Notre Dame coach frustrated with Everett Golson's mistakes
Brian Kelly isn’t happy with his quarterback. That much was clear Saturday evening as he spoke to the media following a 55-31 dismantling at the hands of Arizona State.
Everett Golson, who was once considered a Heisman contender, threw four interceptions, including two that were returned for touchdowns, and lost a fumble. In all, Arizona State scored 28 points off Golson’s mistakes.
"There were absolutely no changes in what they did, which makes it even more maddening and frustrating," Kelly said. "I guess that's what I'm most upset about because we could've moved the ball [Saturday] effectively. It's one of those deals where you take one step forward and two steps back and he comes back in the second half and does some really good things. He's got to strive for consistency. If he plays clean in the first half, who knows where we'd be right now."
Most coaches aren’t quick to throw their quarterback under the bus during a loss, but Kelly had no problem laying the blame on Golson. At one point during his press conference, he got into a terse conversation with a reporter who tried to justify some of Golson’s mistakes.
But Golson’s poor performance didn’t exactly come out of left field, he does have 17 turnovers in his past six games.
“We’ve been working with him,” Kelly said. “I mean, I don’t know. Sooner or later he’s gotta take it on himself to take care of the football. I don’t know what else to do. We’re at that point now where it hurt us in the game, obviously.”
It’s unfortunate because if you take away the turnovers, Golson has been a star for the Irish. He’s thrown for 2,757 yards and 24 touchdowns. He’s also rushed for six scores. He had the Irish sitting at No. 10 in the College Football Playoff rankings and an offensive pass interference against Florida State away from being undefeated heading into the Arizona State game.
To Golson’s credit, he didn’t shirk the blame that Kelly put on him. He accepted responsibility for the Arizona State loss and acknowledged he had to get better.
"Basically, I honestly think it's all on me really," Golson said. "When you play with fire as much as I did [Saturday], you're going to get burnt eventually, so I've got to obviously be better, clean up a lot in practice and I think that's where it really starts, is in practice."
For more Notre Dame news, visit IrishIllustrated.com.
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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturday
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