Notre Dame QB Malik Zaire out for season with fractured ankle

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Notre Dame redshirt sophomore quarterback Malik Zaire suffered a fractured ankle during the third quarter of his team’s dramatic 34-27 win over Virginia Saturday and will miss the rest of the season, coach Brian Kelly said.

Zaire suffered the injury on a running play and was unable to put weight on his right leg while coming off the field. He was taken off the sidelines on a cart between the third and fourth quarters and had an X-Ray taken at Scott Stadium, which confirmed his injury.

After Zaire’s injury, redshirt freshman DeShone Kizer stepped in and after some initial ineffectiveness threw a go-ahead, game-winning 39-yard touchdown to Will Fuller with 12 seconds remaining.

“It’s bittersweet,” Kelly said. “We’re happy we won, but we lost Malik, who’s a very important guy to us. I know our kids, they’re celebrating the win and they’re happy, but they lost a kid that they feel really strongly about in the locker room. They’ll bounce back from it. Kids are resilient. The coaches are probably feeling it more, me in particular because I’m so close to him, I feel so bad for him. But we’ll bounce back from it. DeShone now has gotta run our football team and we feel good about it.”

[MORE: DeShone Kizer, Will Fuller bail out Notre Dame at Virginia]

Zaire struggled throwing the ball Saturday, but appeared to have turned a corner with a 59-yard touchdown strike to Fuller on a drive earlier in the third quarter. The southpaw from Kettering, Ohio, exited Saturday’s game with seven completions on 18 attempts for 115 yards with a touchdown, and rushed 10 times for 87 yards.

After redshirting his first year on campus in 2013, Zaire started a 31-28 win over LSU in the 2014 Music City Bowl and clinched a victory in Notre Dame’s quarterback competition when Everett Golson transferred to Florida State over the summer. He completed 19 of 22 passes for 313 yards and three touchdowns in his season debut Sept. 5 against Texas.

A number of Notre Dame players went up to Zaire while he was still on the bench or in the locker room and offered words of encouragement to a guy who’s promising season was cut short after only seven and a half quarters.

“I told him we got you,” Fuller said, “I told him I love him, we’re going to do it, we’re good. Keep your head up.”

“(I) just let him know we’re here for him,” added captain and linebacker Jaylon Smith. “We’re going to do everything in our might to make sure he’s comfortable. We’re going to battle and rally for him.”

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