March 24--To hear Brian Kelly tell it, this could be the year of the three horsemen for Notre Dame.
The Irish coach hinted as much before the day before the first snaps of 2016 spring camp had been hut, hut, hiked, saying that not only will DeShone Kizer and Malik Zaire tango for the starting quarterback spot, but that Brandon Wimbush could be the awkward third man in the huddle.
Not long ago, Wimbush's name was almost attached to the word "redshirt."
Given that Zaire is a senior coming off a broken ankle that cost him all but one-plus games last season, Kelly might want to reconsider dialing Wimbush's status to "break only in case of emergency."
This is about this season. Wimbush should be about the next seasons, a delicate balancing act for a coach who doesn't want to lose any of the three.
"The ideal situation for us would be, let's get this done and move this team to the No. 1 quarterback," Kelly said. "We don't see it happening that way. We have a feeling this thing is going to be so closely contested that it's going to take us some time to figure out, if we ever get to that, that we clearly have a No. 1."
If they ever get to that. That's the right thing to say in March, when you don't want to lose any of the three. That won't the right thing to do come September.
Kelly suggested that two, maybe all three, could be "the man," which would make none of them the man. Sure, Kelly used Zaire and Everett Golson tag-team style to end the 2014 season.
But Golson, who eventually transferred, clearly was on a downward trajectory.
Zaire's body of work -- three starts, nine games -- was more a result of body not working, so it's understandable that he is back in the mix, fighting for a third time for a starting job he won once already.
"You just really wonder what it's going to take to finally convince people enough that I'm able to do the job but ... I just have to keep balling and do what I have to do," Zaire said.
What Zaire has to do is be better than Kizer. Be better than Wimbush. Prove himself all over again.
Even he seemed to be on the one-quarterback page when asked recently whether there could be only one Jack Sparrow.
"Still think there can only be one," Zaire said.
Kizer isn't about to get his giddy up again. Not about last season, at least.
The ink long has dried on his last-minute, game-winning touchdown against Virginia in Week 2, in relief of Zaire. He said he wants to build off a year during which he helped Notre Dame finish 10-3, but he doesn't plan to dwell on a past that includes 11 starts and nine victories.
"I never expect the job to be guaranteed," Kizer said. "I've never been in a position where I was going to walk into a season and just automatically have the job. Everything I've done, all the way back to fourth grade basketball, there always has been a situation when there's going to be someone there to push you."
For his part, Wimbush, who may have the best arm of the trio, said the competition shouldn't get personal. But one never knows.
"It can definitely improve your friendship. It could also diminish your friendship between the three of us," Wimbush said. "We'll see how it goes."
And where it goes.
"Coach Kelly makes the decision and he gets paid to do that," Zaire said.
We'll see if and when one of the horsemen crosses the finish line first.
If there's only one.
