into the right play and give the whole offense a better chance to succeed, whereas Zaire is the one more likely to ad lib into something amazing and just make something happen. Both have their advantages and drawbacks, but their read that Kizer would be the starter was largely based on the assumption that a coach would rather have the guy who would do as he was told, rather than the one who would go off-script.
We’ll see how it goes, and I remain cautiously trusting of the staff. We’ve heard all along that both can do the job, just in different ways. As long as those different ways don’t screw up the O-line and receivers, etc. by confusing them, then whatever.
I’m totally good with Kelly keeping the water muddy. The message in August isn’t necessarily what the message will be in November, and that’s probably a good thing.
One quarterback is going to lead the opening series – that’s who we can take as the number one quarterback. We might see the other come in at times, but I don’t think we’re going to be seeing some 50-50 mix throughout the year, rotating series – I expect 90-10. And that seems entirely appropriate. If Kizer wins the job, would we really not want to see any Zaire all season?
I also kind of wonder if this is a reaction from the Golson situation. Kelly handed the job out early, then ended up losing one of the guys – and eventually both.
I just hope it’s not a “ooh we’re going to keep the opponent guessing so they don’t know who to prepare for!” tactic.
That never seems to have any actual value, and just seems silly.
I don’t think it is. It doesn’t really seem logical/necessary to go all smoke and mirrors on a team we beat 38-3 last season, even if they are Texas.
Maybe kelly is just calling his shot. ND by 50 against texas and both qbs play a lot.
But for reals, I have a really hard time envisioning a platoon being successful mainly because I’ve never seen it before. But the fact kelly is willing to do something others havent done before shows he is really secure in his position . Coaches on the hot seat or even mildly warm don’t tend to do bold things and this is certainly bold
Well, this is what happens when you have a clearly better runner going against a clearly better passer. I think this will reflect in packages tailored for each qb. But their skill set are similar enough that the overlap will allow continuity for the offense as a whole. If anything, maybe we will see a 1st team version of the SWAG team, remember them? Manball, fullbacks, triple options to pummel the defense to soften them up for the air raid (or vice versa). In any case, I ain’t stressed about this. 14-0! Go Irish!
Structure within the system relieves the stress of “who is playing when”. Kelly has been through this for a long time; too long to allow this twin headed blessing to turn into a curse. Even if we (fans) don’t know his structure, it is likely the team will know the structure (Kizer 90% and MZ non-passing red zone downs?) and handle it better than many anticipate. If one player doesn’t handle it well – that player would likely face demotion, possibly transfer, and the system will flourish regardless. It is the beauty of a well run system, and the consistency of the last few years is good evidence for optimism. Kelly clearly has a system and knows how to use structure to get pretty high levels of performance out of his players, especially on offense.
More evidence: he was able to win with D2 talent Reese and the raw turnover machine Golson. Amazing.
I think that’s a good point. We don’t know how Kelly is planning on using the QBs. Maybe he’ll rotate them every series (unlikely but possible) or maybe one will get a majority of the snaps with the other coming in for certain situations (more likely but who knows). Florida won a national title with Tebow playing a very specific role as a freshman and Oklahoma used Blake Bell in the same way. Not that Zaire or Kizer are the same type of player as those two (baby rhino playing QB specializing in picking up 3 yards on 3rd and 2) but I can see a package similar to that. And maybe sharing the QB duty just means one will get 5-10 snaps.
OR MAYBE IT MEANS BRIAN SMELLY WILL ROTATE THE QB’S EVERY PLAY, NEVER LETTING THEM GET INTO RHYTHM, AND WE’LL BE LUCKY TO PICK UP A FIRST DOWN AND FORGET RED ZONE SCORING WE’LL NEVER GET THERE WE’RE GOING 0-12 OH PLEASE FIRE HIM NOW AND BRING IN STOOPS
lol nice. brian smelly. hehe
And he gets a +1 for the Stoops mention, too. Well done indeed, KG.
Alright guys, here’s why this is an awesome idea:
Let’s say you name Kizer the starter. Brian Kelly doesn’t think this offense will play to its potential against Texas. He said it will take some time. Question marks at receiver and all. But the offense should have a high floor because we have a good line and good backs so I hope we can grind out a win against Texas by running a lot if we have to. Cue the narrative: Zaire is a better runner (and i believe it). I really do think it’s more likely we’ll lose against Texas if we commit to Kizer being the starter unless he has a short leash. Better to give both quarterbacks snaps and let Zaire have all the snaps toward the end if we need to grind Texas down because the passing game isn’t clicking. I don’t expect this to happen by the way. I think either quarterback will probably beat Texas.
This is an interesting take, MDIRISH. I was pretty much ready to punch myself in the package ala Dwight Schrute when I heard the “both will play” news. Murtaugh’s post did not help my situation. But you and clearwall have posited some not-vomit-inducing explanations of how this might not be a completely awful idea and could work out okay. So I will hold out hope.
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If you really wanna know:
I started commenting toward the end of the ancien regime at OFD after the 2015 season ended and there weren’t many comments to be read. My family have rooted for ND football for generations. I’m not an alum although my cousin is starting grad school at ND and we’re all very proud. I found OFD by googling “Notre Dame football blog” one day. I was pleased to find 18S after an illicit comment at OFD tipped me off to the new site.
Did he actually say both of them will play….at Quarterback? Perhaps one of them has been moved to safety…
Well we all know Zaire is better at (defending) the pass and with his size Kizer is better (against) the run..
Seeing as Kelly said in the spring “there will be a starter and there will be a backup”, this could change tomorrow. Kelly could just be trying to get one or both QBs to stop pressing. Who knows his real reasons? Reports were that Sanford seemed to find out in the press conference of Kelly’s intentions.
It could also be that he will use the first two games as an extended tryout. I see this being figured out by Mich. St. though. By that I mean that if there is not a clear cut starter, each will have a more defined role.
@Or, I could be way off base but, I felt I had to comment.@
Ohio State thought they had it figured out by Michigan State last year. Of course, that was game #10 or something for them…
One thing I’ve seen brought up–with Malik’s…um…”type A” personality, perhaps this is how BK thinks he can keep Zaire engaged and from being a distraction. From the discussion on the II podcast, both QBs seemed surprised and a bit shocked they weren’t named starter, but Kizer quickly went into the PC “I’m disappointed and think I can do the job but it’s about helping the team to win” mode, while Zaire was a bit more obviously angry about it. They floated the idea that Kelly maybe felt if he named Kizer now, he loses Zaire (and Zaire’s vocal enough to make an issue out of it in the locker room), whereas if he names neither, there was a chance Zaire stayed on-board and didn’t turn it into a team-dividing issue. From the reactions of both QBs, it seems that if that was Kelly’s idea, it probably didn’t work.
I’ll admit, I’m torn–on the one hand, I love Malik’s confidence and you want that type of drive from your players. On the other hand, if a player with that level of self-confidence, believing they’re the greatest, etc., doesn’t get named the starter, then they can be quite a disruption. It’s kind of why the 2 QB thing never seems to work. I just hope we don’t copy tOSU from last year, with BK naming the outspoken, more exciting QB on the field in the first game, only for the more steady QB to have been the right choice (until that steady QB goes and gets a dumb DUI).
As much of a distraction as Zaire might be, can you imagine what Clearwall will be like?@
Note the use of only one @, as I’m only half kidding.
If that were true and it didn’t really work, would it have been much better for not trying and just naming Kizer the starter?
At some point, if that is true, it would have to blow up in your face no matter what you do unless Kizer got hurt and Malik was the starter.
What can a head coach really do in that case then besides trying harder to convince that guy to be a team player?
I don’t know, but it’s why a CFB head coach gets paid millions of dollars a year, and I don’t. And I have no idea if it’s true or not–we’re all, even the press types, looking at this from the outside and projecting based on snippets of comments. But Kelly’s in a no-win situation, unless we win every game convincingly, because the second whichever QB playing has a bad play, turns the ball over, etc. it’ll be “well, clearly the other one wouldn’t have done that.”
At least if he’d named one starter now, we’d have time to get behind that guy, though of course not everyone would. We’d be able to assume that there was separation in practice, even if we didn’t see it, if we felt like trusting the coaching staff (which, I would). The only way I see 2 QBs coexisting like this is A. if they can be completely unselfish and buy in, which it appears neither of them really is keen to do, and B. if they have a different enough skill set that situational substitutions make sense. We joke about the better runner/better passer thing, but they’re really not all that different–certainly not like a Leak/Tebow sort of difference, where you’d bring one it to just bowl over the D and get that 3rd and short. Frankly, I’d feel a lot better if either one of them had been named starter, and from a less drama standpoint, it’d be better for it to have been Malik, if they were even.
Or, put them both in the backfield.
The thing that really troubles me is that Zaire’s comments already are on the verge of being divisive.
It’s OK to feel that way, and maybe he’s even right, but I don’t like him being that direct about it with the media. Given what we’ve seen of his, ahem, self-confidence, I’d imagine he’s unlikely to change his opinion even if he performs objectively worse than Kizer. Could make for a fun ride this season.
Yeah. It’s not QUITE enough for me to go “harrumph harrumph, not a team player, he’s a me-guy” but it makes me uncomfortable, for sure.
What I don’t get is this: WHY THE HECK DID HE TELL THE MEDIA?
Anyone who owns a TV or internet and has ever watched any level of football knows that the media will blow up about playing 2 QBs. On top of that ND isn’t know for having level headed, patient or reasonable fans.
If you say nothing, Texas still needs to prepare for both. You can still tell the team whatever you want. Maybe something leaks, but then it’s just rumors.
There are plenty of legitimate and probably good reasons (short and long term) to play 2 QBs against Texas. But I see zero good reasons to tell the media.
I was firmly on team “Kizer is incumbent starter unless someone (presumably Zaire) surpasses him, like all other positions, which means 2015 should be the floor for QB play, so I really don’t care who actually starts and I just want to stop reading about it online.
So the thing I hate most about this decision is that it is public and now it has drastically cut all legitimate quality interesting internet content about ND football in half.
Me theory: BK is trying to pull an NFL move and release news that will create a media firestorm but is actually a non-issue before attempting to silently release something significant and baaaad.
I hate how much sense your theory makes.
And… Devin Butler is in jail. How could BK have known he would need everyone focused on everything else?
Seems it’s gonna get worse than Butler.
The ESPN report I saw said 5 other Irish players were arrested in a separate incident. I assume that meant football. @Maybe Kizer or Zaire was one of those 5 – would make this a lot more simple.@
Neither QB, but Coney and Redfield were projected starters and White and Stepherson were on the two deep, plus Williams who was the third RB, and I can’t think of a year when we didn’t go at least three deep at RB.
I blame juicebox.
Juice someone asked him if he announced this now so that Zaire/Kizer could just relax and not feel like they have to win the job on every play and Kelly said “I did this for a reason”; the implication seemed to me that his answer was a “yes”, that he did this so they could relax and prepare for Texas rather than thinking about winning the job.
Now this makes almost no sense to me because of course as soon as one guy makes a few more mistakes than the other Kelly will probably name that guy the starter or at least keep going with him since he said he’d go with the hot-hand like running back last year. So I have no idea how this helps them relax and prepare for Texas.