Notre Dame: Golson Looking For Strong Return

By Jeremy Smits

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish received a pretty rough blow last season when starting quarterback Everett Golson was thrown off the team due to academics. After having a superb redshirt freshmen season, he was forced to sit out a year. Now that he has officially earned his starting spot back, the quarterback will be hoping to put up some huge fantasy football numbers.

Pressure at Notre Dame is high, and it has increased even more now that there is a new investigation into academic dishonesty. Golston is not involved in any way, but a few of the players being investigated are starters. No one knows for sure yet what the impact will be on the team, but right now things are not looking good. Golson might just be a second year player, but he has been around the program for a while now and will be counted on as a leader.

In his redshirt freshmen season, Golson went undefeated in the regular season before being exposed a bit against Alabama in the championship game. Notre Dame faces a tougher schedule in 2014, with Michigan, Stanford, North Carolina and defending national champion Florida State as the biggest threats. Ultimately, their goal is to make the new playoff at the end of the year, but at most they can probably only finish with one loss during the year.

Adding stability to the most important position on the field is huge for Brian Kelly and his Fighting Irish. The good news obviously comes with more bad news about the four players being investigated, but Notre Dame should be a fixture in the top 25 all season long. Golson will enter the season as a Heisman hopeful, but above all else he simply wants to help his team improve on a 9-4 mark from a year ago.

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