Everett Golson cleared to return

Updated: October 17, 2012, 4:12 PM ET

Notre Dame quarterback Everett Golson cleared the final hurdle toward getting back to the field, as the redshirt freshman successfully completed concussion testing and was cleared by team doctors to return to practice Wednesday.

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Golson did not practice Tuesday after failing to pass cognitive testing Monday, two days after suffering a concussion late in Notre Dame's overtime win over Stanford.

Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly had said Sunday that he expected Golson to be cleared by Tuesday.

Quarterbacks Tommy Rees and Andrew Hendrix split reps Tuesday on a roughly 60-40 basis, and Kelly had said he would prepare to have three signal-callers ready for Saturday's game against BYU.

But Golson, the man who has started five of six games for the undefeated Fighting Irish (No. 5 in the BCS standings, No. 5 in the Associated Press poll), is expected to start again now that his head issue is behind him.

Rees has replaced Golson in three games so far, leading Notre Dame on its game-tying drive and its winning overtime drive in Saturday's 20-13 win.