Everett Golson: Notre Dame’s prodigal son & Heisman Trophy frontrunner
For almost seven months of 2013, Everett Golson wasn’t enrolled at Notre Dame. A quarterback with National Championship experience was in a liminal space — he wasn’t playing football. If there was some guarantee that he might return to Notre Dame, the institution didn’t show it. The Irish handed the offense to Tommy Rees, who led the 2013, Golson-less team to a 9-4 record.
But self-inflicted adversity galvanized Golson.
“I was forced to grow up. I was forced to mature,” Golson said about the time while he was on leave from Notre Dame, via the New York Post. “You live in a false sense of reality [here]. Everything is golden. Academics are good, you have a prestigious school, it’s a storied program. When you’re shut out forcibly, you hit real life. That’s what you learn the most from.”
In some ways, he’s a living paradox. Off the field, he had “poor academic judgement”, which sounds a lot like cheating or plagiarism. Though, it could have been a low grade average or poor attendance for classes. The anonymity creates the air of malignancy. If he was cheating, then ethically he was in the wrong.
Yet, on the field, there’s an eerie perfection that surrounds the golden helmeted quarterback. He’s 14-1 as a starter. This year, the Irish (4-0) are perfect. He throws an interception on 1.7 percent of his career passes. Against Syracuse, he exhibited near-perfect touch, completing 25 consecutive passes for a Notre Dame record, just one completion short of the FBS record.
But the Golson that left in May of 2013 doesn’t seem to be the one that’s on the field in 2014. As far as we know, he’s on solid academic standing. Hopefully, he’s changed as much off the field as he has on it. Because when he left, he was a game-manager.
“We really kept it very simple for him and played to the strength of our defense two years ago. We really tried to find ways not to put him in difficult situations offensively,” Irish head coach Brian Kelly told FoxSports.com. Kelly’s 2012 defense held opponents to 12.8 points per game, second-best nationally. “We controlled the game by running the football, play-action shots down the field, punting the football. That was probably the extent of our offense: playing to the strength of a very good defense.”
When Kelly summed up his 2012 offense, he didn’t bother mentioning his quarterback, Golson. This year, no one can mention the Irish without talking about Golson. He is a Heisman frontrunner with 1,142 yards, 11 touchdowns and two interceptions. He’s added 104 yards and four touchdowns rushing, too. With some help from his teammates, it adds up to four wins.
Perhaps Golson has come so far, because he is quick to point out his own mistakes. His game against Syracuse had highs and lows. He may have had a 82.1 completion percentage, but he had four turnovers. They marked his considerable and surprising struggles in the early going against the Orange.
“I just have to get better. I have to clean up a lot of things,” Golson said, via The Sun Times.
From the sound of things, he’ll clean it up quickly. Nobody outworks the 21-year-old quarterback.
“Trying to get him to leave [the facility] is the hardest thing to do,” joked defensive lineman Sheldon Day, Golson’s close friend, via the New York Post.
Would Golson look as immaculate against SEC opponents? Probably, not. But he’d still look pretty damn good. Against Alabama in the 2012 National Championship game, he managed 270 yards, two total touchdowns (1 pass, 1 rush) and an interception.
For a player that flirts with perfection and teeters with the immaculate, a season that includes the Heisman and National Championship Trophies is in order. It’s not just a lofty goal — it’s the loftiest.
His next test is the perfect measuring stick. Golson and the Irish face a Stanford Cardinal team that has allowed a total 296 yards on the season. Golson eclipsed that total in a single game against Syracuse. The Cardinal have also averaged a 6.5 points per game. If there was any better way for Golson to prove that he’s a legit passer and leader, then the Cardinal provide that challenge. If he can beat David Shaw’s defense, he can beat anybody — perhaps even, Florida State, who the Irish face on Oct. 18. They’ll also see very tough Pac-12 teams in ASU and USC. The Irish picked an anti-cupcake schedule that might make them a College Football Playoff contender with one loss. But frankly (and unfortunately for Notre Dame), that depends on how many SEC teams have one loss.
He has a schedule filled with land mines — but I’d bet he likes the looks of it better than his schedule looked in 2013, when he was without football. Somehow, his ability to overcome adversity during the empty schedule bodes well for him to succeed in 2014.
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