Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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IN THE TRENCHES ANDREW OWENS tive completions at one point and 362 passing yards), but it's the mistakes that will stick out in his mind. "I've got to be better," Golson said bluntly following Notre Dame's fourth consecutive win to begin the season. It's not often that a team wins (let alone comfortably) when committing five turnovers, but that's what Notre Dame did in vanquishing the Orange. Golson's September was filled with talk of the Heisman, not hiccups. But Saturday was a stark — albeit neces- sary reminder — that this imperfect team is guided by a quarterback seem- ingly on the cusp of greatness, but still plagued by the occasional bump in the road. "At moments like [the fourth-quar- ter interception returned by the Or- ange for a touchdown], I know I've got to be on my game at all times," Golson said. "Right after I did it, I was like, 'This was stupid.' It was me revert- ing back to my younger days. I expect more out of myself." All of the sudden, expectations for Golson and the 4-0 Irish are height- ened. The buzz around the program will continue to build with each win Notre Dame is able to pull off, begin- ning with Stanford Oct. 4 and reaching a potential tipping point Oct. 18 at No. 1 Florida State, which suddenly seems vulnerable. "You could tell in the locker room there was not the normal chatter, ex- citement," head coach Brian Kelly said. "They knew they did not play the kind of football necessary to win each and every week. This game will get you beat week in and week out. We made enough plays, big plays, to overcome it. "Our quarterback can learn a lot from really having a great perfor- mance, too. He did a lot of really, really good things. … He did a lot of good things, but can learn so much from it. That's a great teaching tool." Golson is unlikely to turn it over that many times in another game this season — two days prior to the game Kelly spoke at length about Golson needing to protect the football while running — and there's no better wake- up call than one experienced in game action rather than practice. Just like it's not content with a sloppy 31-15 win over Syracuse, the young Irish squad is hardly satisfied with a 4-0 record considering the un- derwhelming performances against Purdue and Syracuse. "I wish we didn't have games like this," Golson said. "I want to come out and perform to the best of my abil- ity. I think handling adversity is good from that standpoint, but you can't keep having too many games like this. Coach Kelly talked about going up against [Stanford, North Carolina and Florida State] and how you don't get wins turning the ball over five times." We'll quickly learn of Notre Dame's mettle during a grueling October threesome of contests that will either confirm or shatter the team's conten- tion for a New Year's bowl. ✦ Andrew Owens has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2013. He can be reached at aowens@blueandgold.com