FSU Football: Was Everett Golson under appreciated with Seminoles?

FSU football used a one year lease on Everett Golson that many think turned out to be a lemon – but was Golson better than he gets credit for?

Ever since the NCAA ruled that college football players who graduated but still at eligibility could transfer between FBS schools without sitting out a year, FSU football hasn’t been one of those to take advantage of that ruling – except before the 2015 season when they got former Notre Dame quarterback Everett Golson to come to Tallahassee for a season.

At the time, it was seen as a positive following the Jameis Winston era to have someone in their with serious game experience – as the other option at the time was Sean Maguire. Things started great as he threw for 11 touchdowns and no interceptions in the first six games – all wins, including a comeback victory over Miami.

His final two starts would be a loss against Georgia Tech (a game in which he suffered a concussion that was the beginning of the end) and a N.C. State game where he was benched after throwing two first quarter interceptions. Golson did even travel to the Peach Bowl with FSU football, attending to the death of a family member, and his career with the Noles had come to an end.

While most Florida State fans are not quick to praise a lot of the things from the Golson era, Matt Baker of the Tampa Bay Times said he was more than “successful” during his short time in Tallahassee during a recent column talking about what the Florida Gators should expect out of grad transfer Malik Zaire – who replaced Golson with the Fighting Irish:

"FSU didn’t need Golson to dominate. The Seminoles had a top-10 defense and the best running back in school history (Dalvin Cook). Golson’s job was to limit mistakes, and he did; FSU went six games without a turnover. His touchdown-to-interception ratio was 11-3. His passing efficiency (149.2) would have been 26th in the country if he had played enough to quality in the rankings.If Zaire succeeds at UF, he’ll echo the other trait Golson helped bring to FSU: Stability. He was a bridge from the Jameis Winston era to Deondre Francois’ debut…Golson’s arrival provided the depth needed to help preserve Francois’ redshirt and protect him from the eventual problems that plague quarterbacks who play before they’re ready."

No one is arguing that the Golson experiment with FSU football was a failure by any stretch of the imagination. The truth of the matter is that many had unrealistic expectations at the time – in part because Florida State was coming off a 29-1 record in the previous 30 games that included three conference titles and one national crown, most of it under Heisman winner Jameis Winston.

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One of those victories came in a 2014 meeting between the Seminoles and Fighting Irish where Golson almost ended that streak quarterbacking Notre Dame. No, he won’t be a FSU legend like Ward, Weinke or Winston – but maybe it is time to give him a little more credit for holding it down when he was on the field.