SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The only thing that’s been resolved about Notre Dame’s quarterback battle is how the spring practice reps have been and will be divided between DeShone Kizer and Malik Zaire.
Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mike Sanford said Monday those two players have taken just about the same number of first-team reps over the last few weeks, providing each with a fair opportunity to showcase his skills. For example, if Kizer takes first-team reps in 11-on-11 work, Zaire will work with the top offensive unit in seven-on-seven and other drills.
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Those first-team reps are particularly important, given some of Notre Dame’s depth issues at wide receiver and offensive line (both of which will be helped by freshmen reinforcements coming to campus this summer).
“With anywhere with spring ball, it’s going to be challenging for the second group at times to get a great look at the quarterback group, especially some of the holes that might exist with your two group,” Sanford said. “That’s been important for us to chart exactly the rep distribution and it’s almost been identical, which is great. It’s worked out in terms of what we had laid forward for them in terms of how we’d split up the groups.”
Both Kizer and Zaire are being kept up to date on their progress from a data standpoint — every rep is graded and charted — but Sanford said it’s too early for any sweeping, big-picture conclusions to be made about either player.
It does appear as if Brandon Wimbush is on the outside looking in of the quarterback competition, which doesn’t come as too big a surprise. With Kizer and Zaire getting those equal first-team reps, Wimbush — who saw garbage-time snaps in a pair of blowouts last year — has had to run with the third-team offense.
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“He’s going to be behind, mentally, two guys that have not only been in a competitive situation but have actually played as the starter, prepared as the starter,” Sanford said. “So he’s got a ways to go there but he’s a quick study, I’ll say that. It means a lot to him. He’s very thoughtful in terms of the way he tries to internalize the information. I like his intellect a lot.”
Still, Sanford said he wants to see a certain sense of urgency from Wimbush. After all, Kizer was in his position 12 months ago — well behind Zaire and Everett Golson — and wound up being one of the most important players on a team that reached the Fiesta Bowl.
“We always want to focus on the top guy at any particular quarterback or position competition, but often times you’re only as good as your second, third, fourth group of players at that position,” Sanford said. “I think we saw that last year. The guy we weren’t even talking about in these (media) meetings a year ago ended up taking 90 percent of the reps in the season.”