Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/669106
BY ANDREW OWENS B rian Kelly need only look 270 miles to his southeast for a template on how not to han‑ dle a quarterback competition in 2016. Ohio State drubbed Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, 44‑28, but only after it spent nearly the entire regular sea‑ son shuffling between quarterbacks and lacking an identity with the unit. Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer drew a significant amount of criti‑ cism last fall for the way he handled the quarterback derby between Car‑ dale Jones and J.T. Barrett. Not until the final game of the regular season — a 42‑13 win over Michigan — did the offense seem to fully click. "I think the lessons learned there are what is our identity going to be, and [the Buckeyes] clearly decided who they were going to be after [fall‑ ing 17‑14 to Michigan State Nov. 19]," Kelly said toward the end of Notre Dame's 15‑session spring practice. "They went with J.T. and said this is what we're going to be and that's who they were against us. "I'll make sure that doesn't happen to us. We'll have an identity. We'll know who we are. It doesn't mean you can't play two quarterbacks, but we'll clearly need to know that and you just can't keep three quarter‑ backs happy. Somebody's going to be disappointed, but they're going to have to know their roles and accept their roles moving forward." It didn't come as a shock when Kelly said in early April that he ex‑ pected the quarterback competition to remain unresolved once Notre Dame began summer workouts. With senior Malik Zaire and junior DeShone Kizer receiving equal reps in practice, Notre Dame will have a pair of talented options from which to choose this fall. "The two quarterbacks are really good players," Kelly said. "Each one of them has different things they need to work on. I think one thing we're realizing is we've done a lot of things offensively that we did not do with Malik in camp that we did as we evolved offensively during the year. There's a lot of things he's doing for the first time. "Knowledge base for Malik has been important in terms of the spring. He's needed the spring to kind of pick up some of the things we put in offensively during the year. It's been very good for him. It's hard to evaluate strictly who's ahead of who because we're installing for him. But communication, footwork, all those things, balance, those are the things that Malik needs to continue to work on. "THEY'RE BOTH NO. 1S. THEY BOTH PROBABLY CAN'T PLAY AT THE SAME TIME. ONE'S GOING TO HAVE TO BE THE STARTER AND SOMEBODY'S GOING TO BE UNHAPPY, BUT I CAN'T KEEP THEM ALL HAPPY." HEAD COACH BRIAN KELLY ON MALIK ZAIRE AND DESHONE KIZER