Florida Football: Is Malik Zaire a good fit with the Gators?

With an amended SEC graduate transfer rule, former Notre Dame quarterback Malik Zaire will officially be joining the Florida Gators for the forthcoming college football season, but how does he fit in Gainesville?

It’s been a tough couple of years for the Florida’s offense.

After suffering through four long seasons of Will Muschamp’s complete disregard for scoring points, Gator Nation had high hopes that they’d found their savior in former Colorado State head coach Jim McElwain.

McElwain, a former Nick Saban protege, famously orchestrated the Crimson Tide offense that steamrolled a Tim Tebow led Gators squad hoping to return to their second national championship game. Jim road his Alabama success to a head coaching opportunity at the Colorado State University. After going 4-8 in his first season, the Rams would go 18-9 in his final two season in Fort Collins and appear in consecutive bowl games.

McElwain’s success at Colorado State only served to validate the belief that he was a coach on the rise, and ultimately won him an opportunity to coach the Gators.

Gator Growing Pains

Florida went 19-8 in McElwain’s first two seasons as the team’s head coach, winning the SEC East in both season, largely on the strength of their defense. His offense on the other hand struggled.

The Gators had the 73rd-ranked passing offense in the FBS, only passing for 2,805 yards on 410 passes. Their total offense was even worse, ranking 108th with only 4,472 total yards of offense.

A major contributor to the team’s anemic offense was quarterback Austin Appleby.

Appleby, a graduate transfer from Purdue, came to start for the Gators, but ultimately lost a quarterback competition to Luke Del Rio. While Austin did eventually see the field, it was far from a smashing success.

Abbleby appeared in nine games for the Gators, going 127-of-209 for 1,447 yards with a 10/7 touchdown to interception ratio. While the team did consistently win in the 2016 season, their lack of quality quarterbacking success held the team back from it’s true potential.

Entering the 2017 season Jim McElwain’s squad is without a true answer at quarterback. Del Rio is returning to the fold, but is recovering from consecutive shoulder surgeries, and is far from a lock to start for the team. Additionally the team has Feleipe Franks and Kyle Trask, a pair of red-shirt freshman who have yet to take an in-game snap for the Gators.

An ideal situation for the Gators would be to have an experienced veteran leading McElwain’s fairly complex, motion-based offense, but whom could it be?

Enter Malik Zaire

After the SEC recently amended it’s graduate transfer policy, Malik Zaire has almost fallen into Florida’s lap.

Malik Zaire is one of college football’s biggest enigmas. Zaire, a 6 foot tall former 4 star recruit from Kettering Ohio, spent four season at Notre Dame, but sporadically played. Zaire only appeared in 18 games for the Fighting Irish but completed 58-of-98 passes for 816 yards with a 6-to-0 touchdown-to-interception ratio, and rushed for 324 yards on 72 total attempts with two touchdowns.

While Zaire hasn’t had a prolific college career, he does possess a unique skill set that sets him apart from previous McElwain quarterbacks.

Malik’s first three plays of the Irish’s 2014 game against USC can help fans to see just how he would fit into McElwain’s offense.

On the first play, Malik took the snap from the shotgun formation and then hands the ball off to his runningback, sophomore Greg Bryant. While this was a designed run play, his ability to run the ball forced the opposing defense to pause before engaging with the runningback, giving the ND offense a distinctive advantage.

On the second play, Zaire again receives the shotgun pass, but this time drops back to throw. Malik takes a three-step drop, a fleeting skill that’s coveted by NFL scouts, before effortlessly launching the ball to his receiver.

While his receiver, junior Chris Brown, is covered well by USC’s future first round pick Adoree Jackson, Malik throws the ball to his receiver’s right shoulder, effectively eliminating the ability for his defender to make a play on the ball while it is in the air. This ball placement allowed Brown to elude his would-be tackler and gain additional yards after the catch.

The third play of the set should be incredibly exciting for Gators fans. The Irish are lined up in the Pistol set, Coach McElwain’s formation of choice, with Bryant lined up behind Zaire. When the ball is snapped, Malik meets his runningback in the backfield, but is immediately met by opposing defenders. Zaire put the ball in Greg’s hand, but instead decided to keep the the read option play and rushed into the end zone for a touchdown.

Without a dual threat quarterback, this play would have ended in a loss of five yards, an all too common sight for Gators fans, but it instead ends in a red zone touchdown.

Adding Malik Zaire to the Gators’ backfield will give the team a dynamic, dual threat quarterback the likes of which hasn’t dawned Gators orange and blue since the days of Tim Tebow.

Final Thoughts

Florida hasn’t had a lot of success with graduate transfers in recent seasons, so it’s understandable for fans to be leery about investing too much hope into another newly acquired castoff.

It’s entirely possible that Malik Zaire will never become the Florida Gators starting quarterback. Florida already has two former four-star redshirt quarterbacks, who already know Jim McElwain’s offensive scheme and have experience throwing to the Gators receivers.

While Malik Zaire is also a former four-star recruit he will only have three months to learn McElwain’s offense, and get acclimated with the culture, players and scheme of Florida.

But if Zaire is able to successfully assimilate into Florida’s offense, he could be a major upgrade for a team that is already one of the best in the nation.

Notre Dame runs a more traditional, pro-style, offense than the majority of college football, so Zaire’s experience with multiple offensive formations, and the ability to do three, five and seven-step drops will be a major advantage for his ability to set right in and play for Florida.

Additionally, Zaire brings a skillset to the Gators offense that has been sorely missed in recent years. While he isn’t particularly physically imposing, he does have a live arm, good eyes and the athletic build of a runningback that can give opposing defensive coordinators nightmares.

Next: Is Lamar Jackson a sure-fire franchise quarterback?

Regardless of how the Malik Zaire experience goes in 2017, it is without a doubt a chance worth taking for McElwain and his team. If Zaire is finally able to achieve his football potential, he could be the missing piece to the Florida Gator’s college football playoff puzzle.

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