Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/380743
Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly … On senior quarterback Everett Golson's growth off the field: "He's grown exponentially as a person in terms of his maturity, his leadership, his ability to communicate on a day- to-day basis, take responsibility. I could go on and on. "He's a man. He had to go through some tough times to get to that point." On Golson's growth on the field: "As a football player, he's evolving. He's getting better. He can make plays, as you can see. But he's got a ways to go, too. "He'll tell you that. I love the fact that he's a pretty good player right now, and he's only going to get better." On freshman safety Drue Tran- quill's performance in more playing time than he is used to: "He did great. He doesn't know what he's doing, but he's awesome. He's running around there. I say that kiddingly because he does know what he's doing, but we're trying to really keep it simple for him out there. "He was such a locked-in kid. We're able to do some things with him, and he's only been here eight to 10 weeks. Where would we be without that young man? It's really pretty incred- ible." On playing in Indianapolis: "It's special because you have two teams from the state of Indiana playing in one of the premier facilities. An NFL facility always gets the attention of the college kids. Then we've got two kids from Indianapolis that are captains. "It was a special night for our foot- ball team. They were excited about it, making it a Shamrock Series. It's a way to showcase Indiana football. College football in Indiana sometimes doesn't get some of the notoriety it deserves. Hopefully tonight a little bit of it was shown on national television." FROM THE LOCKER ROOM Sophomore linebacker Jaylon Smith registered nine tackles, including two for loss and one sack, against the Boilermakers in Notre Dame's Shamrock Series win at Indianapolis. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA