I decided to finally go through and take a look at Golson through the year. I've personally been extremely happy with his play as a first yr starter (redshirt freshman), but I understand there will always be some haters...
First off, Golson has played one of, if not the toughest schedules in all of college football this year so far. He's been challenged by talented teams and in high pressure situations: starting in Ireland, night game @ ranked MSU, night game vs. bitter rival UM, night game in chicago vs. miami, pouring down rain vs. Stanford after a week of major coverage by the media...so much hype!
That's TOUGH on any football player.
Now to FOOTBALL:
Stanford game he looked good, and yes still made mistakes. But, he was playing Stanford! You realize he outplayed Matt Barkley vs Stanford?
Barkley: 48.7%, 0TDs, 2INTs
Golson: 50%, 1TD, 0INTs
Heck...Washington beat Stanford and Price was 51.4%, 1TD, 1INT
Isn't Braxton Miller a heisman hopeful? Against MSU he passed for 179 yards 1TD 1INT
Golson vs. MSU: 178 yards 1TD 0INTs
Vs. Miami Golson 77.3% 186 yards 0TDs 0INTs
Vs. Miami Klein 81.8% 210 yds 1TD, 1INT
Vs. Purdue: Golson 67.7% 1TD 0INTs +1 rushing TD
Vs. Purdue: Denard 50% 1TD 0INTs +0 rushing TDs
Vs. Purdue: Wisconsin QB (Stave): 57% 1TD 1INT +0rush TDs
The kid is a redshirt freshman QB playing tough competition in tough situations every week and yet he's playing at the same level as guys like Matt Barkley, Colin Klein, Denard Robinson, Braxton Miller. If he had some cupcake games on his schedule to beef up his stats he could have season stats like those guys too. I think hes playing exceptionally well for his situation.
You will always have growing pains with first year starters and redshirt freshmen....for example Tommy Rees, Geno Smith in his first season as a starter had a horrendous game vs. Syracuse and some poor performances throughout that season, Andrew Luck had 4 games under 50% completion his first yr starting and some horrendous games (like the Cal game), When RGIII took on REAL competition as a freshman (Oklahoma, OK state, Nebraska, Texas) he was subpar. I could keep going...
The reality is that Golson is playing like a Redshirt freshman in his first year starting. He's just doing something that all the QBs stated above are not...WINNING! He's undefeated and I think that says a lot about the kid.
Sorry for the rant...just tired of seeing people talk about Tommy or even Gunner (lol) taking over when we have someone with soooo much talent and ability right here as the starter today who has us 6-0 in arguably the toughest schedule in the country.
