DeShone Kizer doesn't want to haunt Notre Dame with turnovers

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SOUTH BEND, Ind. — For the first time in his college career, DeShone Kizer has a complete game’s worth of film on which to evaluate himself.

Kizer completed 21 of 30 passes for 242 yards with a touchdown and an interception against Georgia Tech on Saturday. For his first start, it was a solid game, one in which he only made one egregious mistake — the interception he threw in the end zone in the second quarter — but still had plenty of things to clean up.

Coach Brian Kelly said Kizer needs to improve his ball security, a problem that created some nail-biting situations outside the pocket against Georgia Tech.

“I was a little bit concerned with the ball being a little bit loose at times,” Kelly said. “(The) ball came out one time, a screen situation, where it was intentional grounding, but we've got to eat that. I think there was another time on a run where the ball came out at the end of a run.”

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Kizer explained those issues as a bit of a college wake-up call.

“The last game I played, other than a couple plays in Texas, and then Virginia, was a high school football game,” Kizer said. “I was bigger and stronger than most people. I tried to always extend the play. I never felt like the play should ever die and that kind of gamer mentality might haunt me, coming up and playing against guys that are a little more experienced and understand how to track down a quarterback deep in the pocket.

“It's just a mindset that I need to change, being able to understand the protections and understand that it's not always going to be a big play ball, and be able to ground the ball here and there and throw it out-of-bounds. It's something I'm going to work on this week and it's something that hopefully should be an easy fix for me with a change of mindset.”

It’s no secret how much turnovers have hurt Notre Dame over the last few years. The 22 charged to Everett Golson were a starting point for 2014’s 8-5 season, while a turnover-prone Tommy Rees quarterbacked the Irish to eight- and nine-win seasons in 2011 and 2013, respectively.

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Notre Dame’s defense has oscillated between being strong and leaky through three games this year, but overall has struggled in the red zone, allowing five touchdowns in eight opponent trips inside its 20. A rash of ill-timed turnovers could put far too much pressure on the Irish defense, so it’s important to eliminate any minor issues that could turn into something bigger later in the year.

Kelly, too, said Kizer needs to refine his footwork — which Kizer admitted led him to throw some “dirtballs” against Georgia Tech — and be better with his cadence, which led to a number of uncharacteristic false start penalties on the offensive line.

These are all issues that can be fixed, especially now that Kizer knows what to expect on Saturdays as Notre Dame’s starting quarterback.

“For me, everything now is going to start repeating,” Kizer said. “And I have to learn how to get things rolling and take one game to the next and how to go from one week of great preparation to another week of great preparation and get a rhythm of how a season is going to turn out being the starting quarterback.”

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