Florida Football: 5 reasons the Malik Zaire era may never begin
By Ryan McNeill
Over the weekend, Florida football picked up a major commitment from Notre Dame QB transfer Malik Zaire, but here’s why he may never start.
News broke this week that Malik Zaire has chosen to take his talents to the Florida Gators.
While in a bubble this is a great addition for Jim McElwain and his football program, it also open up a bunch of questions that I’ll dig into.
But first, here’s why Zaire chose to sign with Florida:
"“You just want to be able to be a part of something special. You’re playing in basically like a minor league from the league. For me, I didn’t want the challenge to dissipate at the end of the day. Coming from Notre Dame, you’re playing top games every week, and I wanted to continue that trend. I didn’t want to run from the challenge, I wanted to embrace the challenge.”"
Personally, I think it’s great that Zaire wants to embrace the challenge, because there are a couple of roadblocks in his way to earning the starting gig at Florida.
5. Florida not yet built to compete for a title?
Here’s the big question impacting if Malik Zaire should start this season: are the Florida Gators playing for a National Championship in 2017, or is 2018 the more likely target?
If the Gators are going all in this season, then yes, Zaire is the most logical option. The only other quarterback on Florida’s roster that has NCAA experience is Luke Del Rio who is a redshirt sophomore who enjoyed success in limited playing time last season. Del Rio 1,358 yards with eight passing touchdowns and eight interceptions as he was 114-for-201 passing for a 118.64 pass efficiency rating.
Kyle Trask is a solid sophomore, but he redshirted last season and has yet to play a single college snap. Not exactly the kind of quarterback that should be able to steal playing from time Zaire.
It’s also worth noting that there’s a lack of experience at the quarterback position. Four of the quarterbacks are on the verge of starting their sophomore season and Del Rio is the only non-sophomore quarterback besides Zaire.
Zaire, meanwhile, was the starting quarterback for Notre Dame last season for eight games and showed flashes of his potential. During his junior season (two games) he completed 65% of his passes and had a sizzling QB Rating of 187. 9 and averaged 428.8 yards in those two games.
The problem is last season Zaire lost his explosive first step which allowed him to alude defenders. He also wasn’t as confident in the pocket as he only averaged 122 yards per game and completed less than 50% of his passes (47.8).