Notre Dame Football: Why Everett Golson Is Still the Best Bet at QB
It’s a seemingly annual Notre Dame football tradition celebrated in November, or even earlier, by many Irish fans.
No, not Thanksgiving, or the yearly matchup with USC.
Rather, it seems there is always some clamoring for Notre Dame’s backup quarterback to replace its starting quarterback. Even just last year, the buzz surrounding backup Andrew Hendrix bubbled, until he actually did replace Tommy Rees against USC and struggled to move the football.
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This year, it’s been a more constant discussion, with many Irish football followers impressed—rightly so—by redshirt freshman Malik Zaire’s performance in the spring game in April. Those talks quieted to a mere murmur after Everett Golson started the season on a strong, Heisman-like note, only to be resuscitated with Golson’s turnover troubles.
Let’s get this out of the way right now: It’s certainly reasonable to debate whether Zaire should be given a chance at this point in the season, given Golson’s propensity for fumbles and interceptions. Still, Golson is Notre Dame’s best bet at quarterback right now.
Let’s focus on what Golson has done well.
In the first three games of the season, Golson completed 65 percent of his passes for 260 yards per game, seven touchdowns and zero turnovers.
Against Syracuse, Golson completed 25 consecutive passes, one short of tying the FBS record for consecutive completions.
Golson drove Notre Dame down the field against then-No. 14 Stanford and drilled a 23-yard dart to tight end Ben Koyack on 4th-and-11 for a go-ahead touchdown with 1:01 remaining in the fourth quarter.
He went toe-to-toe with Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston in a hostile environment in Tallahassee, Florida, and nearly led the Irish to a last-second victory. He’s responsible for 20.5 points per game this season, the fifth-most in the country.
Of course, that’s only half the story. While the completion streak against Syracuse continued a strong start to the 2014 campaign, it also marked a defined starting point for Golson’s oftentimes mind-blowing turnovers. He fumbled three times and lost two against the Orange to go along with a pair of interceptions. In total over the last eight games, Golson has committed 20 turnovers, more than 75 FBS teams have coughed up this season, per CFBStats.com.
But here’s the thing. Golson’s positives—the touchdowns, the fourth-quarter drives and the beautiful deep balls—are known entities. When he’s on, he’s an impressive quarterback.
“There's got to be more growth there, absolutely,” Irish head coach Brian Kelly said Sunday when asked how good Golson could be. “There is a higher ceiling for him. He's not been tapped out in the sense that it's as good as he can play. I think there's a lot of room for development and we hope that this experience that he got this year and going into USC and a bowl game that we continue to see that development.
“So in answering your question, yeah. I believe that he could be one of the top quarterbacks in the country, no question.”
Zaire, as solid as he was during the spring game, is an unknown entity. Would he supply as many big plays as Golson has? Would he take better care of the football? Maybe. And maybe not.
But while Golson’s turnover plague has been almost unimaginably ugly and pervasive, it seems it’s easier to correct those miscues than find another quarterback who brings the same positive characteristics to the discussion. Correct the turnovers, and doesn’t Notre Dame have one of the top quarterbacks in the country?
“We're 10 points from [having] three more wins, right?” Kelly said Sunday.
He is right, in a sense. A few fewer turnovers or different calls by the referees, and Notre Dame’s season could have a dramatically different feel. Sure, the same can be said for the breaks that have gone Notre Dame’s way, but the point persists.
Golson has supplied plenty of good and, more recently, plenty of bad. The good seems difficult to duplicate, or at least an unknown in the form of Zaire. The bad, while atrocious at times, seems it could be cleaned up.
With two games remaining this season, isn’t it worth determining if Golson can make progress with his ball security?
If he can, Notre Dame could have a top-of-the-line quarterback to lead a high-upside squad in 2015.
All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
Mike Monaco is a lead Notre Dame writer for Bleacher Report. Follow @MikeMonaco_ on Twitter.
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