Florida Gators Football Recruiting: UF Favorites To Land Malik Zaire

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The Florida Gators are pursuing a number of potentialtransfer, but it’s former Notre Dame Fighting Irish star Malik Zaire who could come to Gainesville.

The Florida Gators have been one of the most dominant defensive forces in all of college football in 2016. Unfortunately, the Gators have been as poor at moving the ball through the air as they have been prolific at preventing the opposition from doing so.

Fortunately for Florida, a star transfer quarterback is favoring the Gators for his next destination.

Malik Zaire is a graduate transfer who’s looking to rejuvenate his career with a new team. He’d previously played quarterback for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, but after an ankle injury in 2015 and the emergence of DeShone Kizer in 2016, Zaire fell to second on the depth chart.

Zach Abolverdi of SEC Country acknowledged that Florida has options, but it’s Zaire who’s most likely to land in Gainesville.

[Blake] Barnett and [Jarrett] Stidham have had several schools after them for a while, and Florida is a little late to the party. One of them would need to officially visit this month for that to change.

Zaire, however, just announced his intentions to transfer this week and lists Florida as one of his favorites.

Zaire would be a massive acquisition for the Gators.

Zaire broke out by leading Notre Dame to a 31-28 victory over the LSU Tigers in the 2014 Music City Bowl. The dynamic southpaw completed 12-of-15 passes for 96 yards and a touchdown, and ran the ball for 96 yards and another score. His efforts earned bowl game MVP honors.

In his first appearance of the 2015 season, Zaire completed 19-of-22 passes to torch the Texas Longhorns for 313 passing yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions.

Unfortunately, Zaire’s 2015 season ended in the second game of the season when he broke his right ankle. Prior to the injury, he’d recorded 115 passing yards, a passing touchdown, and 87 rushing yards against the Virginia Cavaliers.

He was limited to brief appearances in 2016, but he completed three of his five passes for 30 yards and a touchdown in his final outing against the USC Trojans.

Matt Fortuna of ESPN reports that Florida’s top competition for Zaire’s services will be the Pittsburgh Panthers and Wisconsin Badgers. Both have a chance, but it’s fair to believe that Jim McElwain should be able to win this recruiting battle.

If the Gators manage to add Zaire to the 2017 rotation of quarterbacks, he’d be the favorite to win the starting job.

With Zaire on the field, the Gators’ offense would be an entirely new animal.