Having too many capable quarterbacks is a problem many wish they could have. Like having too many good flavors of ice cream available, or too many members of the opposite sex interested in you. (I'm not speaking from experience on that last one.) It's a good problem and, yet, still a problem, one that's too often devolved from "healthy competition" to "unending melodrama" and has denied many a team from reaching its full potential. See: Ohio State, 2015. In Notre Dame's case, full potential includes the program's first national championship in 28 years. There's a lot at stake here.
This enviable yet thorny problem has presented itself to Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly, who announced Wednesday he will play both Malik Zaire and DeShone Kizer in the Fighting Irish's opener at Texas on Sept. 4.
“It's never easy playing two quarterbacks,” Kelly said. “It's much easier just playing one. But we're in the business of winning. So if it's a little bit harder on us, then we can make that work, if the net is we win the football game. Yeah, there's no question that some people shy away from this kind of business in terms of playing two, because it's easier to just play one. My job is to win, and my belief is playing both of them gives us a better chance to win.”
Neither Zaire nor Kizer seemed thrilled with Kelly's decision, and perhaps that's by design.
Kelly is hoping the crucible of game competition will do what a spring, summer and now first half of fall camp could not: inspire one quarterback to lift himself above the other. And chances are it will.
But it's not a guarantee.
Both of these players are really good, after all. Zaire played like an early bird Heisman candidate before losing his season a game-and-a-half in to a broken ankle, hitting 26-of-40 throws for 428 yards -- an outrageous 10.7 yards per attempt -- with four touchdowns and no interceptions while rushing 19 times for 103 yards. Playing in Zaire's stead, Kizer performed with a maturity well beyond his years, starting with his game-winning touchdown pass to finish off Virginia after Zaire was lost to injury. Kizer kept the Irish in the national championship hunt until the final play of their regular season as a redshirt freshman, hitting 63 percent of his throws for 8.6 yards per attempt with 21 touchdowns against 10 interceptions while adding another 520 yards and 10 scores on the ground. He was one of two first-year players to rank among the top 25 nationally in passing efficiency.
Both of these guys are really good. That's kind of the problem.
So, what should Kelly do in the event his see-saw quarterback battle continues from the practice field to Saturdays?
Kelly should play both, but not in the my turn/your turn style typical of most two quarterback systems or the early LeBron James/Dwayne Wade Miami Heat days. No, both quarterbacks can play, but Kelly and offensive coordinator Mike Sanford would need to clearly define each quarterback's role.
Oddly enough, Notre Dame could look across the sideline on opening night for inspiration.
Tyrone Swoopes started the 2015 campaign as Texas's starter, but lost his job after an awful 7-of-22, 93 yard performance in a 38-3 Notre Dame stomping to open last season. But rather than let him sit and rot on the bench, Charlie Strong and then-offensive coordinator Jay Norvell revived Swoopes's career by turning him into a short-yardage specialist. The "18-Wheeler" package accounted for 16 of Texas's 36 total touchdowns on the season.
There are other examples, obviously. There was the Oklahoma's "Bell-Dozer" package with Blake Bell and, of course, the most successful quarterback platoon usage of the spread era, Urban Meyer's handling of Chris Leak and Tim Tebow on Florida's 2006 run to the national championship. Neither Zaire nor Kizer boast the physical prowess of a Swoopes, a Bell or a Tebow, but both are more complete quarterbacks than any in the previous group were at the time. Simply inserting a Tebow, a Bell or a Swoopes provided the everyone in Longhorn, Sooner or Gator colors the equivalent of a Red Bull IV every time they entered the game.
Using one as a short yardage-and-red zone specialist wouldn't have to mean asking him to shed four tacklers on a quarterback draw everyone in the stadium knows is coming, but it could still reap the same benefits in giving both quarterbacks a defined role on the team -- and keeping both engaged in case one happens another injury strikes -- while also saving the regular quarterback from taking some unnecessary blows.
Or, one could light up the Austin sky on Labor Day Sunday to a degree that Kelly simply couldn't remove him from the field. Like having a schoolyard crush come up and declare their love with a kiss on the cheek, that's an outcome Kelly would be happy with presenting itself.
