An up and down pro day for Kizer, Notre Dame
It was an unusual day at the Loftus Sports Center as described by DeShone Kizer.
"Yeah it was weird. Football's the loudest sport out there." said Kizer of the atmosphere.
Kizer and eight other former Notre Dame players went through workouts Thursday at Notre Dame's Pro Day, During the NFL Draft process, the former Notre Dame quarterback has been asked a lot about last season's 4-8 record and what happened.
"Teams are going to put a big question on the season we went through last year, after explaining my two cents on why that season went the way that it did, a lot of teams are moving forward and finding out what it takes for me to a consistent thrower," Kizer said.
But Kizer believes struggling at a place like Notre Dame will help his maturity at the next level.
"I simply believe the stage simply gives a college quarterback as big as it gets, this is the closest thing you can get to being a franchise quarterback in a sense you're going to represent a great institution, you're going to play on national television, you're going to have media days like this," Kizer said. "A lot of the responsibilities of being a franchise quarterback are things that you're going to do outside of the facilities, I think I've been very blessed to be in the situation the last two years here being the starting quarterback."
Kizer did struggle at times during his throwing drills but a lot had to do with who he was throwing to. Due to the NCAA rule requires current players to give up one spring practice if they participate in pro day, Kizer threw to Corey Robinson who hasn't played in a year, Amir Carlisle, and Jonas Gray. Kizer wasn't making excuses, saying this is what it will be like shortly.
"But you know it's football, that's how it's going to be when I step out there come two months from now where I'm going to be throwing to guys I've never thrown to before, just another opportunity, and show the things I've been working on. There are some difficulties but again we were out there just having fun, showing what we can do, those guys have been training just as hard as I have," Kizer said.
Another person who performed well at pro day was James Onwualu. A player who many believe should've been invited to NFL Combine, ran a 4.73 40 yard dash and in impressive 36" vertical.