August 22, 2011

Jake Brown
IrishIllustrated.com Recruiting Analyst

When Everett Golson arrived at Notre Dame in January the world around him hit warp speed.

Suddenly the quarterback from Myrtle Beach, S.C., was balancing a rigorous academic workload, an entirely new social situation and a complex offense he’s expected to someday master. In short, he was a freshman.

“I came in January and was kinda flustered with everything,” Golson said. “I didn’t really know how the academics was gonna go for me; didn’t know how the football situation was gonna go for me. I was just a little but flustered and was really spreading myself too thin.”

One of the things Golson has noticed as fall practice marches toward the season opener against South Florida is how much the world has slowed down since then.

Enrolling early set the 6-foot, 185-pound signal caller up with a bit of an advantage. Golson was able to dive into the playbook and participate in spring practice. Dayne Crist and Tommy Rees could serve as tutors. All have proven invaluable over the last few weeks.

All that experience has allowed Golson to slow life down. Talk about a leg up.

“I had academics to worry about,” Golson said. “I had housing to worry about. And then on top of that the football aspect. I was just spreading myself so thin. Now everything is starting to slow down. I can really focus on football and planning to succeed.”

In truth, Golson knew pretty well what he was getting into from a football perspective.

The former three-star prospect learned plenty about the Notre Dame offense during his recruitment and comes from a similar system at Myrtle Beach High School.

During his prep career Golson made Myrtle Beach’s spread offense hum, throwing for 11,634 yards and 151 touchdowns. As a senior, despite missing half the season with injury, Golson compiled 1,770 yards and 25 scores. His record as a high school quarterback was 44-5. Last year Golson led the Seahawks to a state championship while going against five-star defensive end Jadeveon Clowney.

Even with all that working in his favor Golson still has plenty to learn while absorbing Brian Kelly’s system, although there have been moments of brilliance for both he and sophomore Andrew Hendrix.

“They both have flashes,” Kelly said. “Everett had a couple flashes (Friday), but also when he has a chance to level two a ball back into the end zone he throws a line drive and gets it picked off. There’s great things from both those kids, they’re just, we can’t put them in there yet because they’re not able to take great care of the football.

“I think you guys know ? both those kids have huge upside. They’re just not ready to do it on a consistent basis.”

For his part, Golson seems to have a pretty firm grasp on where he stands in the quarterback mixture.

As Crist and Rees find out this week who will start against South Florida, Golson is content to bide his time and soak in his first collegiate season. Any talk of being a snug fit for the offense will have to wait at least a year.

“It keeps me a little bit humble,” Golson said, “and keeps that drive going for me just to know that somewhere down the line I can help this team win something. That’s what helps me.”