Blue & Gold Illustrated: 2012 Notre Dame Football Preview
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BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2015 FOOTBALL PREVIEW ✦ 29 • The starter in 2011 and 2013, Rees fin- ished with exactly minus-56 yards on the ground both of those years, and the zone read was not a real threat in the offense be- cause defenses knew Rees was unlikely to keep the ball. • In 2012 and 2014, the Irish had Everett Golson at the throttle. Golson was dynamic with his feet, a master of improvisation when a play broke down — but that didn't necessarily make him a classic dual-threat QB. Golson finished with 298 rushing yards during the 12-1 season in 2012, the most by a Notre Dame quarterback in 11 years. Last year, Golson added 283 yards and a team-high eight rushing touchdowns, most of them on scrambles rather than designed plays. Other than his 61-yard scoring run in the opening minute versus Northwestern last season, Golson was never fully comfort- able with the read-option. Plus, with Golson losing four of his eight fumbles in 2012 and eight of his 12 fumbles last season, ball security became an issue when he did opt to carry it. Enter Malik Zaire as the starting quarter- back for last year's Music City Bowl versus LSU in an effort to stem a four-game losing streak. Run To Glory Golson arrived at Notre Dame as a su- preme passer — 11,634 yards passing in high school with 151 touchdowns — with the ability to run when needed. When he played all 14 games as a high school junior, he had a negative rushing output in seven of them and finished with just 183 yards that season. That does not make one a "dual threat." Conversely, Zaire enrolled as a less pol- ished passer than Golson, but was an out- standing running threat. As a junior in 2011 at Archbishop Alter High School in Kettering, Ohio, Zaire com- pleted only 36 of 82 pass attempts (43.9 per- cent) for 729 yards, but he rushed for 1,093 yards during a 10-1 campaign. As a senior in 2012, Zaire's passing im- proved to 1,990 yards and 24 scores, but he still rushed for 1,120 yards as a true dual threat. That ability was manifested en route to his MVP honors in the 31-28 victory over LSU when he carried 22 times for 96 yards while also completing 12 of 15 passes for 96 yards in a conservative aerial attack. For the more crucial passes, Golson was inserted (6-of-11 passing for 90 yards) and led the game-winning march. With Zaire in the lineup, though, the running game and overall offense was en- hanced. After averaging only 150 rushing yards during the regular season, Notre Dame romped for 263 versus the Tigers. Zaire's 96 rushing yards marked the most ever by an Irish quarterback in a bowl, eclipsing the 75 by Tony Rice in the 1989 Fiesta Bowl victory that clinched a national title, while Tom Clements helped win an- other title with 74 rushing yards in the 1973 Sugar Bowl win over Alabama. Just as important, other areas of the run- ning game opened up, including a 50-yard scoring run off the jet sweep by C.J. Prosise among his 75 rushing yards, while Tarean Folston added 71 yards. An argument can be made that it was an anomaly. With no contest to play until an- other nine months, Notre Dame could tailor a specific game plan to LSU, not imple- ment a system for a whole season. Fighting Irish associate head coach Mike Denbrock disagrees. "No, I hope it wasn't game specific," Denbrock said this spring. "It's the way Notre Dame should play football every Saturday: Line up, physicality, leaning on the big boys up front to create space for the running backs and getting the ball in space to some skilled receivers. … Play- ing sound, fundamental football. When I think of Notre Dame football, that's what I think of and that's really what we're trying to get to. "It's a beginning. I wouldn't pigeonhole it by saying every game's going to look like the LSU game, but I would say we defi- nitely want to enter every week and every game with the mentality that we're going to physically take the fight to our opponent and we're going to match ourselves up and see what good can come of it." With Zaire able to execute the read op- tion and be a dual threat, the chances appear more promising, although … No Safety Net Unable to accept the possibility of sharing time with Zaire in 2015, the graduated Gol- son decided at the end of spring to transfer to Florida State to use his fifth year of eligi- bility. There, his passing skills are expected to succeed No. 1 NFL draft pick Jameis Winston in 2015. Golson very well might have been the starter for the Irish again in 2015, with Zaire an excellent change-up or safety net, or vice-versa. Without Golson, the margin of error is much thinner at quarterback, where neither sophomore DeShone Kizer nor freshman Brandon Wimbush has ever taken a colle- giate snap. It was okay to run Zaire 22 times against LSU because the Irish wouldn't play another game for nine months and he would have time to recover. Over a 12-game regular season, that might not be as healthy a plan — although Kelly said Zaire won't be placed in a bubble either. "He's a pretty smart kid, he knows how to protect himself," Kelly said this June, after Golson's transfer. "We feel like he has to be who he is, and our offense has to be struc- tured around what his strengths are. He has Joe Theismann compiled 1,091 yards and 16 touchdowns on the ground from 1968-70. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME MEDIA RELATIONS