Brian Kelly will play two quarterbacks against LSU, with both senior Everett Golson and sophomore Malik Zaire getting an opportunity to take on the LSU in the Music City Bowl. After a regular season where Golson served as the starter all 12 games with Zaire only seeing significant action against USC in the finale, both will be utilized in the Irish’s offensive game plan.
“I think both of them can help us win,” Kelly said Monday evening. “I want to play them both because I think both of them have different traits and we need to find a way to win the game. I think both of them can help us win.”
How they do that remains to be seen. After juggling multiple quarterbacks during his three seasons in Cincinnati, Kelly has mostly been a one-quarterback coach. But with a month between the one-sided loss to USC and a battle with the SEC’s top defense, Kelly and the offensive staff laid out a plan that should allow each quarterback to play to their strengths.
“We’ve got a plan in place in practice that I feel very comfortable with and we’ll continue to evaluate that as we go through our practices,” Kelly said. “I think as we get into the game there are skillsets that each one of them has that are a little bit different that we’ll utilize in the game. They both have strengths and we will call upon those strengths during the game. I’m confident that I can manage both of them during the game.”
Kelly identified those skills. For Zaire, the ability to run zone-read could help against a Tigers defense that’s stingy against the pass. For Golson, it’s the ability to create and make every throw on the football field, especially against a defense that’ll mostly utilize man coverage.
“I think you try to get a feel for it,” Kelly said, when asked about the balancing act. “But there are some things that we clearly know one quarterback does a little bit better and we’ll go to those strengths regardless of the situation.”
The platoon strategy came about in an interesting way. While some assume Kelly is only begrudgingly playing Zaire after putting up with so many mistakes from Golson throughout the season, it was only because of Golson’s buy-in these past few weeks that he’s sharing reps at all.
“There wouldn’t have been a competition,” Kelly said, hinting that he nearly turned the offense over to Zaire for LSU.
How well this quarterback shuffle works or how long it’ll go on remains to be seen. While the defensive collapse has been the main culprit for the Irish’s four-game slide, Kelly still pins a lot of the team’s woes on the offense not being able to carry the weight.
So he’s not closing the door on this competition dragging into next season.
“I’m open really to anything at this point,” Kelly said. “We want to put the best football team, the best offense that we can on the field. Ideally, you’d like to have one, but if we’ve got two, then that’s what we’ll do.”