Notre Dame will play both Malik Zaire and DeShone Kizer against Texas

Kelly said both quarterbacks have been outstanding through camp, and that more practices would not have created any separation between the two.

Both Kizer and Zaire have both shown legitimate starting ability, but Kelly will allow their competition to play into the regular season as they’ll both see the field for the season opener. My ultimate decision was I can’t put one of those guys on the sideline against Texas. Zaire is 3-0 as a starter, including a 19-for-22, 313-yard performance in last year’s opener, which was also against Texas.

“These two guys are too good”, Kelly says. “It’s much easier playing one”. Kizer rallied the Irish to victory in that game against Virginia with a 40-yard touchdown pass with 12 seconds left and led the Irish to nine victories and a No. 11 ranking.

Zaire is the better runner of the two 6’1 and 225 pounds – he had 87 yards rushing against the Cavaliers before suffering his injury.

Kelly said through 257 practice reps so far, the two have combined for just two interceptions. Zaire was the opening-day starter and was impressive, especially against the Longhorns past year.

“It was just counter-intuitive for me to take one of them off the field at the expense of putting somebody else on the field for so many more plays”, he said.

Back in the spring, Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said that he was going to have to eventually make a tough decision regarding his team’s complicated quarterback situation. If it’s a little harder on us, we can make it work if the net result is winning. “My job is to win, and my belief is playing both of them gives us a better chance of winning”.