SOUTH BEND, Ind. — As Notre Dame’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, it is incumbent upon Chuck Martin to probe the mind of a first-year starter and attempt to re-glue pieces that may have become scattered about.
It’s especially challenging, though, when Everett Golson can’t account for how the mess occurred in the first place.
“The Michigan game was different,” Martin said Wednesday. “He doesn’t really have an explanation.”
Both Notre Dame coordinators were available to the media for the first time during the regular season, and that mostly meant an off-week referendum on the quarterbacks from Martin. And that mostly meant questions about Golson, who has started all four games for the Irish but finished only two.
Most notable was the 3-for-8, 30-yard, two-interception showing against Michigan last weekend before Golson gave way to Tommy Rees in what became a 13-6 victory. Still, Irish coach Brian Kelly firmly maintained Golson would start on Oct. 6 against Miami at Soldier Field. And Martin more or less shrugged it off as another trial for a profoundly green quarterback.
“To me, it’s just part of life,” Martin said. “You learn from it, you move forward. He knows he wasn’t locked in like he should have been locked in. He knows he can’t have that happen again.”
As for the implementation of Rees as Plan B, Martin said the junior offers experience and therefore “calmness” that sometimes Golson does not.
“Even the two-minute drive against Purdue, did we not feel comfortable with Everett going out there and throwing the ball?” Martin said. “No, it had more had to do with just the management of the drive than the skill set. We felt good about both of them throwing the ball. It’s just you’ve got the experience, you’ve played, you have got confidence, you’ve seen it before times, so you don’t flinch.
“Everett is at the point where he’s understanding, he’s seeing it, but he still flinches sometimes. He doesn’t flinch all the time. He’s made some great run checks this year, and then other times he just kind of hesitated. So the nice thing is you know the knowledge is there, you know he’s getting it, it’s just about experience. Unfortunately or fortunately, whichever way you look at it, he’s getting experience under fire right now.”
But Martin insisted the four starts — and soon to be five — are all the confidence boosts that Golson needs. That and the Irish coaches assuring the sophomore that he wasn’t going to be perfect from the get-go, so mistakes are meant to be rolled with.
“You have to take some solace in that if you’re Everett Golson,” Martin said of the starting nods. “It’s still on him to keep his head up, when he has frustrating moments.
“We can pat him on the back and say, hey, that’s part of the learning process at any position, its just a little tougher at that position, but he’s still gotta take it on himself to keep believing in himself and keep believing, ‘Hey, I’m under fire here and i’ve got a lot of playing days ahead of me.'”
