Malik Zaire is set to transfer out of Notre Dame
Malik Zaire is now a former member of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
The university has granted Zaire’s request to be released from his scholarship and has placed no restrictions on which school’s he is free to transfer to.
The quarterback is set to graduate this month, which means he’ll be eligible to play right away as a graduate transfer for his next team.
The current favorites seem to be the Florida Gators, Michigan State Spartans, Pitt Panthers and Wisconsin Badgers.
It’s worth pointing out that Notre Dame will face Wisconsin in 2017.
Zaire burst onto the scene for Notre Dame, winning the MVP in the 2014 Music City Bowl against LSU in his first career start.
He went into the 2015 season as the starter, but broke his ankle after just two games.
Zaire entered the 2016 season with a co-starter label along with DeShone Kizer and did actually start the team’s opener against the Texas, but was pulled in favor of Kizer during the 50-47 double-OT loss.
He finished the season 11-23 for 122 yards and a lone touchdown.
Because he rose to prominence in 2014, we tend to think of Zaire as someone with a lot of experience at the college level. However, he’s never thrown more than 40 passes in a season and has just 816 passing yards and 6 touchdowns in parts of three seasons.
Now Zaire is off to find his next school while the man who beat him for the starting spot, DeShone Kizer, looks likely to declare for the 2017 NFL Draft.
That leaves redshirt sophomore Brandon Wimbush as the next man up for Notre Dame.
