I hope so. Seemed like he was pretty happy, even has adopted the nick-name "Irish Chocolate"....but you never know. BTW: I'm hearing that Jarett Grace has made huge strides this spring as Manti Te'o's backup. Having a great spring.
Also an ISD poster said he talked to Slick Rick Neuheisal at the airport after the coaching clinic. Rick was a speaker. Slick's comments on ND QB's. He said the problem with ND is that it only has one QB ready to play now – and that was Tommy Rees (ouch). At least, in his opinion, Golson isn’t ready (not mature enough for one thing), but that he can really play. Said Hendrix has a great arm but didn’t think he had the head for the game, at last not yet (Rick - “He says ‘my fault’ way too easily, and gets far too down on himself after after bad throw”). He said that Tommy was the best he saw by far, that he shook off the bad throws more easily than Andrew. Said he made some really nice throws today. * Said he LOVED ND. It was his first visit there, and he said you could just feel the history and the tradition and the magic. Said he was extremely disappointed that he never got to play or coach there. LOL – said he was about to coach there but then UW fired his butt and there went his chance. Also said he likes Kelly and thinks he's a great coach.
re: Slick Rick He had bigger problems with QBs at UCLA than Kelly did at ND. BTW- Neuheisel's kid is a walk-on freshman QB at UCLA who said he "never considered" leaving UCLA after his dad was fired...
Good for him. I did see that Justin Tuck is going to be at the game to toss the coin and speak to the players.
Blue and Gold <t>Drove over to Phoenix yesterday and staying with my over the weekend. We'll be watching the game Saturday. Hope to see plenty of Hendrix taking snaps,</t>
From everything I read it seems like Hendrix is the guy who can unseat Rees, he's the best runner and has the strongest arm. But he has to be consistent. I would imagine that we'll see all 4 QB's pretty equal in terms of snaps. Golson just too erratic to unseat Rees at this point and Gunner talented but has to learn the offense.
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I didn't get to watch the game, but all the reports I'm reading are... 1. Golson looked like he took the opportunity to step up and show what he can do, all spring the reports on him were that he was struggling and was behind Hendrix and Rees. I feared that he would be transfering during the summer, well I didn't fear that but I wondered if he came out of Spring #3 and battling Kiel for that spot he might just give up and go home. 2. Hendrix looked pretty good, enough to say that he's #2. I would expect that we will not see Gunner this fall baring injuries. 3. GAIII had a coming out party, he showed some big time stuff. Needs to hold on to the ball better but our top 3 RB's all look like they are ready to go and Carlisle is not even healthy enough to compete. And coincidentally our OL looks great at run blocking and we signed a OL today who had just last week name the Gators as his leader following a trip to Gainesville. 4. Ishaq Williams maybe is starting to figure things out. Good we'll need him if the defense is going to be good. 5. I bought the 2012 Shirt, it's pretty good looking.
The problem with these types of games is that for every long run by an up and coming RB there is a string of missed/broken tackles that made it possible. I liked GAIII's speed but on one run 5 defenders didn't wrap up. Golson looked OK. He didn't throw a pick and took advantage of our D backs that never look back for the ball. Our punt returners alway fair caught the ball ( I think is was one of the rules) and they looked in mid season form. No red shirts for QBs this year. The D could blitz on 3rd down in the red zone. It seemed like a much better format this year. I liked what I saw in our TEs Eifert and Koyack.
Watched the 1st half online at UND.com and the Kelly post game press conference. I'm less excited about Golson than I was after reading posters on the ND boards. He did some good things but he was clearly struggling (as were all the QB's) to get the play off on time. I think that eventually Kelly told the refs not to bother calling delay of game. I also wonder who is Tyler Eiferts hairdresser, those curls coming out from under his helmet must take a lot of time in the morning!
I've never understood the ND bloggers hype about Golson. He was only a three-star recruit and there's a million three-star QBs out there every year. He still holds the ball on the hide instead of the laces and he's not a great runner. The two most talented QBs in the school are Hendrix and Kiel, so I continue to cheer them on...
I agree with Jim. I too had a hard time getting hyped over Golson. He's no bigger than I am and did not play on a big stage in high school. But nobody is more popular than the next QB and in this case we have seen Rees and Hendrix. My gut tells me that Rees is our starter by default. I watched him closely at the Maryland game last fall and at that point he had the most presence... by far. But he drops his head when he feels pressure, has no escapability and throws into heavy coverage. Hendrix has a stronger arm and can run but is fairly unproven. I would be shocked to to see Kiel this year.