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Sometimes, things just fit into place. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t sneeze as I typed the headline to this.
At any rate, Florida State finds itself in an enviable position., The Everett Golson Irish Flight Tour 2015 made its final stop in Tallahassee and decided that was a nice enough joint to stay in. Make no mistake, this is as much about FSU’s success as it is Golson, who possibly had his most lasting moment in a loss in Doak Campbell last football year.
FSU has basically become the guy that jumps 10 to 10 every time he needs someone to take on a date, to a wedding, whatever. Lose a star quarterback in Jameis Winston? Have another gal everyone wants show up as a potential suitor when to this point, no one was standing out.
It’s not to say Golson is a lock to start, but surely he’s not coming under the pretense that he’s going to get his clipboard forearm strong. Even though he was admirable under weird circumstances against Clemson last year, Winston backup Sean Maguire wasn’t necessarily distancing himself to the point where it was Winston 2.0 the way Winston 1.0 seemed to.
J.J. Cosentino, redshirt freshman, seemed to be the biggest challenge to Maguire, but needs “polish,” which is a really lazy way of saying, “there are enough questions about how he’ll assimilate from run-heavy high school to major college, but he throws the ball really hard” without going too in depth. Actually, considering the normal media use of “needs polish,” that was probably too in depth.
Golson would be the perfect foil at the perfect time. FSU was pretty young and inexperienced in a lot of ways last year, and that’s a testament to how far they went, one game from playing for a repeat title.
This year, there’s more mold on the cheese, and adding a somewhat known commodity to a position with no finite answer seems like a no-brainer if you can get him to buy in.
Golson isn’t perfect. The Russell Wilson comparisons are lazy and nauseating, if only because they don’t take into account anything other than the fact that both are short quarterbacks who throw really hard and happen to be transfer players from one name program to another.
FSU inherits a player who’s a bit all over the map, including his career arc. He was obviously a complete unknown as a freshman when he led the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to a BCS title game appearance against Alabama and it all looked like the next four years in South Bend were more than set.
Life has a way of still living itself out though, without taking into account what college football prognosticators really think will happen. Funny how that works.
Now, obviously feeling a respite from South Bend … a place he worked so hard to get back into after being dismissed … was the best way to continue his life path, Golson goes to a program with an unmatched record over the last two years and a hungry hole at the quarterback position for someone willing to reach up and take it.
FSU is locked into a world where they just point at the best looking pair of jeans in the bar and she wants to have a drink with him. Golson gets a high-profile shot to prove what he can do one last time, under the lights of a program that nearly was once his finest conquest.
Irony is fun. So is winning. FSU has both working.
