Are Malik Zaire Brash Comments on QB Competition Good for Notre Dame Team?

Malik Zaire wants to be Notre Dame's starting quarterback. 

While most Irish fans are already theorizing on the best time-share arrangement for Zaire and Everett Golson, Zaire is trying his best to win the job outright. And he doesn't care who knows it. 

"It's not the ideal situation," Zaire said when asked about splitting snaps. "At the end of the day, there’s only one Captain Jack Sparrow of the offense."

Zaire is a product of his generation, picking Johnny Deep's boozy, makeup-wearing pirate captain over Christopher Lambert's time-traveling Highlander ("There can be only one"). But whatever movie reference you choose, the confident rising redshirt sophomore has good reason to believe he can lead this offense. 

Zaire made the most of his chances after a frustrating 2014 season spent glued to the sideline. After head coach Brian Kelly finally pulled Golson in the second quarter of the regular-season finale against USC, Zaire ran the offense (albeit in garbage time) with a renewed energy.

That led to Zaire getting the start in the Music City Bowl against LSU. And the young quarterback responded by leading a power running attack as the Irish sprung the upset.

That victory turned the tide of the offseason and also turned the focus of spring practice onto the quarterbacks, one of the more intriguing position battles to hit South Bend in years. 

But don't tell that to anybody inside the program. Any Golson vs. Zaire showdown we had hoped for this spring isn't happening.  

With new offensive coordinator Mike Sanford getting his first look at his quarterbacks and returning the focus to the fundamentals, Sanford and Kelly have taken the oxygen out of a fiery situation—likely by design. 

That's kept both Zaire and Golson from focusing on their competition and instead elevating their play at a position critical to Notre Dame's success. 

"I'm not really competing with anybody but myself at this point or moving forward," Zaire said over the weekend. "I need to continue to focus on getting better as a leader and as a communicator of the offense. And I think we're doing a good job of that in the spring and moving forward." 

But spend even a few seconds watching Zaire as a quarterback, and you see a player with the confidence and belief that this team will succeed if he's in charge of it. And that self-belief and natural leadership ability could be distracting inside a program that could find itself divided between quarterbacks. 

But Zaire's attitude is exactly what Notre Dame needs this spring. After Kelly continued to play Golson even after the mistakes piled up, Zaire's late-season performance sent a message to Kelly, the offensive coaching staff and his teammates that he was ready to perform if Golson wasn't. 

That competitive spirit is driving spring practice. After a 1-5 swoon imploded the Irish's hopes in 2014, there isn't a position on this roster that's safe, and Zaire is the face of the much-needed uprising. 

Every coach preaches competition. But when your backup quarterback does it, you can't help but see a roster improve. 

"Every day, you've got to bring it. And I think that's important within the team and at every position," Zaire said. "Coach Kelly says is best, he looks for people with production. It's not about the name any more, it's not about what you say in interviews, it's about production. And that's what I'm focusing on, producing and making plays and doing what it takes to win championships."

Zaire still has work to do. As a passer, he's far less polished than Golson. That was on display over the weekend, as multiple reports pointed to Golson's superiority throwing the football. 

He also needs to continue to focus on practicing better, with Zaire sounding like he took these words from his head coach to heart. 

"I think Malik has to continue to lead," Kelly said. “He has to continue to show that he has not only game-day skills, but the practice skills necessary to lead our football team.

"We may have gotten to Malik a little bit sooner if we had seen some of the natural leadership abilities that he showed on the sideline during the LSU game, if we had seen those things during practice. He showed he has that in him. Now, it has to be on display both in practice and not just in games."

As we've seen this spring, that message has been received. And while Zaire's confidence is drawing headlines, why should we expect anything different? Exactly one year ago today, Zaire essentially said the same thing. 

So while his eyes are locked in on the starting job, Zaire is all about the team and reaching the lofty goals the Irish have set for themselves in 2015. 

"Whoever gets the opportunity...I want them to do well," Zaire said. "Because we're all trying to get the same thing, and that's the national championship."

Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.