Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/561665
opened other elements of the run game to the tune of 263 yards. His passing was kept short and conservative (12 of 15 for 96 yards), but big plays downfield can be a derivative of a zone-read team (as it is for triple-option outfits). "Any time you have a quarterback in Malik Zaire that you feel confident that he could get the ball to your wide re- ceivers as well as balance out the num- bers in the running game as somebody that could run the football, it's a great equalizer in college football today," Kelly said. Despite not having the veteran Gol- son as a safety net — like he was versus LSU when he completed 6 of 11 passes for 90 yards and led the game-winning drive — Kelly maintained there can't be any more fear about Notre Dame run- ning Zaire than Oregon had last year with Marcus Mariota, or Ohio State with J.T. Barrett and Cardale Jones. "The game will dictate, certainly, those situations, but he'll be involved in our running game," Kelly said of Zaire. "I don't want to put a number on it, but one of our strengths is his ability to run the football. [He's a] big, strong, physical kid, so I'm very confident that he'll be able to neutralize the things that we're looking for that defenses tend to do to negate a running game. He'll put them in a very difficult position." Zaire's shining debut against LSU makes it a little easier for him to enter 2015 after having experienced some suc- cess on the field. "I'm not the new kid on the block any- more, so I think that the expectations that are out there for me should be high, because I have high expectations for my- self," Zaire said. Just like the entire team does. ✦