The father of Malik Zaire is not too happy about the way his son’s college football career came to a close.
Zaire decided against petitioning for a sixth year of eligibility, meaning his college career is over. Unfortunately, Zaire never seemed to be able to live up to the promise he showed early in his career at Notre Dame.
After losing the starting job at Notre Dame, Zaire went to Florida as a graduate transfer. He went 32 of 56 for 349 yards, no touchdowns and an interception with the struggling Gators in 2017. Luke Del Rio saw some action at quarterback, while freshman Feleipe Franks saw the majority of time at quarterback for the Gators.
Zaire’s father, Imani, told SEC Country that his son feels he was “sold a bill of goods.”
“I think the biggest travesty of all of this was splitting those reps. That was the worst thing that Florida did by bringing Malik in. If they weren’t sure about him being the guy, they shouldn’t have brought him in, period,” Imani Zaire said, via SEC Country. “If you thought that this Franks kid [was ready to start] and Del Rio was going to [be a factor] for the year, then why bring him in?
“I felt that it was an insurance policy, and even then it was a bad policy because you weren’t going to introduce all of the pieces of the insurance. … At the end of the day, when it all comes down, he just felt he was sold a bill of goods.”
The Zaires certainly have good reasons to be upset, because it sure seems like they were misled some about how much action Zaire would receive. But on another token, they seemed to a) wrongly evaluate the QB situation at Florida and Zaire’s ability to earn playing time; and b) overestimate Malik’s ability as a player.
If Malik couldn’t make it at Notre Dame, he probably should have dropped down a level and not gone to another school where there expectations and competition are equally high. That was a miscalculation.
