On the other hand, Kizer throwing at 212-361, with 24 times as much yardage, 26 touchdowns, and just 9 interceptions, shows that he was carrying the offense, especially with no true #1 wideout.
I'm not impressed with Zaire's performance in 2016, and Zaire's failure to make the offense work against that Texas team shows that he didn't have the ability.
Malik Zaire had a decent game against LSU in 2014, and a nice game against Texas in 2015. After that, he wasn't even a fraction of what he used to be. He basically gave up at the end of the USC game, where he had a chance to throw the ball into the end zone, but instead, tossed a very short pass to St. Brown, that had no chance of scoring. Zero.
"The Man" wouldn't make that kind of a terrible mistake, and would have at least put his team in a position to have a chance of winning, not giving up like he did against USC.
Besides, he had a chance to prove that he was "The Man" at Florida, and instead, turned out a terrible season, losing all of his starts, and going 32 of 56 for 349 yards with not a single passing TD. None. Even a badly underdeveloped Feleipe Franks beat him out, and put up decent numbers with that supporting cast.
You assert that Zaire wouldn't have folded in 7 losses in the 4th quarter, well, I can agree with you on that part, that he would have lost us the Miami game as well, and the Syracuse game would have also been in jeopardy, so he would probably have folded in 9 losses that year, if he were the starting QB.
Could he have been a great player? Entirely possible, but again, once he broke his ankle, he never got his mojo back.
We were actually in several of those 2016 games because Deshone Kizer was putting up enough points. The defense and special teams didn't do their parts, and the rest is history. You have absolutely no argument here. None.