There is, unquestionably, no more talked about position on Notre Dame’s depth chart heading in the the Blue Gold Game than quarterback. With most of the ND faithfully divided into #TeamMalik or #TeamKizer, there is actually real potential for the QB situation to get sideways on Offensive Coordinator Mike Sanford and, ultimately, Coach Kelly. Make no mistake: Every coach in the country would gladly take on the challenge of managing two high-level players at the most important position on the ...
DeShone Kizer
The Case For Corey Holmes
Corey Holmes is the forgotten receiver on the Notre Dame depth chart. In this post, I'm going to make the case for why the redshirt sophomore should play - and hypothesize about what may be keeping him from the field. Holmes was a four-star prospect from St. Thomas Aquinas (Fla.), who was considered both "highly overlooked" and "underrated" by professional talent evaluators coming out of high school. Holmes' best attributes were his length, his speed and his route running ability. The ...
Can Kelly Coach Quarterbacks?
In today's piece, I respond to a comment made by loyal reader Irishize that called into question Brian Kelly's ability to coach the quarterback position. In six seasons since Brian Kelly came to South Bend, the Irish have played in, and lost, one national championship game and one major bowl game. They've won fifty-five games and lost twenty-three. But what does this mean for Kelly's success with the quarterbacks? To answer the question of whether or not Brian Kelly can coach quarterbacks, I ...
Don’t “Trade” Malik Zaire
If you were the general manager of Notre Dame, would you trade Malik Zaire for Florida Gators' linebacker Jarrad Davis and wide receivers Joshua Hammond and Dre Massey? David Kenyon, a Bleacher Report columnist, suggested this in "Ten College Football Trades We Wish Could Happen This Spring." Kenyon acknowledges there's no such thing as trading college football players (although Kyler Murray & Trevor Knight did a switcheroo that looked like one.) Kenyon's caveat was that his trades ...
Targeting Rule Needs Rethinking
There's an uncalled targeting incident from the Fiesta Bowl that still irks me when I think about it. There's about 40 seconds left in the second quarter. It's 2nd-and-10 from Ohio State's 15 yard line. Notre Dame's DeShone Kizer is flushed from the pocket, makes a move on a defender and heads to the corner of the end zone. He extends the football to try and score and, as he does, Vonn Bell launches himself in Kizer's direction and lowers his head...right into the quarterback's ...
Debate This: Malik Zaire is your 2016 Quarterback
Malik Zaire will be Notre Dame's starting quarterback this year. Here's why: Statistics Notre Dame's offense under Malik Zaire was more efficient than it was under DeShone Kizer, if we limit the statistics to each QB's first 212 snaps. (That's Zaire's career total.) Zaire had 46 snaps in what I'd consider garbage time before starting against LSU in the Music City Bowl. Kizer had 32 snaps against Texas (garbage time) and Virginia (big time) before his first start against Georgia Tech. ...
Debate This: DeShone Kizer is Your 2016 Quarterback
For college football fans, winter should be a time to rest the heart (and the whiskey bottle) after a stressful season. But this is Notre Dame Football. ...
DeShone Kizer’s Year (In Five Charts)
Throughout the year, Her Loyal Sons has documented DeShone Kizer's surprising and outstanding season. We've compared the redshirt freshman's hot start to the beginnings of the Irish careers of Everett Golson, Tommy Rees, Dayne Crist, Jimmy Clausen and Brady Quinn. Enjoy the following five charts. No matter how you slice it, Kizer has had a better beginning than anyone in the past 15 years. (You may click on the first two graphs for a bigger size. If you'd like to see the numbers, game logs ...
Should Notre Dame’s Sophomores Be Redshirt Freshmen? The 2015 All-America Team
Last Friday, Notre Dame's Sports Information Director Michael Bertsch posed the following question on Twitter upon the release of USA Today's Freshman All-America team for 2015: "Did Tyler Newsome and/or DeShone Kizer get considered for FR AA? Both freshman eligibility but listed academically (so So.)" It's a more-than-fair question, for it highlights a major problem with these postseason polls. Notre Dame lists its athletes by academic year. This seems to be held against them. Is this simply ...
Stanley Named Polynesian Player of the Year
The Polynesian Hall of Fame has named Notre Dame left tackle Ronnie Stanley as its Player of the Year. This is the second year for the award, which is given to the most outstanding college football player of Polynesian ancestry. Marcus Mariota, the University of Oregon's quarterback, was the award's first recipient last year. Mariota now plays on Sundays in the NFL, and it's expected that Stanley will join him there next year. Stanley was a key part of the Irish's success in both passing ...