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him. … There's a lot of room for growth and im‑ provement." Ironically, much of it had to deal with Zaire's reads on running plays (nine carries for 16 yards), which was thought to be his forte. "He should have been nine carries for 60, 70 yards, maybe more," Kelly said. "He knows where he needs to get better in that. "What I like most was his accuracy in throwing the football. The thing we need to work on is some fundamentals in the running game … and some com‑ munication things with protection and obviously with cadence." Expected to carry the ball about eight to 15 times per game, Zaire has always had a knack to avoid huge, square hits, but there is a balancing act there, too, of picking his spots. "We want him to get the first down and get out of bounds — but we want him to get a first down," Kelly said. "There was actually one run we didn't want him to get out of bounds on. We feel comfort‑ able that he's smart enough and has good enough vision that he'll know when to get out of bonds to avoid the kind of hits that are really needless." Other personnel notes: • At 5‑10 and 195 pounds, fifth‑year senior slot receiver Amir Carlisle, who grabbed three passes for 55 yards against Texas, is a much more physical player than when he played running back in 2013. "He was a good back, but we didn't get the production inside the tackles at times from him," Kelly said. "He really transformed himself physically this past year. He is so much stronger. … He ran through defenders, and I think that was his dedication and desire to want to be that kind of breakaway runner." • Another overshadowed figure last year while making the transition from wide receiver, Sam line‑ backer James Onwualu, was referred to by Kelly as "one of the best cover linebackers that I've seen" while having a knack at re‑routing receivers. • Graduate student, Cal transfer and safety Avery Sebastian suffered a broken foot versus Texas while on special teams and will be sidelined four to six weeks. He is the No. 3 strong safety behind senior Elijah Shumate and sophomore Drue Tranquill. • Sophomore punter Tyler Newsome also serves as the kickoff man not necessarily because his leg is much stronger than freshman kicker Justin Yoon's, but because of ball placement that better allows the Irish coverage team to pin the opponent inside the 25. "Tyler was able to get the ball specifically where we wanted it, and that was pinning it inside the hash consistently," Kelly said. "We feel we could go to Yoon at any time as well, but we just liked Tyler's hang time a little bit better, and his ball placement." UNDER THE DOME Malik Zaire threw for 313 yards and three touchdowns versus Texas, but managed only 16 rushing yards on nine carries. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA

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