With the Blue and Gold “game” occurring this past weekend, we’re reminded that 2016 Notre Dame football season will get here before you know it. (Here’s the link to our way too early Notre Dame football season preview by the way) When ND training camp opens up this summer, the top storyline will no doubt be a good old fashioned “quarterback controversy.”
Are you Team Malik Zaire or Team DeShone Kizer?
Or are you undecided?
In 2016, we all must make a choice and pick a side. There’s no better way to stay engaged during football talking season (which seems to get longer each year) then to endlessly debate who deserves to be QB1, and who should be QB2.
Whatever you decide, don’t find your gauge via the spring “game.” Spring football is important for the players and the staff. It’s 15 practice sessions to help the team get ready for the upcoming preseason. It’s not really something for the fans, or even really for the media when you think about it.
Spring college football is something that’s sort of appealing in a niche, kitsch, diversion from a diversion kind of way. It’s engaging and interesting to a point, but it’s not something to be taken seriously at all. Therefore, don’t read anything at all into the numbers put up at the Blue and Gold Game.
I’ve always felt that the Notre Dame football program does spring football right. They treat the intra-squad scrimmage “game” about as seriously as one should. (i.e. there were punts in the game, but no punt returns were allowed)
Likewise with the fans, as ND typically gets about 20,000 every year for the contest, and that’s just about the right size audience for something like this.
If you get less than a thousand, your fans just don’t care. If you get more than 75,000, then your fanbase, city, state etc. needs to take a long hard look at itself and really find out what’s missing in life. To some degree, there is an inverse relationship between how much you care about spring college football and the quality of your life/town/city/state/etc.
Getting back to the QBs, Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly said that he didn’t think anyone separated themselves in the QB derby. Kizer was the better of the two on Saturday, particularly on the early drives. Kizer finished 10 of 17 for 113 yards, but please remember to take those numbers with a grain of salt.
“Obviously Malik and I have developed to where we’re going to be and everyone kind of understands where we are,” said Kizer after the game.
He’s telling it like it is:
“This wasn’t necessarily an audition in one night.”
“I was able to take off that pressure, take off the competition and take off the stuff that comes with the final four. I‘m out there laughing and making fun of guys and stuff like that, that’s what this is for. As long as we continue to have fun and keep that mind-set that at the end of the day, it’s about having a good time and playing the game that we love and just a great game, and it’s a great example of where our guys are and how much we love the game.”
Like he said, laughing and making fun of guys, it’s what this is for.
Zaire wasn’t as accurate as Kizer, but he did have some passes dropped, which thereby deflated his numbers. He finished 6 of 15 for 120 yards. While Kizer was a bit better, it wasn’t enough to create a truly meaningful separation in the quarterback competition. If you had to pick a front-runner right this moment, it’s Kizer, but it was that way before Saturday, and that’s not really due to anything that transpired in Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday.
During postgame interviews, Zaire emphasized just how close he and Kizer truly are.
“I’m glad that he’s here and I’m glad he’s part of the team. That’s my brother and we work out every day and we get a lot of things done together,” Malik said.
“I think just having that as another teammate and another brother on the team is only going to help us get stronger.”
“I think him being on the roster is good for both of us to be able to learn how to operate in different circumstances and different situations.”
So get ready Notre Dame football fans, we’re going to have a fun football talking season, in advance of the exciting football season ahead.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram