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Florida Football: 5 reasons why Malik Zaire isn’t guaranteed to start

By Connor Muldowney

Sep 5, 2015; South Bend, IN, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish quarterback Malik Zaire (8) throws a pass against the Texas Longhorns at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 5, 2015; South Bend, IN, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish quarterback Malik Zaire (8) throws a pass against the Texas Longhorns at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports /
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Jan 2, 2017; Tampa , FL, USA; Florida Gators head coach Jim McElwain high fives linebacker Vosean Joseph (11) against the Iowa Hawkeyes during the second quarter at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /

4. Short amount of time to learn the playbook

Learning an entire playbook in just a couple of months won’t be easy. You ever wonder why true freshmen don’t often play right away? It’s because the playbook is so vast and they only have a short amount of time to master every route, fake, option, handoff and counter. Basically it’s like learning a new language in just a couple of months.

For Zaire, he will have to ditch the Notre Dame playbook that’s currently instilled in his brain and make room for the Gators’. While it’s not exactly the toughest task you could ask a grad transfer to accomplish, it’s still not going to be easy for a new quarterback.

People don’t realize what these kids are expected to know in just a short amount of time. For the past four years, Zaire has been pounding Notre Dame plays into his brain and now he’s going to be asked to ditch that knowledge for an entirely different set of plays.

If he can’t get everything down pat by the time the season starts, other quarterbacks who have been in the system could set themselves apart.

Zaire must be a master of the playbook in order to win that starting job.

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