Turnovers a timely topic
Irish look to limit Golson’s gaffes in battle of unbeatens
Notre Dame won’t get the chance to take down the No. 1 team in the country when it visits Florida State on Saturday.
That’s because Mississippi State replaced the Seminoles at the top of the latest Associated Press poll.
Florida State is No. 2. The Irish moved up a spot to No. 5.
The slight shift in the rankings doesn’t do anything to lessen the significance of the battle between the 6- 0 teams.
“These are the kind of teams that we want to challenge ourselves against,” coach Brian Kelly said Sunday. “We want to be challenged nationally against the very, very best.
“These are the games that we want to play. We want to be relevant, playing the very best at this time of the season.”
The Irish are going to have to be at its best to knock off the Seminoles. That means they can’t continue to turn the ball over. Quarterback Everett Golson had three turnovers ( two fumbles and one interception) that resulted in 21 points for North Carolina in the Irish’s 50- 43 victory Saturday.
“The first one, he’s stepping up in the pocket and it’s a little bit of everything” Kelly said. “The route is too deep. The route should be broke at 12, it broke at 15, so he has to hitch again. He hitches again, he gets the ball batted, it’s a fumble, turnover.
“The second one, the box is emptied out, it’s probably a mistake that Everett doesn’t normally make, pick- six. Third one, he’s going down, ball gets batted out, hand on the ball.”
Golson has nine turnovers in the last three games.
“Every single one of them is analyzed, overanalyzed, and we look at them and we go back to work and find ways to secure the football and do a better job,” Kelly said. “We don’t take any of them for granted. We look at ways to improve each time and look at each one of them as opportunities to eradicate them.”
NOTES: Coach Brian Kelly did not have an update on
Notre Dame’s academic probe.
Kei Varae Russell announced he was out for 2014, but plans to return for 2015. Results remain for Da Varis Daniels, Ishaq Williams, Kendall
Moore and Eilar Hardy. Some players made gestures, such as writing a number on a towel, in a show of recognition Saturday.
“They’re being good teammates and just recognizing their teammates in that situation,” Kelly said. “I’m generally not big on that, but they’ve handled themselves very well through social media.
“They have not formed opinions of such, and so I did see a towel, I did not make a big deal of it because I thought that our team as a whole has handled the situation very well and felt that I was OK with it.” Starting safety Austin
Collinsworth likely will miss the Florida State game because of an injury. Collinsworth suffered a dislocated shoulder Saturday.
Bo Wallace, an outside linebacker from River Ridge, Louisiana, verbally committed to Notre Dame. He is a three- star recruit, according to Rivals. com. The 6- 4, 189- pound Wallace is the 19th member of Notre Dame’s Class of 2015.