Sophomore Everett Golson has topped junior Andrew Hendrix and will be named Notre Dame's starting quarterback for the 2012 season, the Chicago Tribune reports. The pair had been battling since spring ball began, with 2011 starter Tommy Rees helping to excuse himself by earning a suspension for a May arrest.
As for the quarterback competition, Kelly had floated the idea of the two passers splitting snaps against Navy. Other potential contenders included Dayne Crist, who transferred to Kansas, and Gunner Kiel, who's a true freshman.
Golson was a Rivals three-star recruit out of South Carolina with plenty of SEC and Big Ten offers. He ran the scout team offense as a freshman and looked the part of starter in the Irish spring game, for whatever spring games are worth.
Hendrix made appearances in five games last year, completing 48.6 percent of his throws for a 103.29 passer rating and 6.7 yards per attempt.
From Notre Dame blog One Foot Down's analysis of the position battle entering fall camp:
I just don't think the staff fully trusts Hendrix when he's still such a raw passer, and despite not having thrown a pass in a real game yet, I believe Golson has a big advantage with his natural throwing skills.
However, I think we have to prepare ourselves for Hendrix to start, and I don't think it would necessarily be bad thing especially if it means the team is going to be running the ball a lot. At least for the opener in Ireland (and perhaps against Purdue) starting Hendrix gives you the ability to run the ball a lot from the QB position, and there'd probably be plenty of opportunities to get Golson's feet wet at the same time.
So I guess it shouldn't shock any of us if they both play, but I've felt this is going to be Golson's time for a while now. Rees' suspension just reinforces that feeling.
Golson will figure out the pre-snap stuff and get everyone set up correctly. That issue was largely overblown from the hectic and confusing substitutions from the spring game. Golson's main issue was always becoming more of a leader off the field and I believe he'll make big strides during the upcoming fall camp.
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