NCAA Football: Irish QB situation taking shape
All summer long it was anybody’s guess as to who the starting QB for Notre Dame would be. It was a 4 man fight with Junior Tommy Rees, sophomore Andrew Hendrix, redshirt freshman Everett Golson, and five-star freshman Gunner Kiel. With the arrest and suspension of Tommy Rees this offseason the completion was dwindled down to three.
But as the team preps for a true road game against Navy in Ireland on September 1st, that battle is coming into focus, and looks like the choice will be between Hendrix and Golson, with Kiel clearly third on the depth chart.
So far in fall practice, Golson and Hendrix have been getting the same amount of snaps, but Head Coach Brian Kelly is adamant on naming a starter sooner rather than later. “Certainly as we start to prepare,” Kelly said at a news conference Thursday, “it’s not going to be a 50-50 proposition.”
With neither Golson nor Hendirx having a lot of game experience, Coach Kelly has made sure to run a lot more 11-on-11 situations.
“11-on-11 is real football. That’s the game we play, so it’s a chance for us to get in, show what we have, show how well we know the offense, so those 11-on-11 periods are really good for us.”
With Golson getting the most snaps on Thursday practice, and only tossing one interception this fall, it looks more and more like he will be number one on the depth chart come week 1, and on Monday we should get a clearer picture if that will be the case
August 16, 2012 1:43 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
Golson, a three-star QB from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina is no stranger to QB competition. With Dayne Crist here last season, Golson was given an opportunity to compete for the starting job along with Rees and Hendrix. After totaling 153 total yards in his first spring game, he ultimately became the fourth QB on the depth chart and ended up redshirting and running the scout team offense.
With Crist now at Kansas, and the arrival of five-star QB Gunner Kiel, Golson found himself in yet another four way QB battle. However this spring, he stepped his game up and threw for 120 yards and 2 TDs while running for 30 yards. At that point up until now, he clearly looks like most talented QB on the roster, and the one to lead the Irish overseas against Navy.
And Golson is looking forward to the opportunity, “I’m trying to go at it with all I’ve got”, he says. “We’re all trying to start at Notre Dame, which is one of the greatest opportunities you can ever have.”
Regardless of who wins the job, the real question will be had they done enough to unseat Tommy Rees as the long term option at QB?
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Jeremy Cabler covers the NFL Draft and College Football for Rant Sports.
Follow him on Twitter @JeremyCabler and @RantSports
