Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Senior Tommy Rees actually has more career starts than Golson (18 to 11), and has passed for nearly twice as much yardage (4,413 to 2,405) and almost three times as many touchdown passes (34 to 12). Photo by bill panzica (20-13 in overtime). He also replaced an erratic Golson early in the Michigan game to guide a 13-6 victory, and started in the hard-fought 17‑14 comeback win versus BYU when Golson was sidelined with an injury from the Stanford game. It was old hat for Rees, who as a freshman in 2010 replaced an injured Dayne Crist and won all four of his starts. Golson acquitted himself quite well as a sophomore and improved as the season progressed, but he still finished 62nd nationally in passing efficiency (131.01 rating) on an offense that struggled in the red zone and finished only 78th in scoring (25.8 points per game). However, Golson supplanted Rees as the starter last season because he was able to supply a little more "oomph" to the position in at least three ways: • Only six of Golson's 318 pass at- tempts were intercepted, whereas Rees tossed 14 (and lost five fumbles) in 411 attempts the previous year. The turnover total fell from 29 in 2011 to only 15 in 2012. • Golson's 298 yards rushing in 2012 were the most by an Irish quarterback since option specialist Carlyle Holiday amassed 666 in 2001. His ability to improvise, extend the play and keep the defense wary of the read option had been a missing element with the far less mobile Rees. • The arm strength of Golson was superior, allowing the Fighting Irish offense to spread opposing defenses a little more vertically, in addition to horizontally. Although Rees has established himself as a proven, productive relief man, he might be perceived as too physically limited to be a starter at a program with Bowl Championship Series