Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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game Brian Kelly coached at Notre Dame? Could you ever forget the 87 yards and 13 carries that earned Junior Jabbie a Blue-Gold MVP in 2007? How about Charles Stafford, who in 1995 caught five touchdown passes in one half (FIVE!) of the spring game? They probably don't crack your D o you remember Nate Mon- tana's three touchdown passes and 223 yards in the first spring A Plea For Temperance MURPHY'S LAW DAN MURPHY Notre Dame Best Hits album. Neither will Everett Golson's 120 yards and two touchdowns in 2012, no matter where his career goes from here. Prior to the April 21 scrimmage, columnists and even fans warned one another not to glean too much from the glorified practice that caps the spring football season. Yet be- fore the Irish even walked off the field large factions of the second two groups had deemed Golson's per- formance worthy of a starting spot. It was like watching a group hover over a Ouija board picking out the plusses to will their way toward the answer they all secretly wanted to hear. Golson ran 31 plays — a good quarter's worth of work against mostly second- and third-string de- fenders. Now, what if Notre Dame had a quarterback that in 32 plays could throw for 156 yards and three touchdowns? They do. His name is Tommy Rees, and he did exactly that on the first five drives against Air Force last season. Small sample sizes can produce misleading results. The little that we did see of Golson was exciting and exhilarating. He is a quarterback artist, graceful and im- provising. Rees and Hendrix are left- brained in their approach, relying on logic and science. It's easier for onlookers to appreciate the beauty of great art even if they don't under- stand how it was made. For a physi- cist, though, Einstein's work prob- ably greatly outshines Picasso and Van Gogh. That's how Kelly looks at his quarterbacks. "The quarterback position is the art Sophomore Everett Golson has the best physical tools of any of the quarterback contenders, but still needs to work on the mental aspect of the position. their quarterbacks yet. But reviewing Saturday's game shows that Golson needs to spend a long time in the lab before he catches up to his contend- ers in the science. Take, for example, the Golson-led the science and the consistency, all those things to be a championship quarterback." The Irish don't have that in any of PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND consisted of a fumbled snap, a sack negated by a facemask penalty and a poorly thrown screen pass before finding Riddick in a mismatch in the end zone. This isn't a lobby against Golson field goal drive during the second quarter of the scrimmage. On first- and-goal from the 5-yard line, the Irish called an off-tackle run for Theo Riddick to the left side. The defense stacked that side of the line, leaving a blitzing safety unaccounted for in the blocking scheme. Golson didn't see him, and the safety dropped Rid- dick in the backfield. Two plays later, Notre Dame settled for a field goal. On the first play of the next drive, with Tommy Rees under center, the defense showed a similar look. Rees audibled to change the direction of the play, which allowed his running back to pick up 11 yards and a first down. There were more problems easily and science and bringing the art and science together," he said following the scrimmage. "Golson's very cre- ative. The art part he's got down. It's 6 MAY 2012 glossed over when not seen in the context of a full season or even a full game. Golson was flagged for a delay of game penalty on his first drive and had to use two timeouts on the next as the play clock ticked away. His second touchdown drive, which started at the defense's 28-yard line, or for his counterparts. This is a lobby for temperance. We finished the spring season knowing exactly what we knew at its start. Golson has the best physical tools of any of the quarterback contenders. Like Rees and Hendrix, his shortcomings are still the same, too, we just didn't see enough of them last year to be fed up after one half of football. The scrim- mage on April 21 will undoubtedly have an impact on Kelly's final deci- sion, but so will every other day from then until Sept. 1. Montana, Jabbie and Stafford all failed to match their spring game production in the entire season that followed. Montana threw for 116 to- tal yards. Jabbie had 10 carries for 39 yards. Stafford had less catches in the fall (four) than he had touchdowns in the spring. Golson is not necessarily destined to follow in their footsteps. His fate is far from sealed, one way or the other. ✦ Dan Murphy has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2011. He can be reached at dmurphy@blueandgold.com BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED