Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Under the Dome ✦ Gimme Five Against Stanford Nov. 30, Notre Dame fifth-year senior left tackle Zack Martin set the Notre Dame record for consecutive starts (51). He also tied the school standard for most football games played, which was held by 1990-94 outside linebacker turned nose guard Oliver Gibson, who was the 1989 USA Today Defensive Player of the Year. Gibson played three games as a freshman in 1990, yet he was granted a fifth season of eligibility in 1994. From 1991-94, he played in all 48 Notre Dame contests, including all four bowl games. Martin was redshirted as a freshman in 2009 and then never missed a start, all at left tackle, through Brian Kelly's first four seasons. Bearing in mind that 11game regular seasons didn't start to be played at Notre Dame until 1974 and 12-game regular seasons became the norm in 2006, here are the top five players with the most career starts. Player (Years) Starts Zack Martin (2010-13) 51 Sam Young (2006-09) 50 Tom Zbikowski (2004-07) 48 Maurice Crum Jr. (2005-08)48 Brady Quinn (2003-06) 46 Note: Quinn's classmate, offensive tackle Ryan Harris, started 45 games from 2003-06. Managing Malik The Notre Dame coaching staff has preserved freshman quarterback Malik Zaire's redshirt throughout a 2013 season, which was the plan all along. "I wanted to redshirt him," head coach Brian Kelly admitted Nov. 21. "I wanted a quarterback that was going to be a fifth-year guy … and we're going to get that with Malik." The Irish head coach said Zaire's freshman experience has been a valuable one. Despite a health setback with mononucleosis in the final weeks of camp and at the start of the season, Zaire regularly worked with seniors Tommy Rees and Andrew Hendrix as one of three scholarship quarterbacks on the roster, rather than taking scout team reps. "I took him on every trip," Kelly said. "He got to see the different venues. He got to see the pregame and the atmospheres across the country. He got a chance to see what it's like to prepare on the road. We wanted to give him that sense of what it's like and the preparation necessary to be the starting quarterback here. "He's been in every meeting. He did not go down on scout team for one second. He's been involved in every game-planning session. He just hasn't taken the reps, which he'll get a ton of reps when we break and get into the spring." While the outside assumption is that Everett Golson will be anointed the starter if the university readmits him in December, Kelly said that will not be the case. "We think there's going to be very good competition for that position with him," Kelly said. "And then we have to sit down with [senior quarterback] Andrew [Hendrix] and find out [whether he will return for a fifth year]." Toledo, Ohio, class of 2014 quarterback DeShone Kizer is also committed to the Irish for next season. Notre Dame Football tickets 2014 Games NoW oN sale Gift Certificates Available 1-800-925-2500 www.NotreDametickets.com