If you’re a die-hard fan of the dramatic television series Friday Night Lights (2006-2011) then you’re familiar with the term “QB1.” It was the nickname given to starting quarterback Matt Saracen. (Also, if you’re a die hard fan of FNL, there’s a very high likelihood that you’re an upper middle class caucasian female aged 22-31)
When Notre Dame football opens the season at Texas (where FNL was set by the way) September 4th, there will be no true QB1. Coach Brian Kelly announced today, at Notre Dame football Media Day that both quarterbacks, DeShone Kizer and Malik Zaire will play in the opener.
“Both of them will play at Texas and both of them have been instructed to keep doing what they are doing,” Kelly said in his response to the third question at Media Day.
He did not indicate who will start, and how the rotation will go, but he reaffirmed several times that both will play and that this is the decision he and his staff have reached at this point.
Usually, a Media Day doesn’t actually feature any news, certainly not any hard news.
Thus 2016 Notre Dame Football Media Day was refreshingly the exception; not the rule.
The QB derby or “QB controversy” has been the top storyline all offseason and all preseason.
It is the trending topic for Notre Dame football in 2016. We got closure, sort of, at least for now, on that issue today. Kizer and Zaire, or Zaire and Kizer will be QB1 A and QB1 B, to borrow the exact phrase that Northwestern Coach Pat Fitzgerald used during the Kain Colter and Trevor Siemian era.
Of course, that was a QB platoon where you had one thrower, and one runner, with neither QB a true “dual threat.” In South Bend, both QBs can throw and run. Zaire is considered to be the far superior rusher, but Kizer ran for the second most yards by a QB in Notre Dame football history last year.
Thus, both can throw and run, while Colter was limited in throwing capabilities beyond short range, and Siemian’s mobility/run game threat wasn’t elite. So the Northwestern analogy holds mostly from just a depth chart point of view.
Of course, don’t use the hackneyed “dual threat” cliche around Zaire. Or at least don’t apply the designation to the junior playmaker.
“I don’t know what a dual threat is,” Zaire said.
“Seventeen years later, 21 years old I still don’t know what that is, when it’s time to make plays it’s time to make plays whether it’s with your arm or your feet.”
“I don’t think people who use the term really know what they’re talking about. People who don’t know football will say things like that. There’s no such thing as a dual threat, either you’re a quarterback or you’re not a quarterback.”
Zaire basically said the same thing last year, and I’m very inclined to agree with him.
โAaron Rodgers is a dual threat guy. Andrew Luck is a dual threat guy,โย Zaire said at last year’s ND Media Day. (You can read the full quotes here at this link)
โYou never really see it very much with them moving the football down the field with their legs, but theyโre able to survive the play and make plays happen and Iย kind of see it as people who say it donโt really know what theyโre talking about when it comes to football.โ
Both QBs, Zaire and Kizer, were peppered with questions about the situation, as you would expect, and both handled all those questions with aplomb.
No matter the line of questioning related to the quarterback controversy, they both gave answers echoing the slogan of Friday Night Lights- “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose!”
“Well, I’m sticking to being a pro, you know,” said the 6-foot, 225-pound redshirt junior from Kettering, Ohio
“There’s things that you always can’t control. I can see that you take each and every day like a professional and treat it like a job. The more I treat it like a job and continue to train like a pro, things like that don’t really affect me.”
“I always look to have a positive outlook on the team.”
Zaire said all the right things, but his frustration with the situation was clearly noticeable, via his nonverbal cues. There were some verbal cues too as he responded to several reporter questions with “You got to ask Coach Kelly.”
Zaire has started three Notre Dame football games, all wins- 2014 Music City Bowl, ’15 season opener versus Texas, ’15 week two at Virginia, when he suffered the fractured ankle and was lost for the season)
The old cliche “a player shouldn’t lose his position due to injury,” doesn’t seem to apply in his case.
Kizer, a 6-4, 230-pound redshirt sophomore from Toledo, went 8-3 over his 11 starts, and he combines with Zaire to discredit the old platitude “if you have two quarterbacks then you really have none.” The Notre Dame football program has two quarterbacks because they have two quarterbacks.
Kizer says he doesn’t know how the dual QB approach will work. He doesn’t know what positives and negatives could come with it.
“I don’t know. I don’t know. I have 100 percent trust in my head coach and I’m absolutely committed to the mission of winning a national championship and he’s the guy who’s leading us,” he said.
“He’s going to be the one who makes this decision. We’ll see how it goes when the time comes.”
Kizer, like everyone else at most media days, gave the yearbook style answer to any queries that could inspire controversy.
“Coach Kelly has put forth his word that it’s best to have us best on the field and however that works is up to him. You know, he’s been (a head coach) for 26 years now. We’ve just got trust his instincts and whatever he feels is the right guy that needs to be out there, I’m sure he’ll make that decision.”
It’s not crazy to think that we’ll see both QBs on the same field at the same time.
“Yeah, I would. I would definitely consider it,” Kelly said.
“Couldn’t tell you (how he would do that).”
Neither Kizer or Zaire could tell you either. Both signal callers weren’t able to answer to that query today, and both players were quarterbacks in high school. During the Brian Kelly era of Notre Dame football, you can often expect unconventional occurrences.
“You never know at Notre Dame, I’ve known that since last June,” Zaire said. “Anything can happen.”
“Who knows I just do my job, treat it like a professional and roll with the punches.”
Paul M. Banks runsย The Sports Bank.net, partnered withย FOX Sports Engage Network.ย andย News Now.ย Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEyeย publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country.ย Follow him onย Twitterย andย Instagramย and Sound Cloud.
