Mirror Images? Golson Drawing Comparisons to Last Irish Championship QB
Story and Photo Illustration by Jim Maggio
When Myrtle Beach High School football standout Everett Golson announced his recent verbal commitment to Notre Dame, my thoughts immediately raced back to 1986 – the last time a new Fighting Irish head coach recruited an undersized, ultra-talented, dual-threat quarterback from South Carolina deemed the “perfect fit” for the coach’s offensive scheme.
Back then, the coach was Lou Holtz, and the quarterback was Tony Rice. Two years later, their rescue mission was complete, and the storied program had finally risen from years of mediocrity to become the best in college football.
A quarter century later, the scenario is eerily similar.
Will Notre Dame’s 2011 season mark the beginning of a championship run for Golson and his new coach, Brian Kelly?
Go ahead, ND haters. Laugh if you must.
But for a lifelong Irish fan who’s also enjoyed seeing Golson in action at Doug Shaw Stadium the past few seasons, it’s a heck of a lot of fun to think about.
Besides, I’m not alone in my comparison of Golson to Rice, or in thinking that Golson has a good shot of having an impact much sooner than later. National recruiting analyst Tom Lemming is leading the Rice-Golson comparison chorus, and Bleacher Report is singing along, dubbing Golson as “the quarterback that Kelly has been praying for since stepping foot on campus.”
A big part of the early optimism surrounding Golson is the fact that he graduates from high school this month, and will be enrolling at Notre Dame in January to get a head start on his studies and participate in spring practice. By May, we should have a good idea of where Golson stands in the quarterback pecking order.
With a junior, sophomore and two redshirt freshmen already in place for next season, there’s a better than average chance that 2011 will be a redshirt season for Golson. But regardless of how many players Golson will compete against for playing time, my hunch says that if he gets through spring drills with no indication of being redshirted, we’ll see him on the field in September – if not as a starter, then in special play packages designed to maximize his strong suits as both a strong-armed, accurate passer and elusive open-field runner.
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