Meet Everett Golson, Notre Dame Starting Quarterback
By Kyle Kensing
Chicago Tribune Notre Dame beat writer extraordinaire reports that Everett Golson will quarterback the Fighting Irish’s offense when it squares off against Navy in Dublin, Ireland next week.
Golson is a departure from the typical Notre Dame quarterback, a consummate dual threat player. UND is undergoing plenty of change in Brian Kelly’s third season, some of it to the chagrin of Irish traditionalists. However, the reported forthcoming confirmation of this deviation from the norm should be welcomed with open arms.
In Kelly’s two seasons at the helm, the Irish have struggled to find an offensive identity. Kelly’s teams at Cincinnati were renowned for scoring in bunches, but neither Dayne Crist nor Tommy Rees provided the necessary spark to ignite Notre Dame. Rees struggled with turnovers last season, particularly in the red zone. A costly one against USC snuffed out any hope UND had of defeating its rival.
Rees occupied a hot seat most of the campaign, but the temperature only intensified when Andrew Hendrix came on and played well in the season finale loss at Stanford. Hendrix was among the trio in the mix at spring football, but Golson’s talents outshined Hendrix’s in the spring game. Rees disqualified himself from the competition with a May arrest, earning a suspension for the Ireland trip. His fate with UND will be an interesting sub-plot, as the time lost might relegate Rees to No. 3 on the depth chart. A similar proposition sent Crist packing for Lawrence, Kan.
The South Carolina product earned high praise from fellow Palmetto State product turned Irish quarterback, Tony Rice. He’s an elusive rusher and was the most accurate of the passers in the spring. Were I Golson, I would acquaint myself with Tyler Eifert as much as possible in the coming weeks.
Eifert is the latest in a long line of outstanding Irish tight ends, and could prove to be the most valuable target while Golson refines his aerial attack.
Kelly’s spread offense suits Golson’s skill set well, though the system is not necessarily predicated on a rushing quarterback. Tony Pike led two Big East champions at UC virtually never carrying the ball. Other Kelly QBs like Zach Collaros, Ben Mauk and Dustin Grutza have been capable rushers, but hardly called on to shoulder the load like Denard Robinson when Rich Rodriguez was at Michigan, or Tim Tebow at Florida.
Still, having the ability to call Golson’s number out of the shotgun will give the Irish an element previously lacking. The combination of the uptempo spread style and Notre Dame’s more typical size should result in improved red zone efficiency — the Irish ranked No. 88 in that facet a season ago.