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Cleaning up little things next focus for Notre Dame QB Kizer
Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly said Tuesday he liked what he saw overall from new starting quarterback DeShone Kizer in the Fighting Irish's 30-22 win over Georgia Tech.
Now he wants to see the redshirt freshman work on some of the finer points of playing the position.
"There are some fundamentals that need to be cleaned up: Ball security, I was a little bit concerned with the ball being a little bit loose at times," Kelly said. "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. Tighten up those things a little bit."
Kelly also saw a few throws that were not on target because Kizer let his footwork go a little bit and said he needs to work on how he initiates the play.
"We've got to be a little bit better with our cadence," Kelly said. "He pauses a little bit too much in his verbal cadence."
In his first start after Malik Zaire suffered a season-ending broken ankle, Kizer was 21 for 30 passing for 242 yards and a touchdown. He also threw an interception and ran five times for a net of six yards. He was sacked once.
"So cleaning up more of the fundamentals than the big picture stuff," Kelly concluded. "I was really pleased with the big-picture stuff. I think it's more that lack of playing time and some of the mechanics."
