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Everett Golson Brings Turnovers and Clutch Gene to Florida State; Jameis Winston Part II?

By Caleb Calhoun

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Is Everett Golson Jameis Winston Part II but with mobility at Florida State? His proneness to turnovers combined with his clutch gene suggest he could be.

Everett Golson is the type of quarterback you want gone from the team right before he becomes the type of quarterback you want to take out for dinner.

Who does that sound like Florida State Seminoles fans? We’re talking, of course, of Jameis Winston last year.

Golson brings out the same type of emotions. Sure, he is not nearly as good from the pocket as Winston. And Winston is not nearly as mobile as Golson.

So we are not trying to say these are the same type of players.

But they have the same mentality. They can be reckless, aggressive, and show great leadership when needed.

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Last year, Winston played mistake-filled games only to bail Florida State out with great plays at the end of games. Despite falling to 8-5 with three losses by four points or less, Golson was doing the same thing at Notre Dame.

Golson should honestly be undefeated in close games. In 2012, Notre Dame was 5-0 behind him in games decided by a touchdown or less. This past year, he had them on their way with a late fourth-quarter touchdown on 4th and 11 to beat Stanford 17-14 and then throwing for 300 yards and three touchdowns to win a shootout with North Carolina 50-43.

Then came a downward spiral that had almost nothing to do with Golson. Against Florida State, he did everything he was supposed to do to lead the Fighting Irish to victory in an extremely close game on the road, and an offensive pass interference call at the end is the only reason they lost that game.

Then, later in the year, they had back-to-back losses by a field goal, neither of which were his fault. Against Northwestern, the Irish lost 43-40 in overtime after they committed two fumbles in the fourth quarter trying to protect the lead, which Golson had nothing to do with, and then missed an overtime field goal. Louisville was a back and forth game, but with the Irish down 31-28 late, Golson set up the Irish for a very easy chip shot to tie the game and go to overtime, and that chip shot was missed.

All of a sudden, Notre Dame had four losses thanks to a blowout loss to Arizona State in the mix there, which we will get to later, and a blowout loss to USC plunged them to 7-5. They salvaged the season a bit with their Music City Bowl victory, which Golson once again was the hero in by not playing some of the game but coming back in on the final drive to complete three straight passes to set up the game-winning field goal against LSU, which was converted this time.

Again, if that’s not clutch gene, I don’t know what is. But now we have to establish the other side of Golson.

And that is obviously the mistake-machine that he can be.

Golson did throw 14 interceptions last year, and he deserves full blame for that loss to Arizona State, which really started the downward spiral for the Irish. Tossing four interceptions against a below-average defense was terrible to watch.

In the 49-14 blowout loss to USC, he went seven of 18 for no touchdowns and an interception, not doing anything useful. And he is not completely absolved from the loss to Florida State given the fact that he threw two interceptions.

He also lost eight fumbles on the year and had 12 overall, so his mistake-prone games really put Notre Dame in bad situations. Just like Jameis, he will bail you out of holes he often dug.

Golson’s decision is still great news for Florida State, and with his dual-threat abilities there is no telling how great he could be with Jimbo Fisher being able to work with him. But be careful with him. He could frustrate you to no end in the process of winning games for you.

Next: Ranking the ACC Coaches Entering 2015

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