First-and-10: As DeShone Kizer grows as QB, Notre Dame becomes greater threat
NCAAF
By Matt Hayes, @Matt_HayesSN
Published on Nov. 11, 2015
1. I don’t want to get on a soapbox, but …
Somehow, some way, we’ve reached this point again. Another third-string quarterback, another sudden and surprising championship run.
If you thought what Ohio State accomplished last season with a third-string quarterback was as improbable as it was unthinkable, get a load at what’s unfolding in South Bend.
Not only is Notre Dame surging with a third-stringer at the most important position on the field, the Irish have developed into the only team that can beat Alabama because of it.
“We’re not even close to our peak yet,” says DeShone Kizer. “We just know there’s something that’s very special that can be unleashed.”
So says the sophomore quarterback who began spring practice third on the depth chart, a mere afterthought in an offseason of quarterback competition between Malik Zaire and Everett Golson.
Then Zaire won the starting job and Golson transferred and Zaire broke his leg in the second game of the season — and the next thing you know, Kizer, the guy with all of one career throw, was forced into a game and heaved a perfectly thrown dew drop of a deep ball in the waning seconds to beat Virginia.
Just like Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly drew it up, right?
“This game is about adjusting,” Kelly said. “No matter what gets thrown at you.”
That’s exactly what Kizer and the Irish have done, persevering through six key season-ending injuries to starters and/or key contributors and finding ways to get better each week. But for a two-point loss on the road to the nation’s No. 1-ranked team in a driving rainstorm — on a failed two-point conversion to end the game — guess who would be No. 1 right now in the College Football Playoff poll?
The same team that has the best chance to beat Alabama — because of a third-string quarterback and a group of talented receivers. After stumbling early this fall, the Tide have clearly become the team to beat, despite significant problems defending the pass.
Ohio State exposed Alabama’s secondary in last year’s CFP semifinal — then-third string QB Cardale Jones and a handful of key throws won that game; not Ezekiel Elliott’s running — and Notre Dame looks poised to do the same if it can win out (Wake Forest, Boston College, at Stanford) and reach the CFP.
Now that Baylor QB Seth Russell is out for the season; now that TCU and QB Trevone Boykin are out of the playoff picture, who among the contenders has a legitimate chance to push the Tide defense with a dangerous passing game and — key point here — an offensive line that can protect?
Only one team: Notre Dame.
“He’s beginning to do some things — his pocket presence, moving around, his escapability — that he hasn’t done all year,” Kelly said of Kizer. “He growing quickly.”
So is the Irish offense. Case in point: last week’s game at Pitt, against one of the game’s better defenses and a guy who knows how to stop offenses (Panthers coach Pat Narduzzi), ND’s scoring drives lasted 75, 75, 70, 75, 50 and 62 yards.
The game is slowing down for Kizer, he’s learning to move in the pocket and wait scant, critical seconds while the back end of defenses open up, and his ability to go through progressions and make quick reads is gaining momentum. No one in the game throws a better deep ball, and no one has been able to cover Irish wideout Will Fuller (20.5 ypc, 12 TD), who consistently outruns bracket coverage from safeties.
“DeShone is putting the ball out there perfectly for me,” Fuller said. “The chemistry is going to continue to get better between us.”
And the Irish are going to get harder to beat, all the way to the College Football Playoff.
. . .