Notre Dame To Play Two QBs Against Texas

It was a quick meeting, in-and-out, senior quarterback Malik Zaire said.

Junior quarterback DeShone Kizer said he’s had a feeling throughout camp that a decision like this was coming.

Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly met with the two quarterbacks on Tuesday evening to reveal his plan to play both in the Sept. 4 opener at Texas — a decision he announced at media day Wednesday.

It came down to one prevailing notion: two of Notre Dame’s top-five playmakers on offense are the quarterbacks, and he said he could not keep one on the sideline against the Longhorns.

“They have both have been outstanding. They both make plays. They both are playmakers,” Kelly said. “We would just continue to practice and continue to see both of these guys make plays. So we're going to play both of them at Texas. Both of them will play at Texas and both of them have been instructed to keep doing what they are doing. But both of them will play against Texas.”

Zaire, who was injured in Week 2 and missed the rest of the season, said the decision isn’t the “ideal situation.”

“I handle my job like a pro, I practice like a pro and you get cards dealt to you that are not always in your favor,” Zaire said. “The most important thing is to continue to do the things that you want to work on and just become a pro in that aspect.”

Kizer said he doesn’t know how the two-quarterback system will work.

“I’m absolutely committed to the mission of winning a national championship and he’s the guy that’s leading us,” Kizer said. “He’s going to be the one that makes the decision, we’ll see how it goes when the time comes.”

The offense, which achieved great success with Kizer at the helm last year, won’t suffer with the quarterbacks rotating, Kelly said.

“As it relates to running the offense, the offense is seamless when one of them would come out of the game,” Kelly said. “There's not a big change when one is in versus the other. There's play call differences, but that doesn't require much change at all.

“And then there are some situational down and distance and field position consideration that will go into that, as well. This is not a first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, fourth quarter, one guy plays the first and third and one guy plays the second and fourth.”

Kelly said he’ll play both of the quarterbacks against Texas and go from there. A plan isn’t in place beyond that, he said. Winning games is what’s important, Kelly said, even if that comes at the expense of the personal glory.

“I'm sure each one of them down deep wants to be the starting quarterback. Though they didn't show it, I'm sure they are disappointed; that they want to be the starter,” Kelly said. “But they understand that my decisions are based upon what's best for Notre Dame football, and not necessarily what's in their best interest.

“What's in their best interest is that they are the starter. What's in our best interest is that both of them help us win and help us beat Texas. That's in the best interest of Notre Dame football, and I make decisions as the head football coach as to what is in the best interest of Notre Dame football.

“Sometimes that's hard for an individual to understand, but they understand team comes first, and that's what's most important. There's always going to be that struggle with the individual versus the team. They clearly understand that team is most important and winning and beating Texas is more important than how they feel about the current situation. But down deep, I'm sure they are probably not happy with sharing the position.”

The formula isn’t laid out yet for how the quarterbacks will be used. Kelly said he hasn’t ruled out any possibilities, including how he’ll rotate them — by series or by play — or if he’ll put both on the field at the same time.

“These two guys are too good. I'm just watching them in practice every day and they are making plays,” Kelly said. “Then I watch our other players around them, and they are clearly not as good as these two guys. These two guys make too many plays.

“And it was just counterintuitive for me to take one of them off the field at the expense of putting somebody else on the field for so many more plays and saying, you're the No. 2, you're not going to play in this game. It just didn't make any sense to me. The more I went through this preseason camp and watched both of them make plays, and not just with the first unit. Malik would go with the first and he'd score. Kizer would come with the second and he'd score. And it was kind of like that the whole team.”

Can you talk about developing an identity for a team? Is it more challenging when you have two quarterbacks, three running backs and so many receivers; how do you develop it with so many diverse people out there?

COACH KELLY: Play calling. Play calling develops the identity. If you're all over the map in terms of what you're doing -- are you a team that is not committed to something; are you a team that is not balanced and can't run the football or is going to throw it every down. Your identity really comes from inside out and that is controlling the line of scrimmage.

So that's what I mean relative to identity. It's going to be plug and play with the quarterbacks and running backs, provided your system of offense allows to you grow an identity and we'll do that from some play calling.

Q. And does having two quarterbacks make your job tougher in that you have to try to keep two people happy who are going to be competing for who gets the more time, who gets the key plays, who gets the touchdowns, that sort of thing; who is the leader of the team?

COACH KELLY: Well, both of them have to lead when they are out there. There's no question about that. They have to be commanding the offense. They have to be clear in their communication and both of capable of doing that, or we wouldn't play both of them against Texas.

Having said that, it's never easy playing two quarterbacks. It's much easier just playing one. But we're in the business of winning and 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, too, 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.

Q. How is it harder -- and I'm curious more in the week during meetings. You can't practice more, so how is it harder for the coaches in terms of coming up with a game plan. Do you have to put more time into it? How does that all work?

COACH KELLY: Well, no, I think it's harder on game day more than anything else. I think, you know, quarterbacks want to be in a rhythm. Quarterbacks want to feel as though they won't get pulled out if they make a bad throw. They don't want to feel as though there's any pressure on them to try to force a throw to stay on the field, you know, and so I think that that's where it's more difficult.

And so that's where you have to be really good at what your plan is and how you're going to work both quarterbacks into the game, and the situations and the flow of the game. You have to get both of them understanding that if they make a bad throw, they are not getting yanked, you know. Or they are in a 12-play drive, and if you bring somebody else in, they have to understand the reasons for it. So that's a little bit trickier. That's a little bit more difficult.

• Junior defensive end Jay Hayes has a Grade 1 high-ankle sprain. Kelly said it's not severe, but Hayes was in a walking boot during practice Wednesday.

"That's generally seven to ten days but we'll take it each day," Kelly said. "We'll feel good that we'll have him ready for the Texas game."

• Devin Studstill and Daniel Cage both returned to practice Wednesday. Both had missed time with hamstring injuries.

• Josh Adams was still limited with a hamstring injury. He went through individual drills but did not participate in team sessions.

• Kelly said the captains list has been submitted to the faculty board for approval. He hasn't decided how those players will ultimately be selected.

"I haven't decided. We get the names first approved, and then I decide whether we are going to put it before you're unity council, our team or we do a limited democracy vote."