Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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"There's going to be a lot of noise surrounding Everett Golson. I think there will be as many people looking for him to not succeed as there will be to succeed. "Unfortunately not everybody likes a good story. There will be some cynics out there." Notre Dame and Kelly owe a debt of gratitude to the graduating Tommy Rees, who saved the football program's bacon in the last four games of 2010 and several times in relief in 2012, and his presence maybe prevented a sub- .500 season in 2013. Nevertheless, Rees ideally would have remained the backup safety valve throughout Kelly's first four years instead because there were limits with his mobility (minus-133 yards rushing in his career, and never on the plus side in one season) that inhibited the spread offense from fully stretching its wings. It's probably not a coincidence that the one season Kelly had a mobile, running threat at quarterback, with Golson in 2012, Notre Dame finished Going Mobile At Quarterback Around the middle of the 2013 season, Brian Kelly was asked what was preventing his offense from becoming more prolific. He answered the question subtly rather than specifically. "Look around college football at the teams that are scoring a gazillion points," he said. "It's not innovative gurus on offense. It's pretty clear when they're scoring a gazillion points, if you guys can figure that out." Electrifying dual-threat or mobile quarterbacks in spread offenses have become the rage in college football the past decade — most notably Vince Young (Texas), Tim Tebow (Florida) and Johnny Manziel (Texas A&M) — and Kelly and the Irish staff hope they have such a figure in Everett Golson, Malik Zaire, DeShone Kizer, et al. in years to come. Golson finished with 298 yards rushing in 2012 and enhanced the overall running game. Led by Florida State's Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston, most of this year's top 12 had such figures. • Auburn's Nick Marshall passed for 1,759 yards and ran for 1,023 during the regular season. • Stanford's Kevin Hogan passed for 2,487 yards, but also added a crucial 314 rushing — a Golson-like figure in 2012. • Baylor's Bryce Petty 192 yards rushing included 11 touchdowns, a commodity highly valued in the red zone. • Ohio State's Braxton Miller passed for 1,860 yards and rushed for 1,033. • Missouri's James Franklin passed for 2,255 yards and rushed for 474, while backup Maty Mauk had 1,039 passing and 156 rushing. • Under once pass-happy head coach Steve Spurrier, South Carolina's Connor Shaw had 2,135 yards passing to go with 511 on the ground. • Oregon's Marcus Mariota passed for 3,412 yards while also rushing for 582. • The Oklahoma tandem of Blake Bell and Trevor Knight combined for 2,119 through the air and 693 on the ground. • Clemson's Tajh Boyd passed for 3,473 yards and rushed for 273. — Lou Somogyi