We don’t know who is going to come out the winner but we do know the timeline that’s about to set in place the future of Notre Dame football and rearrange the careers of a few high profile star athletes in South Bend. We’re just under a week away from the start of fall camp which means we’re roughly 3 weeks away from a starting quarterback being named by Brian Kelly.
There’s no doubt that from a viewpoint of 10,000 feet the Irish are sitting pretty at quarterback. There’s talent, depth, and enough experience to make most rest easy at night. In most ways, you can’t ask for more.
Still, I worry.
I know that seems crazy to some but if you’ve read anything from me on this subject in the past you’ll know I am deathly afraid of a quarterback controversy. And the reality of the situation is that some form of controversy is far more likely to occur rather than no controversy whatsoever.
The best-case scenario? One quarterback grabs the reigns early in fall camp making it an easy choice for Kelly and the QB goes on to have a great season both individually and as a team leader. The backup is never really needed, we feel guilty about it for a while, and we head into 2017 with one of the country’s top returning starters.
Yes, there are other permutations that can lead to success. For example, the named starter plays really well but gets hurt while the new starter plays equal or even better. Some might say that happened last year for Notre Dame.
Brian Kelly was on @jimrome yesterday and softened his stance on his QB depth chart being just starter and backup: https://t.co/gjz7lMwYXb
— Keith Arnold (@KeithArnold) July 30, 2016
Still, there are so many more avenues that can lead to a full-fledged quarterback controversy. For one, you need a quarterback to play at a very high level and that’s never easy. In addition, there has to be a consistency to that high level of play and the team has to keep winning. This is what bothers me. I have no doubt if the Irish are 7-2 in November with Kizer playing and Andrew Hendrix backing up that no one is calling for a new starter.
Can we say the same thing with Zaire potentially waiting on the sidelines?
Our friend Keith Arnold at Inside the Irish summarized an interview of Brian Kelly this past Friday while on the Jim Rome Show. Kelly stated:
“It would be great that whoever took the job over played so well that he’s going to be a Heisman contender. If that doesn’t happen, I can see both of them eventually playing.”
Kelly is a politician, there’s no doubt about that. Most of the time he dances around this subject while staying firmly anchored to the ideal that he’d like to start and play one quarterback. Occasionally, he’ll leave the door open to playing two quarterbacks. Mike Vorel from the South Bend Tribune had a story on Sunday titled “A How-to Guide for Selecting Notre Dame’s Starting Quarterback” with a pertinent quote from former Texas head coach Mack Brown:
“First, you have to handle the message to the fan base, because they will choose sides, period. They are going to have favorites, and it’s usually the one that hasn’t played as much, because (they think) he’s got fewer problems because they don’t know him as well.”
Prior to fall camp are we seeing Kelly trying to handle the message with the fan base? Kelly continued with Jim Rome:
“You’re going to need two quarterbacks in college football. You need two and we’ve got two very good ones. My expectation is that we need both of them to play.”
This is one of those Kelly interviews that leaves the door ajar. Yet, what is Kelly really saying? The desire of “needing” two quarterbacks sounds like an acceptance of the violence of the game and that injury is bound to happen. That’s not really playing two quarterbacks in a true sense. That situation happened back in 2009 at Cincinnati when Tony Pike was injured and Zach Collaros filled in–to this day people believe that was Kelly employing a two-quarterback system.
“I can see both of them playing” is a lot different when talking about injury versus switching quarterbacks when the starter isn’t playing at a high enough level or using both when each is playing really well.
All it takes is one game, one poor effort, one loss. In some drastic scenarios it might not even take more than a half of football. We’ve all seen the comments this off-season and the taking of sides.
The ultimate how-to guide for selecting a starting quarterback at Notre Dame: https://t.co/Mi9Ofb50zi pic.twitter.com/uluYQHfAqK
— Mike Vorel (@mikevorel) July 31, 2016
What will it take for someone who thinks Kizer is better to sit quietly and completely support the decision to start Zaire?
Kelly continued on the Rome Show:
“I think it’s so important to have two quarterbacks, be engaged, keep them involved and as much as they can try to get them in the game if you can. It’s a lot more difficult if you can do that. But that’s the way it is in college football, with the quarterback being so actively involved in the running game.”
That’s a little more detail but still clinging to the injury possibilities. “Hey, we run the quarterback a lot and the backup needs to be ready in case there’s an injury” is what I’m getting from Kelly here.
Either way, it sounds like Kelly is, at minimum, politicking in the media to assuage the concerns of his quarterbacks. Remember, for as much as this is about managing the play on the field it’s about managing the egos and the delicate balance of leadership and teamwork behind the scenes. Neither quarterback is going to be happy sitting on the bench and before fall camp the best way to keep smiles on everyone’s face is to say you’re expecting to play two quarterbacks.
Will we truly really see both quarterbacks when not dealing with injuries? If we do, I’d imagine we’ll see Kizer win the job and be announced as the starter. If things go well, we’ll see Zaire in very limited reps, initially in lower pressure moments while leading by 10 or more points, and in very favorable situations conducive to success. That’s about as good of a balance as you can create.
“I’m not going to have a quarterback controversy. I think we can move forward knowing that both of them are going to play in some fashion.”
The problem is that you can’t just declare there won’t be a controversy. This situation can easily be mismanaged and that’s without taking into account player performance. If Kizer plays most of the snaps and plays well there will still be a vocal minority shouting that Zaire can play better. And that will seep into the media and affect the team.
Who knows what roads will need to be walked down if the starter doesn’t play well. It’s possible the backup comes in and plays amazing. However, with two talented quarterbacks with experience the odds are likely that eventually a controversy will develop. In the South Bend Tribune article Kelly once again seemed to move away from any notion of a two-quarterback system:
“I’d really like for this to be clearly defined. There will be a 1. There will be a 2. But it’s going to be a very competitive situation, because they’re both very good players, and they’re both guys that can lead us to a championship. One’s going to have to be the starter, and somebody is going to be unhappy. But I can’t keep them all happy.”
All we can do is pray that a controversy doesn’t happen, that both players are mature enough to handle being unhappy if they’re on the sidelines, and that the team is committed enough to their goals to persevere through the drama and not let the issues negatively consume the season.
Totally agree with the best-case scenarios (one starter, #2 guy brought in if at all in low-pressure scenarios to get reps). Ranking the “other” scenarios – for simplicity’s sake, assuming Kizer is the favorite to start.
1) Kizer starts and takes vast majority of snaps, with Zaire brought in for some short-yardage and goal line situations (where ND was below average last year) to provide a spark. This will require some creativity to ensure Malik doesn’t become the “running QB” from a tendency perspective (hello, Daniel Smith), but has had some limited success in other programs (Leak/Tebow at Florida, Landry Jones/ Blake Bell at Oklahoma, Mason Rudolph / JW Walsh at Oklahoma State). Probably tough to manage from an ego-perspective, as Kizer would be giving up being the one who finishes a lot of drives, but keeps both engaged.
2) Some kind of series rotation – i.e. Kizer starts first two series and then Zaire comes in and takes the next. This is bad and is a SLIPPERY SLOPE to…..
3) “Ride the hot hand”. If one QB struggles or the other is on fire, switching to them mid-game (with future starting duties up for grabs). Both QBs will be looking over their shoulders on every mistake, the locker room and fan base will be fractured, and it’s a mess
I doubt there will be a full-blown controversy, but of course there will be rumblings on every Golson (INT or fumble) that the other guy would have done better. The Mack Brown quote looks really true, a lot of fans will always rally behind the backup because in their hypotheticals he can do no wrong (no matter which QB it is).
Since you mentioned a worst case scenario, I would think it would be is 3 turnovers and an early loss to MSU and then we probably is a tire-fire of a controversy. Best case, and what seems more likely is that one (probably Kizer) is named starter and goes on to have a fairly solid year while the other is understandably unhappy on the bench and leaves the program after the season. But, anything can happen and I think Kelly isn’t wrong to say that a team does need 2 good QB’s in this day and age. Maybe they can use the tOSU 3-QB situation from last year to help soothe the egos and balance the situation.
Whoa, sorry about all that, I definitely didn’t come here to play coding.
HOOKS IS A ROBOT.
I tried to clean it up but the rest of the coding isn’t showing up in the editor.
Worse than that, he’s a robot stuck in 2012 calling for Golson to keep his job.
So, he’s Kiwifan.
You rang, sir?
Golson went to Canada , hope he can break in there.
I’m really glad to find you guys. Found out about 18S through the list of voters in ranking the 2016 players. I thought I’d have to grit my teeth and put up with the vastly weakened OFD.
Life is good. You guys are good. All is well now.
YES!!!!
It wouldn’t be the same without you.
Likewise, KG. How’s the new career going?
I start at school next month, just got back last week from 6 weeks of intensive classical Japanese courses in Japan and am just about over jetlag, have moved out of my house in DC and am homeless traveling with the fam until Labor Day…the usual.
how the heck do you have time to write?
I don’t.
Welcome! Glad you found us!
Got it – it was there, there were just about a bajillion lines of white space first. Typical Microsoft HTML work, which is why Front Page always sucked. /webrant
It seems unlikely that we will get to your preferred scenario. Hard to imagine one of these guys decisively winning the job in three weeks. I think it will end up being a 53/47 kind of situation with lots of room for second-guessing.
I am nervous about the chirping that might happen from the backup. If memory serves, MZ already engaged in that a couple of years ago (complaints about reps vs EG). This is going to require a masterly psychology performance from BK.
As the Kelly quote goes: ““I’m going to have to make a judgment call,” Kelly said. “I don’t know when I’ll make it. But there will be a time when I’m going to have to say, ‘That’s our quarterback. Let’s go with him. We’re all in, and let’s move forward.”
For best results, I think that has to happen fairly early on in summer camp. Kelly and Sanford have already had a ton of time to analyze this through the spring and certainly must be at least leaning in one direction with all the data they have available. It’s just a matter of when to pull the trigger and formally announce the course they are going to take.
There will be second guessing no matter what, which sucks but is unavoidable when you have 2 at least “pretty good” options but can only take one of them. I hope Kelly doesn’t let it drag out too long, and I’m really confident he knows enough to know that.
If I were either one of these guys, this kind of quote would piss me off:
“If we do, I’d imagine we’ll see Kizer win the job and be announced as the starter. If things go well, we’ll see Zaire in very limited reps, initially in lower pressure moments while leading by 10 or more points, and in very favorable situations conducive to success.”
Flip it around with the names and both of them could find offense.
Zaire: “I won a bowl game against a powerhouse SEC team and won the job in the offseason by unseating the previous starter that was STILL on the team AND the other guy that I’m fighting against now. I did all of that and you think I’m only good enough for junk time and short yardage jobs? Screw you.”
Kizer: “I came in and led this team to a 10-3 record last year including a win over our #1 rival and I got us into the Fiesta Bowl. And now all you think of me is a junk time and short yardage QB? Screw you.”
Where there is controversy there will be pissed off quarterback(s). Of course, another option is one of them never plays.
BTW, that’s some strong revisionism to suggest Zaire won the job against Golson two springs ago. Let me guess, earning some starters reps and looking better in the spring game is enough evidence? 😀
He supplanted him because HWSNBSU fell apart in 2013. Similar situation for what happened to Kizer last year, but we didn’t have a better option to throw at O$U like we did against LSU
At least I know that if you can play pretend now you can do the same if Kizer starts in 2016.
Kizer “fell apart”? I must have missed that.
WELL YES BECAUSE OF COURSE WHY ELSE WOULD GOLSON HAVE TRANSFERRED IF NOT BECAUSE HE LOST THE JOB TO ZAIRE CERTAINLY WOULDN’T BE BECAUSE HE WAS UNHAPPY WITH KELLY AT ALL AND UPSET THAT HE HAD TO COMPETE FOR THE JOB NO THAT’S NOT IT.
I won’t guess at the outcome, but this figures to be one of the defining questions of Kelly’s tenure. The right call keeps ND a top 5/top 10 contender.
If Kelly picks Kizer, does Zaire walk into his office and ask, “DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE WORDS THAT ARE COMING OUT OF MY MOUTH?”
(Seriously – it’s creepy how much Zaire looks like Chris Tucker in that header pic.)
Personally, I really like Kizer, but I can’t shake the feeling ND’s ceiling is higher with Zaire.
No, no, no!
Malik is 100% Kevin Hart.
Zaires the better runner and Kizers the better passer. So, of course they will both play. I think the solution is just to turn the whole offense over to Book. Then you have a quality guy starting for four years.
Honestly though, CBK is in a tough position. To keep the non-starter engaged in the game is difficult, plus Malik’s whole family will be difficult to deal with if he isn’t picked as I remember something out of CBK’s mouth right after the injury to the effect of ‘when Malik returns, he is our starting QB’. Of course that was before CBK really knew what he had in Kizer. A tough position, however, better than having TFR as your only viable option. Of course I could be misremembering that.
I do think Malik’s charisma and personality make this a more difficult decision – he’s such a fiery guy that I think he does struggle (and admitted as much from the comments from last fall) when he’s not “the guy”. I don’t think that conflicts with doing whatever is best for the team, but I don’t think he’ll ever buy into the idea that he shouldn’t be starting, even if there’s numbers/practice evidence to back that up (no clue if there is or is not; purely hypothetical).
Careful, there. If you say his name 2 more times, he’s given an extra year of eligibility.
The Candyman fears saying “Tommy Rees” three times in the mirror.
When was the last time we had a QB go the entire season without getting injured? Is a lot of this “2 QB” talk likely to turn into “1 QB with Wimbush given garbage time reps?” I just hope it happens after the second game.
First off, I finally found everyone and got all signed up. I tried to give it a shot with the new guy at OFD but it was not going to happen and I felt like I would be in the abyss for ND news again, like I was before I was directed to OFD. Glad that you did not disappear altogher Eric. (took me so long cause I don’t have ‘the Facebook’ or ‘the Twitters’).
I want to see both quarterbacks play and be successful. That being said I know that what is probably best for the team is to have a clear No. 1 and No. 2 I do wonder how much personality will play into the decision for BK, knowing that both are good quarterbacks. I know that it can be really nice to have a quarterback who can get the team excited and get them to rally in a close game, it seems to me like Zaire is better at that, though I don’t know for sure. I think that it makes more sense to go with Kizer and I like him, I would love to see what Zaire could do with a whole season.
Crap guys, he found us. Who gave him the link? Was it you, larz?
Must admit…. it was me. No, really, it was.
Glad you found us!
“I know that it can be really nice to have a quarterback who can get the team excited and get them to rally in a close game, it seems to me like Zaire is better at that, though I don’t know for sure.”
You must be talking about the Virginia game. Oh wait.
Or Temple…Or even BC…
I don’t have a problem with Kizer in tight games, he’s proven that he’s a winner and (tongue in cheek) that he has the “clutch gene”. The next step in Kizer’s progression, as we’ve read a time or two here, is to be better in say the red zone and drive the offense to more points so some of the games against non T25 opponents aren’t so close in the first place.
Looks like he forgot to let the clutch out against Clemson…and OSU
You’re right…losing those games were all on him, and certainly had nothing to do with Breezy fumbling a TD pass on the goal line or a hundred other things. And how dare he tackle Jaylon late and cause his injury! While we’re at it, probably also his fault for making a game-winning drive 30 seconds too early against Stanford, too.
Good points, what was I thinking? A truly clutch individual has never, ever lost a game in a team sport, that’s my bad. Although, that greatly limits the list.
Did I say he singlehandedly lost that game? Did I say ANYTHING about blame? I just said he didnt play well. That fact is not debatable
“Forgot to let out the clutch” pretty clearly places blame on him for not being clutch. Yes, you singled him out. Wrongly. As Brendan rightly points out below, he played fairly well. You’ve staked out a position and are going to defend it, facts be damned. It’s cool, man.
Against Clemson? You mean when he went 19/34-321, 1 TD, 1 INT through the air, 73 yards and 1 TD on the ground, against the #7 FEI defense? Came within three feet of capping off an improbable comeback in a monsoon after the defense spit the bit in the first nine minutes of the game?
Against Ohio State? When he went 22/37-284, 2 TD, 1 INT through the air, 46 yards and 1 TD on the ground against the #10 FEI defense? A game where Ohio State could pin their ears back because we couldn’t stop their offense?
I like Malik too, but I don’t get the sentiment that Kizer hasn’t proven himself enough to be the starter, which I’ve seen in a few other places too. I’m not saying that he has it locked down, but your opinion seems to be that it’s ludicrous to think that Kizer could win the job. Despite being a year behind in the program, Kizer is far more experienced than Zaire – he now has 11 starts to Zaire’s 3, has attempted and completed almost five times as many passes as Zaire, and has rushed at roughly the same efficiency as Zaire.
There are reasons to believe Zaire should start, but “Kizer isn’t as ready for big time football as Zaire” isn’t one of them.
/breaks rec(up thumb?) button mashing it so hard
Good to see all the familiar
facesscreen names.One thing that Pete Sampson mentioned when he gave his talk about the Irish this May was that while both Zaire and Kizer want to be the leader, Kizer would be much more okay with coming off the bench than Zaire. Does anyone want to speculate whether that’s enough of a factor to influence CBK’s decision?
If anything, to me that’s a vote for Kizer, as it sounds like he’s more about whatever it takes to help the team.
I doubt Sampson said that he thought Kizer WOULD be coming off the bench. The guys at II have been pretty steady in thinking Kizer will be the starter.
I would really hope not. The better QB should start, even if it will be upsetting to the other guy. And, to be fair, it’s an upsetting thing to not be the starting QB. I don’t think temperament should play any role in choosing the QB, whoever is going to guide the team the best should be the guy.
Kelly should offer to cut the football in half and give it to both Kizer and Zaire. See which QB says “ok” and which QB says “no, I would rather let the other QB start than cut the football in half.” Whoever is willing to sacrifice his position for the sake of the football should be given the starting job.
Just don’t let Tom Brady be in charge of inflation. A nice plump, hard ball is easier to cut.
This whole discussion reminds me how lucky in sense we all are.
I can still remember thinking about the possibility of choosing between TFR and Dayne. I mean both were not exactly giving off good feelings on that one…..
Don’t sleep on Brandon Wimbush.
[…] Jones, a huge recruit in ND’s 2015 class, started five games last year and caught 13 passes for 190 yards. However, while those numbers might not look like much, he was the second-leading returning receiver on the 2016 team (Torii Hunter the only one ahead of him), and was slated to take on a much bigger role in the offense this season, no matter who plays quarterback. […]