Notre Dame Spring Game 2016: Recap, Highlights and Twitter Reaction

Both DeShone Kizer and Malik Zaire enjoyed stretches of strong play as the quarterback competition heated up during the Notre Dame Fighting Irish's annual Blue-Gold Game on Saturday. In the end, Kizer's Blue squad earned the 17-7 victory. 

Kizer displayed a better overall understanding of the offense, which doesn't come as a surprise given the experience he gained last year, but Zaire held his own with dangerous playmaking ability. But it was the defense that stole the spotlight throughout most of the contest.

With that in mind, let's take a deeper dive into some of the top storylines to emerge from the Fighting Irish's 2016 spring game. 

Quarterback Battle

Irish head coach Brian Kelly stated coming into the spring game that trying to get a good read on the quarterback situation was crucial. He explained they set up the rosters as evenly as possible in order to give both players a fair opportunity, as relayed by Benjamin Padanilam of the Observer:

"

Both of them want to be the starter, badly. … I made them both live, so they're going against each other. I'm doing it for a reason because I want them to be in a competitive situation where we can evaluate. We split the squad, we tried to get them balanced as best we could and let this be one more evaluation tool for both of these guys in this game. It's important to them.

"

Kizer, who had 31 total touchdowns last season, made a statement right out of the gate. He led the Blue squad to a scoring drive on its first possession of the game, completing all four of this throws, including a couple nice touch passes.

The junior showed a nice understanding of the offense, too. He audibled into a quarterback run on a third down during the Blue team's second drive, which resulted in him splitting the defense between the spread-out tackles and running for a first down.

Mike Vorel of ND Insider pointed out Zaire's group finally started to move the ball once the quarterback started to create more looks for the defense by using his running ability:

It ultimately allowed him to match Kizer's touchdown drive with one of his own. Zaire connected on three of his four throws on a march that started inside the Gold team's own 10-yard line. He beat the defense over the top twice, including a nice high-arching throw to Torii Hunter Jr.

He capped off the drive by running the ball in from 13 yards out, as the program spotlighted:

Jim Naveau of the Lima News provided the final stats for both players:

All told, neither quarterback made any massive strides in the competition Saturday. If Kizer came into the spring with a slight advantage based on his play last season, he likely leaves the marquee offseason practices in the same position.

Zaire will probably need to set himself apart when practices resume ahead of the season if he's going to earn the starting job. The biggest thing he can take out of the spring game is to not restrict himself by taking the creativity out of his game.

Defensive Standouts

Although most of the focus coming into the game was on the quarterbacks, it was the Notre Dame defenders who looked a step ahead at the end of spring ball. They allowed just 24 combined points and looked solid at every level.

No player stood out more frequently than Max Redfield. The senior safety, who lined up with the Gold team, was all over the place making plays, both in run defense and pass coverage. His only mistake was a missed tackle on the Blue team's first score, but it was obviously a costly one.

Junior defensive tackle Daniel Cage also put together a strong showing for the Gold side. It's a position where the Irish are still looking for players to step up, and he made a great case to at least get an extended look heading into the season.

Notre Dame Football showcased one of his key plays:

On the flip side, Devin Studstill was highly impressive for the Blue defense. The freshman wasn't particularly highly touted coming out of high school—a 3-star prospect, ranking No. 482 in the 2016 class, per 247Sports' composite rankings—but he looked primed to make a quick impact.

The most important thing for a young safety is understanding their role within the scheme. A lot of them get lost out there in the early going. But the early enrollee looked comfortable and showed a nose for the ball coaches love to see from defensive backs.

A spring game isn't nearly enough to draw any definitive conclusions, of course. That said, the staff probably came away from the spring game with at least some positive vibes on the defensive side of the ball after ranking 45th in yards allowed last season.

Quick Hits

• Dexter Williams scampered into the end zone from 17 yards out for the first touchdown of the contest. The sophomore ran with authority every time he touched the ball. That includes breaking two tackles on a scoring play, as Notre Dame Football highlighted:

• Hunter appears ready to claim a more active role in the offense following the departure of Will Fuller, a possible first-round NFL draft pick. The wideout was able to create separation on a consistent basis, and the team put his best effort of the day on display:

• John Chereson and Justin Yoon both missed field-goal attempts in the second half. Chereson did make a short kick right before halftime, and Yoon made 88 percent of his field goals last season. But missing a couple of kicks in a low-pressure situation could be a minor cause for concern.
• Notre Dame appeared to emerge from the game without suffering any serious injuries. Although the coaching staff wants to see players fighting for playing time, doing so without suffering any health setbacks is the biggest thing at this time of the year.
• Reserve quarterback Montgomery VanGorder wrapped up the scoring with a short-yardage run. If there's one thing the defense certainly must improve before the regular season, it's containing those inside runs by QBs, as the Irish illustrated on the score:

Postgame Reaction

Afterward, Kelly joked that the game ball ended up going to punter Tyler Newsome with the offenses struggling to find consistent success, per Irish Sports Daily.

The head coach was happy with the way Zaire moved Saturday after suffering a broken ankle that brought a premature end to his 2015 campaign, as noted by Irish Illustrated:

As for the competition, JJ Stankevitz of CSN Chicago provided the coach's comments on the situation, and it doesn't sound like either quarterback pushed himself firmly ahead of the other quite yet.

"I thought Kizer managed the game pretty darn good. I thought Malik did some pretty good things as well," Kelly said.

So the high-profile competition continues with spring ball in the book. Angelo Di Carlo of WNDU noted Kelly believes it probably won't get decided until late in fall camp.