Notre Dame Head Football Coach Brian Kelly can deny or make excuses for the sudden error prone football his quarterback Everett Golson is making. But deep down, you know Kelly and the rest of his offensive coaching staff are worried as they head into this season’s biggest game Saturday.
Golson has turned the ball over eight times the past three games. Of those turnovers, three were interceptions (two returned for touchdowns) and the other five turnovers are Everett Golson fumbles. All five of those blunders were converted into touchdowns. Notre Dame turned it over just once in their first three games; 10 in their last three.
If it was just one game, we would all be looking at it as no big deal; just one of those bad games that just happens during the course of a long college football season. If it was two games, we’d all be worried, but we would still think that everybody’s All American Everett Golson, the man that could do no wrong through the first 3 games, would somehow find his mojo and bust out of the slump.
But now, it’s going on three consecutive games and the worst of the three came last Saturday against a North Carolina defense that many experts say is college football’s worst. To give you an idea on how bad the Tar Heels defense really is, I’ll put a number on it. They are ranked 117th nationally in total defense. The Tar Heels are ranked dead last among all power five conference teams. FCS squad Liberty scored 29 on them. East Carolina put up 70. UNC averages a half-century points per game allowed.
After three games, you no longer call what Everett Golson has been doing a slump; you have to call it a trend. It’s a trend that is staring Kelly and Golson down as they head south to face the Florida State Seminoles in their house.
Last Saturday, Golson spotted North Carolina a 14-0 lead because of his turnovers. If you do that this Saturday against the defending national champions in their own backyard, the Irish will be speared by the Noles.
This isn’t the first time Everett Golson has made these types of mistakes in his career. In 2012, when Notre Dame made the undefeated run to play in the National Championship game, Golson was replaced four different times in the middle of games by then back-up quarterback Tommy Rees.
However, in 2014, Rees has graduated and nobody knows if young Malik Zaire can bring that calm self-confidence off the bench that Rees seemed to bring every time he needed to save the day two years ago.
With no Rees to fall back on this Saturday, it will be Everett Golson ’s opportunity to somehow get past these mistakes and find a way to do what all great Notre Dame quarterbacks do and that’s win HUGE games on the road.