Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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the judicial system, Notre Dame and Kelly handle the situation. "Everybody expects a leader to be that decisive guy," Golson said during the spring. "I think I've grown a lot — tremen- dously. From last spring until now, I'd say I've almost doubled my [football] IQ level. That's just with help from great coaches like Coach Kelly and Coach [Chuck] Martin. They really break everything down to make sure you understand it. "I still have a long, long way to go. One of the biggest things for me is just to be more consistent. I kind of know what I want to do; it's just a fact of being consistent." Kelly didn't discount the positives he saw from Golson during the spring, but ham- mered on the importance of being sharp each and every play, with no exemptions for rookies. "We saw some errors that, unfortunately, are all too familiar," Kelly said following the Blue-Gold Game. "So, I think there were some strides made, but clearly we're not there yet. We've got a lot of work to do with all the quarterbacks to get them to the level that we want. And we have a high bar set for them." Twice on a 75-yard drive that resulted in a field goal, Golson used a timeout because the play clock was winding down. "The stats really don't mean anything to me," Kelly explained. "What I didn't like was that he's got to get the plays in quicker. He's got to recognize the signaling. "If I'm not out there getting guys set and making sure he knows what to play, we're going to have flags thrown all over the place. So those things don't mean as much to me as they do managing the offense. We're making progress there, but we're nowhere where we need to be." "I have the art of being a quarterback. It's just the scientific part that I definitely need to develop," Golson said, echoing his coach. "It was sometimes where [Kelly] has been on the sideline and kind of directing me through it a little bit, but like I said, I just gotta work on it." It might be the one area, other than expe- rience, where he trails Rees and Hendrix. "Everett cannot manage the game in the manner that he needs to," Kelly said. "You can see all of [the quarterbacks] need work, and we're excited to keep bringing them along. This summer they've got to help themselves. The guy that really commits to the details this summer is probably going to be the guy who's going to be the starter." Nevertheless, the Blue-Gold Game was a good start for Golson, who was 3 for 3 in the red zone while the other three quarter- backs were a combined 1 for 4. Most impor- tantly, he lost the ball only once — a fumble born out of miscommunication at the line of scrimmage — and was the only one of the four not to toss an interception. "I feel like today was a big day because it kind of showed me where I was in actual game-time situations," he said. "In practice we try to simulate the games a lot, but it's never like the real thing. So, just being out there in the spring game and seeing where I was, I have a lot of room to develop." Kelly and Co. would like to see that hap- pen rapidly. "You're seeing something very exciting, but I think we all can sit here and agree we've got to get them to take care of the game, manage the football," Kelly said. "If they do that, they can really help our foot- ball team." ✦ JUNE/JULY 2012 67