Everett Golson's Past: The Reason Notre Dame Will Be Okay Without Him

Everett Golson has seemed to have one of the most roller coaster careers in Notre Dame history. From taking the Irish to the 2012 BCS National Championship to leaving school due to academic problems and now transferring, Golson has done it all. Sadly, for Notre Dame fans, there isn’t going to be any more roller coaster rides between them and Golson. For many Irish fans, the absence of Golson in 2015 is a turn in the wrong direction; however, it may be the most positive step they’ve taken in years.

It’s college football, there aren’t 10-year contracts for quarterbacks and teams don’t build around these players to develop a winning team. It’s a constantly changing sport and players come and go in the blink of an eye. It’s what makes college football so exciting. What also makes the sport so intriguing is the unexpected transfer of players. Especially star players. What makes teams great in this sport is the ability to adapt when star players leave this team. Fortunately, for Notre Dame they have a young quarterback to fill Golson’s spot.

As many witnessed last season, Golson had many on field issues as Notre Dame deteriorated late last season. Many analysts and fans questioned Golson’s leadership and drive throughout this struggle. In response to this, Golson’s starting status was being questioned going into this offseason and apparently, he didn’t want to lose his job. Irish fans have seen Golson fight back after leaving school and secure his starting role over Tommy Rees. These fans were used to seeing Golson fight for what he wanted and come back stronger than ever after hard times. I guess that journey for Golson was over though after his and the team’s demise in 2014.

Golson has made it clear that he doesn’t wish to attend the University of Notre Dame this fall and he plans to play football at Florida State for his senior season.  This isn’t necessarily bad news for Notre Dame, considering Golson was battling for his starting job to begin with. Golson didn’t even start in Notre Dame’s bowl game victory against LSU last season. It seemed clear that Golson was losing his place on the team and quarterback Malik Zaire was making his way into the leading role.

Now that Golson has decided to attend Florida State in the fall, it looks as though Zaire is going to be the Irish’s starting pass thrower in the fall. For Notre Dame, this isn’t a bad sign. Zaire showed in his Music City Bowl start that he has the ability to lead the Irish. Although Notre Dame put much of their offense on their running game (51 attempts 263 yards), Zaire still had impressive numbers going 12 of 15 for 96 yards and a touchdown.

The way Notre Dame ran their offense during Zaire’s start looked much like their strategy during Golson’s freshman year. Having a young athletic quarterback usually allows teams to put most of their offensive strategy on them, but Brian Kelly doesn’t seem to want to put all the pressure on his young quarterbacks, because of that, they usually tend to succeed. It look as though these young stars don’t feel the pressure to put the entire team on their back. They seem to have fun playing football because of this. This all seems to come from the abundant mix of quality running backs that Notre Dame has had over the years. During Golson’s freshman year he only threw 318 times for 12 touchdowns. This was because Notre Dame had four running backs that took over most of the offensive workload. These backs contributed 15 of Notre Dame’s 37 touchdowns. Because of this, Golson didn’t have to produce many big plays to contribute to Notre Dame’s success.

Golson’s ability to run also had a big impact on his young success at Notre Dame. Coach Brian Kelly didn’t hold Golson’s athleticism back in their game plan. Golson became as much of their run game as the rest of the backs, such as Theo Reddick, Cierre Wood, and George Atkinson III. Rushing 94 times for 298 yards and six touchdowns, Coach Kelly allowed Golson to use his legs to become a key factor both in the air and on the ground.

Golson’s freshman year at Notre Dame allowed Brian Kelly to develop his offensive strategy into one that allows young quarterbacks to succeed early. With Golson leaving and Malik Zaire stepping into the starting role, Kelly will have to bring back the running mentality. With this, Notre Dame and Malik Zaire should have the same success Notre Dame has had over the past few years. Brian Kelly and Everett Golson have created a strategy for a young athletic quarterback that allows Notre Dame to adapt as well as any team in college football. Coming into the 2015 season, the Irish’s new passer should have no problem making an impact with Coach Kelly following the same path he did with Golson.