Notre Dame quarterback Malik Zaire has been ruled out for the rest of the season after suffering to a fractured ankle during the Fighting Irish's matchup against Virginia on Saturday. The sophomore quarterback started in only his third game on Saturday in a nail-biting victory versus the Cavaliers, and the injury occured during the third quarter when the Irish were up 19-14.
The fracture of the early Heisman candidate's ankle occurred when he ran under a Virginia defender, and his ankle unnaturally bent in the wrong direction as he rushed the football from the pocket and was tackled. You can see the gruesome play here:
"Our kids are happy and they're celebrating the win, but they lost a kid they feel really strongly about," Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly stated after the game. "The coaches are probably feeling it more. I am in particular because I'm so close to him. I feel bad for him."
Zaire showed an impressive performance up until his injury. He had completed 7 of 18 passes Saturday for 115 yards and a touchdown, while rushing 10 times for 87 yards.
Brian Kelly determined that redshirt freshman DeShone Kizer will step in place of Zaire as the interim quarterback. Kelly further stated about Kizer, "He can win games for us. I want to win a championship with him. We need to get him to the next level."
The Irish also recently lost their starting running back Tarean Folston for the rest of the season as well. Folston suffered a ACL-tear in the team's opener against Texas.
"We've lost our starting RB and starting QB, but there were a lot of good players around them. DeShone isn't going to have to win it himself," Kelly said.
Well, it seems like he is fitting the bill pretty well so far at the 1, as Notre Dame won the game on a Hail Mary TD pass that he threw.
