2014 Notre Dame host Rice

Posted on August 29, 2014. Filed under: Football, NCAA Sports | Tags: academic problems, Charles Ross, coach brian kelly, Driphus Jackson, Everett Golson, Indiana, Irish, Jawon Davis, NCAA football, Notre Dame, Owls, Rice, SOUTH BEND |

Irish cruise to victory over Rice…

SOUTH BEND, IN — HE’S BACK….. Senior Everett Golson made his presence felt early and often in the season opener against Rice. He rushed for three touchdowns and threw for two more as the Fighting Irish cruised to a 48-17.

Golson missed all of 2013 because of a suspension for showing, as he put it, “poor academic judgment.” He hadn’t played since the loss to Alabama in the BCS title game at the end of the 2012 season.

He didn’t show any rust in his return. Golson passed for 295 yards and rushed for 41 more.

“I felt pretty comfortable from the get-go,” Golson said. “I don’t know if it necessarily showed the first couple of drives, but that’s one of those things where you just have to stay at it and keep being persistent in it.

“I think we did a great job of doing that, and it came out pretty good for us.”

The Irish finished the contest with 576 yards of offense.

“Golson was electric,” coach Brian Kelly said. “He kept his eyes downfield, knew when to run, knew when to throw it, and those are things we really talked about. We didn’t want to over‑coach him in that we were going to allow him to get outside the pocket and be a football player and just naturally go play the game. And I thought he did that extraordinarily well.

Building Men and Women via Athletics

Based on all of the bad press over the last week, due to academic scandal and five players, including three starters, are being held out of practices and games while the school looks into suspected academic dishonesty, this certainly is a positive sign for a program moving forward.

Next week, the Irish face a huge game and rival – Michigan, as the Wolverines stomped no Appalachian State 52-14