Brian Kelly stuck with veteran quarterback Everett Golson until he couldn't any longer.
When the redshirt junior was struggling with taking care of the football mid-season, the Irish head coach tried a tough love approach. Before the team's regular season finale against USC, Kelly told reporters he thought Golson could be one of the best QBs in the country. Golson responded to Kelly's praise with a performance that was so horrible he was benched at halftime.
Kelly's lack of faith in Golson's capabilities led him to adopt a two-quarterback approach in the team's Music City Bowl match-up versus LSU. He told reporters that Golson and inexperienced freshman Malik Zaire would split snaps in the contest, and they did -- they had 11 and 15 pass attempts, respectively.
The decision was a godsend for the Notre Dame offense. Golson was solid but unspectacular in his limited reps. Zaire, however, was a revelation. The freshman had one touchdown and an 80% completion percentage through the air, and he rushed for 96 yards and a second touchdown on the ground as well. Zaire's success rushing out of the pocket allowed the Irish to control the game's time of possession by an almost two-to-one margin.
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Notre Dame finished the game with 449 yards of total offense. Zaire was instrumental in leading a 70-yard drive that set up a 32-yard field goal from kicker Kyle Brindza as time expired, securing a 31-28 win for ND.
"This was a matchup that we had wanted at Notre Dame, and I know LSU felt the same way," Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said, per ESPN.com. "We wanted to be challenged. We were disappointed in the way we played obviously at the end of the year, and our guys wanted the opportunity to finish the season the right way."
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