Last week Notre Dame lost their top running back, Tarean Folston, for the season to a knee injury. This week, it’s starting quarterback Malik Zaire who is gone for the season, due to a fractured ankle. People love to throw around the cliche “luck of the Irish”with Notre Dame, but what exactly would you call this?
Losing your starting RB and QB by week two is as unlucky as it gets. So where do the Fighting Irish go now with new QB1 DeShone Kizer?
“Certainly DeShone Kizer doesn’t have the experience that Malik (Zaire) has, but we can run our offense through DeShone,” said Coach Brian Kelly after the game.
“He has a lot of weapons around him and we saw that tonight.”
“Teams have to overcome injuries. It is unfortunate, but it is what it is and we will find a way to put it together so we can win games with DeShone Kizer as our starting quarterback.”
There’s good news in that ND somehow won a game in which they were 0-10 on third down conversion. The Irish are the only team in the nation to beat two teams from a power five conference thus far. There’s bad news though. Yes, more bad news on top of losing Folston and Zaire.
Virginia is bad. In a very weak ACC, the Cavaliers are among the worst. Many national college football pundits had Mike London being the second coach sacked this season (they all had Tim Beckman first, so they got that one right). Yes, everybody calls Notre Dame overrated every September, but top ten ranked teams don’t trail lowly Virginia in the final minute.
Also, losing Zaire, a true dual-threat, really hurts an already thinning ground game as he was going see his fair share of rushes. Notre Dame entered the season with depth issues at tailback. Folston’s main back-up at the position, the former 5-star recruit Greg Bryant is no longer with the program due to his long list of off-the-field issues. Bryant, suspended from ND for the season, has re-opened his recruitment.
The Irish moved wide receiver C.J. Prosise over to the position this offseason and in his first start Saturday it took him just nine carries to hit a C-note. Prosise, who some believe is the fastest guy on the team, had the most rushing yards by a Notre Dame player since Cierre Wood’s 191 in the 2011 Purdue game.
Josh Adams and Dexter Williams will also see an increased number of carries moving forward. Although ND Coach Brian Kelly traditionally runs a pass-first system, the biggest strength of the 2015 Fighting Irish is in their run blocking. The offensive line is probably the team’s best overall position group, so we’re expecting to see 2015 feature a more ground-focused approach.
Of course, it’s hard to write such things given Notre Dame terrible performance in short yardage situations yesterday.
The good news is that Kizer has a healthy amount of confidence. You saw that in the deep bomb he threw to Will Fuller.
“I wasn’t going to be the guy to come in and lose a game for the Irish. I prepare way too much for me not to give my all during a game,” said Kizer after the game.
“I’ve been ready for a while. I have no doubt in my ability to be the quarterback for Notre Dame.”
Said Fuller in regards to the game-winning play: “It’s a crazy feeling. Time just freezes when the ball is in the air, it’s crazy.”
To borrow a basketball phrase, from famed announcer Bill Raftery, it was an “ONIONS!” play. If you haven’t seen it, or want to watch it again, you can take a look below:
Will Fuller!!! #NDvsUVA https://t.co/USyvBaHsRk
— Jarrett Payton (@paytonsun) September 12, 2015
So what do we know about Freshman Quarterback DeShone Kizer? Well, he only has three games worth of experience less than Zaire. He finished 8-12 for 92 yards and two touchdowns. Kizer is huge. He’s 6’5″ 230 and a true straight-up drop back pocket passer.
Kizer was a very highly ranked recruit coming out of high school. One service ranked him the 232nd overall player in the class of 2014. All the blue chip programs wanted him when he was at Toledo Central Catholic High School. Their mascot is the Fighting Irish, and they also use four-leaf clover as their logo.
This week, we’re all going to learn a lot more about DeShone Kizer, as he’ll be under the national microscope.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is part of the FOX Sports Engage Network. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous talk radio stations all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 the Zone.
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