Malik Zaire, Florida Reportedly Have Mutual Interest in Transfer

The Florida Gators have shown interest in former Notre Dame quarterback Malik Zaire, according to Thomas Goldkamp of 247Sports.

There is a potential snag, however. According to Goldkamp, "The conference requires graduate transfers to hit certain academic benchmarks once they arrive at their new school in the SEC. If they don't, the school that took those graduate transfers becomes restricted from taking graduate transfers for the next three years."

Florida finds itself in that particular predicament and wouldn't be able to bring Zaire onboard unless the SEC changes that rule. 

Because offensive tackle Mason Halter and linebacker Anthony Harrell didn't meet their academic requirements in 2015, the Gators cannot currently take on graduate transfers. If they are unable to add Zaire, redshirt freshmen Feleipe Franks and Kyle Trask are expected to battle for the starting job.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey did suggest in December that the rule could be changed, however, and spoke about the basis for the restriction, per Goldkamp:

"

We put originally a five-year prohibition on taking more grad transfers because we wanted that accountability to be meaningful. We’ve moved that to three, and actually in our office, we had a number of conversations observing, first of all, no one else has that kind of accountability in their own system. We don’t want to be overly punitive in how we create that kind of accountability.

"

Zaire seemed poised to be a star at Notre Dame after throwing for 313 yards and three touchdowns while leading the team to a 38-3 win over Texas to open the 2015 season. But he fractured his ankle in the team's following game against Virginia and was lost for the season.

Zaire and DeShone Kizer opened the 2016 season in a quarterback platoon, but Kizer quickly won the starting job and Zaire barely saw the field last year. He was ultimately granted a full release in November after declaring his intention to transfer.

He has also been linked to Texas, Wisconsin and Baylor.