One of the most controversial players at the start of the 2015 college football season, Golson can fit almost any number of narratives you can put together. He could be the quarterback who in 2013 led Notre Dame to its first undefeated regular season since 1988, culminating in the Fighting Irish’s first BCS championship game appearance.
Or he could be the ineffective field general whose lack of leadership was partially behind one of the most lopsided championship game losses in BCS history.
He could be a fearless competitor with a cannon of an arm and a flair for pulling off dramatic last-second victories and generating NFL Draft interest.
Or he could be an overrated turnover machine, a quarterback who accounted for more than 77 percent of his team’s turnovers last season.
By: Cory Burrell
None of these statements are necessarily wrong, depending on which narratives you believe.
Golson started to make a name for himself on the collegiate level in 2012, where he made he beat out the previous season’s starting quarterback, Tommy Rees, for the starting job as a redshirt freshman.
Golson showed flashes of brilliance, such as the 34-unanswered point barrage he helmed to bury Miami 41-3, or his 178 yard, no turnover performance in a win against Michigan State, alongside periods of ineffectiveness, including a 3 for 8 passing outing against Michigan or a crucial fumble against Purdue that nearly cost Notre Dame the game.
Golson ended the season with 12 passing touchdowns and 2,405 yards against six interceptions, along with six rushing scores. More importantly, Notre Dame’s undefeated regular season record earned them a spot in the national championship game against juggernaut Alabama.
Most people remember the 41-14 thrashing the Fighting Irish received in that championship game, but few remember Golson connected on 21 of his 36 passes for 270 yards and a touchdown against one interception. These numbers are less impressive by the game-long blowout Golson accumulated these stats, but against the top-ranked defense in the nation as a first-year starter, Golson did more than what most expected of him. Even with the historic landslide loss in the title game, this year would easily be the least controversial of his career so far.
Many expected Golson to improve in his second year as the Fighting Irish’s starter. Instead, Golson would find himself off the team for the 2013 season.
Golson was suspended for academic violations. He later admitted to Sports Illustrated this violation was because of a “test situation”; he would not directly confirm or deny if he had cheated on a test.
“It wasn’t due to poor grades or anything like that,’ Golson said in the interview. “I’m just going to leave it at poor judgment.”
In the same interview nearly two years ago, he said some ironic words about his plans following academic suspension.
“My heart was set on going back to Notre Dame,” Golson said. “Not necessarily to prove [anything] to anybody, just doing it for me. I felt like that’s something that I started and I didn’t want to run away from it and go to a juco or go to another school. I was going to face it.”
“I didn’t want to run away from it…I was going to face it.”
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For the 2014 season, Golson was admitted back to Notre Dame in good standing. Golson won the starting quarterback position back and the Fighting Irish opened the season with a flurry of blowout victories.
Even when Golson’s sloppiness with the ball became more and more problematic, the electrifying quarterback seemed to have the answers by the end of the game, such as in the game against Stanford. In a sloppy matchup with the then-14th-ranked Cardinals, Golson made up for his own poor decisions and turnovers early with a 23-yard game-winning touchdown pass and ended with two touchdowns and 241 passing yards in the 17-14 victory for the Fighting Irish.
Notre Dame took its first loss of the season against Florida State, the second-ranked team in the nation, in a controversial 31-27 loss. Golson threw for 313 yards and 3 touchdowns, more than Seminoles’ Jameis Winston, the 2013 Heisman winner. But Golson also threw the ball 21 more times than Winston and was picked off twice. It would be unfair to blame the loss on Golson, who, turnovers aside, played well. But his gunslinger antics were becoming more apparent and detrimental as the season wore on.
Notre Dame briefly appeared to shake the FSU loss off with a win over Navy. In a closer-than-expected 49-39 victory, Golson played remarkably well, throwing for 315 yards and tallying six total touchdowns (three passing, three rushing) with only a single turnover. Unfortunately for Notre Dame, it was not a sign of things to come.
Following the win over Navy, Notre Dame went into freefall. The Fighting Irish ended the regular season on a four-game losing streak. The story of the prototypical self-destructing athlete formed with ease as Golson’s struggles became more pronounced. Head coach Brian Kelly, could (to an extent) tolerate Golson’s recklessness and questionable decision-making when it was merely a hindrance. When Golson entered a crucial Arizona State game with 12 turnovers in only five games, Kelly had reached his breaking point. By the season’s end, 22 of Notre Dame’s 26 turnovers came from Golson.
Arizona State served as the death kneel for Notre Dame’s playoff hopes and for Golson’s reign as Notre Dame’s starting quarterback. Golson accounted for five turnovers in 55-31 defeat. During a somewhat bizarre moment in the middle of the postgame press conference, Kelly momentarily contradicted himself and placed blame on the turnovers solely on Golson.
“Why aren’t they [the turnovers] all on Golson?” Kelly asked a reporter in the middle of a question. While Kelly quickly backed down from this accusation, he took another shot at Golson before the end of the press conference.
“Sooner or later he’s got to take it on himself to take care of the football,” Kelly said. “I don’t know what else to do.”
Golson’s demotion to backup seemed inevitable after the Arizona State game, especially with Sophomore Malik Zaire, a highly-touted prep prospect coming out of high school, eagerly waiting for his chance. In the midst of the final regular season game of the season for Notre Dame, a 49-14 dismantling by USC, Golson was finally benched for Zaire. Zaire then earned the starting nod against LSU in the Music City Bowl. While technically splitting time with Golson, Zaire stole the show with nearly 200 total yards and two scores in a 31-28 upset over the Tigers. Zaire was named MVP of the bowl game.
Spring practices were especially heated following the 2014 season; Zaire confidently told the Associated Press before the 2014 season he would beat out Golson as the starting quarterback. While that did not happen, his MVP performance over LSU now gave him an edge over Golson. Even though Kelly said neither quarterback outperformed the other in the spring, Golson no longer felt it was in his best interests to stay at Notre Dame. The former national title game starter left Notre Dame, deciding to transfer to another championship hopeful team, one that just lost its starting quarterback to the NFL: Florida State. ___________________________________________________________________
Golson has received more than his fair share of flak for “running away” from Notre Dame. His transfer can seem as entitled, even cowardly, and an attempt to avoid any sort of hardship in being a team’s starting quarterback. Even Golson’s former teammates from Notre Dame have taken shots at the quarterback, such as Austin Collinsworth.
“So [you’re] taking the Marshawn Lynch vow of silence? Good news if you can’t get fined,” Collinsworth tweeted to Golson, although the tweet was later deleted.
Golson, in one of the few interviews he has given since his transfer, tried to dispel that notion.
“I think that’s what a lot of people misconstrued,” Golson told Fox Sports. “I’m not afraid of competition at all. There’s gonna be competition when I go to Florida State as well. It was about where I can most benefit myself.”
Golson was right about the competition. While FSU’s star quarterback Jameis Winston was off to the NFL, the Seminoles seemed to have a perfectly capable quarterback ready to take over: Sean Maguire, Winston’s former backup who passed for 304 yards and one touchdown in his sole start the previous season. Golson received no promise of a starting position from Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher and was given the starting nod only a little more than a week before the Seminoles opener.
Golson said tension between Brian Kelly, the school itself, or even other players was not the reason he eventually decided to transfer.
“I just needed a fresh start,” Golson said. “It was me sitting down and thinking, ‘OK, where do I feel the most comfortable?’ It was nothing to knock Notre Dame. I just had to put myself in the best position possible.”
When it comes to on-the-field performance, Golson acknowledged his turnover issues and said he will improve on them with FSU.
“It was me trying to do too much at times,” Golson said. “Not giving up on plays. Me trying to escape the pocket and not keeping two hands on the ball. Just being real careless. Lots of little detail stuff. And that costs us a little bit. At the end of the day what didn’t happen was me getting back to the fundamentals.”
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Golson already has one game in the books with his new team, a 59-16 rout of Texas State. Golson looked especially sharp, completing 19 of his 25 passes to the tune of 302 yards, 4 touchdowns, and ,most important after Golson’s previous season, zero turnovers. Even the harshest critic of Golson would have been surprised to see the quarterback struggle against a Texas State team that finds itself fighting to break a .500 record most seasons, but it gives FSU hope the quarterback’s turnover woes may be behind him.
On the other side, Notre Dame did not suffer without Golson in its opener. With Zaire at the head of the Fighting Irish’s offense, Notre Dame demolished a Texas team that did little to resemble the powerhouse Longhorn teams of the past. Zaire led the 38-3 win with 313 yards, three touchdowns, and only three passes thrown incompletion the entire game.
It’s far too early to tell which quarterback will have the better year or which narratives Golson will follow. The finicky intangibles – his leadership, how good a teammate he is, his willingness to face adversity – are still undetermined. It is likely some or even all of these questions will not have a perfect answer by the end of the season. Golson has proven himself as a strong-armed quarterback.
If he can overcome past turnover troubles and refute the questions about his leadership and character, his talent will all but guarantee interest by more than a few NFL teams come spring.
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