DeShone Kizer carries the football during a summer practice. The sophomore quarterback has been named starter for Saturday’s home opener against Nevada. Stephanie Sokol/The Pit
After an entire offseason of speculation and a tough season-opening loss to the Texas Longhorns, Notre Dame football has finally made a decision on who will lead the offense.
DeShone Kizer revealed Wednesday that Head Coach Brian Kelly informed him that he would see the first snap for Saturday’s home-opener against Nevada.
“I had a conversation with coach Kelly today and he decided that this week that I was going to get the first snap for sure,” he said. “He kind of congratulated me on fighting through the process and encouraged me to maintain the same mindset and just ensured me that I would be the guy on Saturday.”
During a press conference Tuesday, Kelly said that he had yet to make a decision nor that he had had time to talk with either Kizer or Malik Zaire. Kelly did say it was a decision he was looking to make this week.
Both quarterbacks saw action against Texas last weekend, but it was Kizer the shone brightest on the field.
Kizer had 215 passing yards and five touchdowns, while rushing 77 yards and a touchdown to give him a hand in all six Irish touchdowns. Zaire rushed for just 11 yards and threw for 23.
Despite the news for this week, it is likely possible we’ll see both quarterbacks play quite often.
“We plan on having two really good quarterbacks the rest of the year,” Kelly told media on Tuesday. “I haven’t sat down and talked with to either one of them, so before we do that we don’t have any plans to make any decisions.”
In the preseason, the Notre Dame coach hinted at the possibility of seeing both Zaire and Kizer on the field at the same time. It has been discussed that Zaire could move to a wideout role moving forward. Fuel has been added to this discussion since Torii Hunter, Jr.’s injury against Texas that has him going through concussion protocol, leaving the receiving core depleted.
When discussing the decision, Kelly said that being the number two quarterback is all about attitude.
“First of all, it’s about your attitude and your attitude has to be such that whoever the number two is, whether he’s the number two quarterback or running back, you’re one play away from being in there,” the coach said. “So you can’t let your teammates down and you can’t let yourself down. You have got in the way of yourself from preparing the way you need to to lead your football team. That’s really 99-percent attitude and accepting the role that you have. If you can’t accept the role then you need to move out of the way and let somebody go into that role that can accept it and prepare themselves accordingly, so when they are called upon they’re ready to play. So to me it’s really – it’s all about the attitude.”
The No. 18 Notre Dame Fighting Irish open a three-game home slate Saturday against the Nevada Wolfpack, with a 3:30 P.M. EST kickoff.
DISCUSSION: Is DeShone Kizer the right guy to lead the Irish offense, and where would you like to see Malik Zaire positioned outside of the quarterback role?
