Brian Kelly’s quarterbacks have caused him to turn purple. Everett Golson threw 20 interceptions over two seasons, and Kelly bears the mental scars.
Now the Notre Dame coach has a quarterback with an equal disdain for turnovers.
DeShone Kizer connected on 15 of 18 passes Saturday in Notre Dame’s 39-10 rout of Nevada, but it’s one of his three incompletions that frosted his mug.
“I’m getting eaten up with that pick,” Kizer said. “That kills me.”
Kevin Stepherson blew past cornerback Kendall Johnson in the second quarter, and Kizer launched a pass down the right sideline. But Johnson caught up to it and picked it off.
“I have to be able to make that throw,” Kizer said. “(Stepherson) is a stud and I have to allow him to be a stud. To underthrow a guy in that situation shows a little softness on my part, and that will eat me up for a while.”
Kizer is a huge reason Kelly likes his chances Saturday night against Michigan State.
“We have a really good quarterback; I don’t know if you guys know that,” he joked with reporters. “It’s a good thing to have when you go into a game like Michigan State. As long as we continue to evolve defensively, I think we’ve got a fighting shot at anybody we play.”
A unique perspective: Perhaps Central Florida coach Scott Frost was the only guy not mocking Tim Beckman when the then-Illinois coach said after a 44-19 loss to Washington, “As you look at the second half, we won.”
Frost was bullish after his team’s 51-14 loss at Michigan. Or maybe just bullheaded.
“It’s hard to say when the score is what it is, but we came in here and outhit those guys,” he said. “Standing on the sideline, there was no doubt who was hitting harder. It’s rare you can come into Michigan and rush for 300 yards on them. They had to run a fly sweep in the fourth quarter to get to 100.”
Indeed, Michigan ran for just 119 yards, averaging 2.9 per try. UCF banged it for 275, 6.0 per carry.
But then there’s the passing game: Michigan’s Wilton Speight was nearly perfect (25-for-37, 312 yards, 4 TDs, 0 INTs), while UCF’s quarterbacks hit 6 of 22 for 56 yards.
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“I thought we won that battle,” Frost said.
But not the game.
Poll position: My top 16 in the Football Writers/National Football Foundation poll:
1. Alabama; 2. Houston; 3. Florida State; 4. Washington; 5. Michigan; 6. Clemson; 7. Ohio State; 8. Texas; 9. Wisconsin; 10. Stanford; 11. Notre Dame; 12. Georgia; 13. Tennessee; 14. Iowa; 15. Louisville; 16. Arkansas.
Twitter @TeddyGreenstein