Summer school doesn’t start at Notre Dame until June, but sophomore quarterback Everett Golson already has his top assignment. After an intriguing spring game performance, Golson will spend his next three months trying to understand the science of being a quarterback.
Notre Dame sophomore Everett Golson said he has the art of being a quarterback down. Now it's time to study the science.
Irish coach Brian Kelly is looking for a renaissance man under center — one equally adept in both art and science. The day before spring practice began Kelly told the media his three main criteria for picking a starting quarterback were good management and decision-making skills, avoiding turnovers (especially in the red zone) and the ability to make something out of nothing. In Saturday’s audition, Golson topped his competition in two out of the three.
The sophomore threw two touchdown passes and amassed 145 total yards during four offensive drives in only his second appearance as a college quarterback — the first was last year’s Blue-Gold game. His creativity and improvisation shined, but his command of concepts and display of authority left plenty of reasons to temper expectations after a strong showing on paper.
“I have the art of being a quarterback. It’s just the scientific part that I definitely need to develop,” Golson said, echoing his coach Saturday afternoon. “It was sometimes where [Kelly] has been on the sideline and kind of directing me through it a little bit, but like I said, I just gotta work on it.”
Golson burned two timeouts while struggling to get his offense set on a 75-yard field goal drive. Kelly said there would have been many more problems with getting a play off in time in had he not been helping line things up from the sideline.
Part of his problem was not understanding the sideline signals and relaying them to his teammates fast enough. He’s also steps behind junior Tommy Rees and Andrew Hendrix in grasping the mechanics that make Kelly’s offense move. Those are the issues he’ll be in the lab trying to sort out this summer.
“Everett cannot manage the game in the manner that he needs to,” Kelly said. “You can see all of [the quarterbacks] need work, and we’re excited to keep bringing them along. This summer they’ve got to help themselves. The guy that really commits to the details this summer is probably going to the be the guy who’s going to be the starter.”
There were plenty of details Saturday that should get Kelly and the Irish excited about Golson’s potential. Twice he extended plays that resulted in personal fouls on the defense. Several times he struggled to get the snap in his hands, but almost always recovered well. Once he picked a fumbled snap off the turf and ran for a positive play. Another time, he stumbled pulling away from the line in his pass drop, but recovered and threw a dart to wide receiver Robby Toma on the far sideline.
The Golson-led attack was also a perfect 3-for-3 in the red zone, while his counterparts were a combined 1-for-4. His only turnover — a botched snap on his first drive — was much more easily written off as springtime miscommunication than the interceptions thrown by Hendrix and Rees. Golson said the fumbled play was designed to be a quick handoff to Theo Riddick, who was in motion from the slot. Golson didn’t call for the ball quick enough, and the snap hit an unsuspecting Riddick in the shoulder and bounced free.
Golson wouldn’t say that he helped his case to play Saturday any more than the rest of the spring, but playing in front of 35,000 fans in as close to a game atmosphere as he has seen at Notre Dame did help him prepare for the future.
“I feel like today was a big day because it kind of showed me where I was in actual game-time situations,” he said. “In practice we try to simulate the games a lot, but it’s never like the real thing. So, just being out there in the spring game and seeing where I was, I have a lot of room to develop.”
Top on his list this summer is finding away to develop Kelly’s trust, an asset more important than any other in getting on to the field. Golson admitted that he and fellow sophomore George Atkinson III are currently “kind of a hassle” to the coaching staff because they can be inconsistent. Kelly was a little more blunt when describing that duo following Saturday’s game as a heart attack.
“I guess I have to develop to where he can really trust in me,” said Golson, who had clearly heard that phrase before. “And not give him a heart attack hopefully.”
