Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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"The one thing with Everett, he's a hard-working kid. He's always been that way since he's been here," Kelly said. "It's never been a question about his work ethic. The quarterback, just by its position, is going to be a leader. If you look at the watchwords for leadership, the first thing is compete. … He's a great competitor. The sec- ond thing is consistency. He hasn't shown that yet, right? We're working on that consistency end of things. "The third thing that I look for is great communication. We're doing a really good job of communicating on a day-to-day basis. The fourth thing is being coachable. Those four things are what I look for from every one of our players, and I like where we are in that process with Everett right now." Golson could have chosen to not return to Notre Dame and continue his Irish career, but he said he never wavered in his commitment to return to the university since the suspen- sion was handed down last Memo- rial Day weekend. Staying fresh with competition at a junior college was not considered, nor was a transfer. Al- though he said no other programs ap- proached him directly about continu- ing his playing career at a different school, he alluded to programs trying to contact him through third parties. "Like I said, I know I messed up," he said. "So for me, I had to come back and complete what I had started." ✦ Competition For Everett Golson? It wouldn't be spring practice in South Bend without a little bit of quarterback competition. In head coach Brian Kelly's first meeting with the media after Everett Golson returned to campus, the coach de- livered a message designed to keep the presumed starter on his toes. "I do want to caution everybody, including anybody that's around the program, and our players in particular," Kelly said. "There is a pretty good quarterback that we didn't play this year, Malik Zaire, that's going to get a chance, too." The lefty from Kettering, Ohio, redshirted last fall behind seniors Tommy Rees and Andrew Hendrix while he learned Notre Dame's offense. Zaire's high school coach, Ed Domsitz, said his former star felt good about where he stood in the quarterback pecking order during training camp in August. A bout with mononucleosis took him out of action shortly thereafter, and he never fully regained traction until most of the season had passed. Zaire has been sure of himself since he enrolled early at Notre Dame a year ago. He told Blue & Gold Illustrated that he planned to make Golson "as uncomfortable as possible" last January. That confidence might be in equal parts his greatest strength and greatest weakness if he's going to turn Notre Dame's quarterback position into a legitimate two-man race anytime soon. Golson, who spent last fall training with quarterbacks coach George Whitfield Jr. while waiting out his semester-long academic suspension, will almost certainly get the first crack at first-team reps. Kelly said early reports from strength coach Paul Longo were good, as expected. Golson put on 15 pounds of muscle since he last played in the BCS National Championship Game more than a year ago. Zaire's first challenge will be to stay engaged if the competition for playing time isn't going the way he envisioned. Domsitz saw a similar scenario during Zaire's sophomore year of high school. Archbishop Alter was coming off of an undefeated championship season and returned its starting quarterback. Zaire got on the