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NCAA Football

Everett Golson Could Provide Much-Needed Spark for Florida in 2015

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Matt Cashore – USA TODAY Sports

The Florida Gators are looking forward with Jim McElwain taking over in the Swamp but face some serious deficiencies as they head into 2015. Chief among them is the stagnant offense and unfortunate quarterback situation. One possible solution for the Gators could be to bring Everett Golson in via graduate transfer for next season.

Since announcing that he would be leaving the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Golson has been on a tour of prospective schools to finish his collegiate career. One of his stops was in Gainesville where he took the time to meet with Florida to see if the school would be a good fit for him. While the Gators are not reportedly the front-runners to get Golson right now (that distinction would go to the Florida State Seminoles), installing the former golden domer in the Gator offense would be a win for all parties.

Golson’s exploits on the field are well known by now. Over two seasons as the starter for Notre Dame, he threw for 5,850 yards and 41 touchdown passes while rushing for 581 yards and scoring 14 more touchdowns on the ground. In 2012, he took the Irish all the way to the BCS National Championship following a perfect regular season and appeared to be on his way to a Heisman Trophy ceremony sooner rather than later.

But things got off track for Golson when he was kicked out of school and missed the entire 2013 season for a “mistake” in academic judgement. He would eventually work his way back into Notre Dame and the starting quarterback spot for 2014. Turnovers became a serious issue for Golson, though, as he committed 22 turnovers last season (all in the final 10 games of the season) and he began losing playing time to Malik Zaire, which prompted him to look elsewhere for 2015 after graduating last month.

At Florida, Golson would have the opportunity to add some much needed experience to the quarterback ranks and compete for playing time under a coach with a track record for developing signal callers. Right now, the Gators have just two scholarship quarterbacks on the roster in Treon Harris and Will Grier. Both are young and green, though Harris stepped into the starting lineup last season for Jeff Driskel and threw for 1,019 yards and nine touchdowns.

McElwain is looking for any possible way to add some life to this Florida offense and taking on a seasoned quarterback like Golson for a season might be just what they need. Since Urban Meyer left the program in 2010, Florida has scored 21 points or fewer in 21 of their last 40 SEC games. The offense has lacked any kind of identity over the last five years, which is a major reason why McElwain got the job this offseason.

Wherever the former Colorado State Rams head coach has gone in his coaching career, the offense has improved. But at Florida, he will need at least a year to really develop the young quarterbacks before his system can start to turn things around. Installing a proven veteran like Golson, even with his penchant for turnovers, would provide some nice stability to the Gators’ offense as the entire group learns McElwain’s system and quarterbacks like Harris and Grier spend their time learning and developing rather than taking lumps on the field while they try and digest this new offense.

Golson has the experience to step onto the field and be productive immediately by making plays with either his arm or his legs. He would provide the perfect stopgap to the Florida offense, allowing them time to gel under McElwain without harming the development of their young quarterback prospects. And with Golson’s penchant for playmaking, he might just get the Gators back to bowl eligibility right away.

So as Everett Golson weighs his options about where he will play next season, the Florida Gators should put the full-court press on recruiting the young man to Gainesville. He might be just the spark the program needs to get the McElwain era off to a fast start.

You can follow Tyler Brett on Twitter @ATylerBrett, on Facebook and on Google.

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