Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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to "get momentum as a freshman." "It wasn't easy," he said. "A fresh- man going on the field for the first time is a big spotlight. That's a dif- ficult experience. But as I progressed through the games, my teammates trusted me, and that was the biggest thing. That bond that I formed with them helped me to be comfortable on that field. "And also the fact that I can prac- tice with DeShone over and over again — that has been very, very helpful." It's not often that the starting quar- terback also is the holder on kicks, mainly because of time constraints in practice. Still, it's a role the former backup QB Kizer takes seriously, es- pecially after several fumbled holds last year and further issues on several more misses in close losses to North- western (43-40) and Louisville (31-28) at home prompted a change. "We spent quite a bit of time in the offseason making sure that the issues that we had in last year 's sea- son didn't come back," Kizer said. "It was a regular occurrence after prac- tice for us to get 20, 30 holds just to make sure that we're staying perfect with it and that it'll never be a factor to get the ball down and get it up into the uprights when we need it in a game. "We work on it before practice, after practice, whatever we can, to build that chemistry," Yoon said. "We go to Thursday night dinners together. "I've been doing this for so long that it should work all the time. That's what helps get me through it." All he needed was a kick-start. ✦