Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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were used to doing," Martin said. "A lot of it has to do with being inexperienced at quarterback … I would like to think we would be more balanced with our tempo, that we have the ability to kind of play whatever tempo we want to play." point in his development. "The thing that stands out the most to me though is his command. His communication and his command and his leadership have been evident as we start to evolve." Year Three At QB Robby Toma graduated, heir apparent Davonte' Neal transferred (Arizona) and running back/slot Amir Carlisle broke his collarbone on the third day of spring drills. Filling that slot position will be a challenge in 2013. Even prior to spring, 6-1, 220-pound sophomore C.J. Prosise was shifted from safety to wide receiver because of the ball skills he displayed in practice when working against the defense last fall on occasion. This spring, his impact was conspicuous. His inexperience will be compensated for by the presence of physical senior Daniel Smith, with junior tight end Ben Koyack also getting reps in the slot. And once a healthy Carlisle returns, the position could feature another weapon. Either way, production could well increase from last season when Toma caught 24 passes and Neal just one. "Your guess is as good as mine," Martin said of who will be the focal figure in the slot. "C.J. has done some really good things, but I'd say the jury is still out on him. I don't know that he's ready to get the keys to car and take off and be our slot. "That's also the beauty of our system — we can play everyone everywhere. It's open-season competition. … We can take all our parts and because Year three has defined the head coach's future at Notre Dame. The same usually holds true at quarterback in year three (junior season). Brady Quinn (2005) went from average to a Heisman candidate as a junior. Jimmy Clausen (2009) went from 17 interceptions a year earlier to the single-season pass-efficiency king at the school his junior year. Golson, a junior, recognizes the stakes are now rising for him after one of the more productive seasons ever by a Notre Dame sophomore quarterback (2,405 yards passing and only six interceptions, plus 298 yards rushing, the most by an Irish QB since Carlyle Holiday's 666 in 2001). "I don't know that you could even put him in the same category with where he started last year to where he is now," Kelly said of Golson's progress this spring. "He has a strong command of our offense. Where we're at with him more than anything else is we can now begin to pull back a little bit. He wants to do a little bit too much. "He knows his toolbox very well. He didn't know anything relative to what he had for tools last year in terms of what he could do with the offense. Now he wants to maybe do a little bit too much. We're at a totally different Finding A Slot