Husker QB doing his homework

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BYSTEVENM. SIPPLE

During this challenging spring of learning for Nebraska quarterbacks, Joe Dailey has formed at least one conclusion.

He doesn't miss the option game.

"No, not at all," Dailey said. "We used to have crazy, treacherous, pounding practices running option drills. Ridiculous. But that's over and in the past."

Indeed, new Nebraska football coach Bill Callahan is in the midst of installing the West Coast offense - or at least a formidable chunk of it - during the Huskers' 15-practice spring season.

For Dailey, that means arriving at South Stadium an hour before scheduled meetings and practices for extra learning. It sometimes means remaining at the football complex after other players have headed home for the day.

"And then I take stuff home later on in the night and put it on flashcards and have my girlfriend flash it off to me every once in a while," said Dailey, who entered spring drills listed No. 1 on the two-deep chart.

Is the learning process consuming him?

"Oh, yeah. Sure it does,"he said.

A critical juncture in the learning process occurs today when Nebraska goes through the first of three spring scrimmages. The scrimmage highlights the eighth day of the Huskers' spring season, which concludes with the April 17 Red-White game.

Dailey, a 6-foot, 205-pound sophomore, said he's excited about today's challenge. Like all the Nebraska quarterbacks, Dailey will wear a "hands-off" green jersey as he continues the process of learning the West Coast attack and its various principles.

It's more than memorization, this learning process. Nebraska coaches want players to know why they're doing things.

Dailey said repetition is crucial in learning the West Coast playbook. Watch the plays on film. Perform them in practice. Study them in your playbook. Repeat the cycle.

Once he has a strong grasp of the West Coast offense, Dailey said, he'll possess "the answers to every coverage they throw at us."

"It has to be something I do in my sleep," he said.

For Nebraska quarterbacks, patience might be as important as persistence.

"This is a lifelong process," said Dailey, noting that Oakland Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon has spent nearly a decade learning the system. "This isn't something a quarterback can get down in a matter of four weeks. This is something a quarterback gets down in a matter of three to four years, to actually really understand each and every principle of each play."

As expected, Dailey has endured frustrating moments this spring.

"You get a little frustrated when you know you know something, and you black out for a moment," he said. "You're so excited because you know what you're looking at. You go to the line of scrimmage and you're seeing everything, and all of a sudden, it just totally blacks out."

So Dailey keeps studying. Remember, repetition is the key, he said.

"Really what I want to do is get out there and do what I'm coached to do," he said. "This isn't the old Nebraska offense, where the quarterback drops back and doesn't see anything open and runs. My job is to drop back, find the open man, and deliver the ball."

Nebraska hopes the West Coast style delivers significant boosts in production to an offense that last season ranked 10th in the Big 12 and 83rd nationally in total offense.

Dailey entered spring drills atop the depth chart ahead of junior Mike Stuntz and walk-ons Garth Glissman and Zach Miller.

Callahan has given the quarterbacks mixed reviews in his post-practice reports. Earlier this week, Callahan said, "We have a long ways to go on offense yet."

Come August, when Nebraska begins its 29-practice preseason camp, three more scholarship quarterbacks will join the fray:Jordan Adams, a transfer from Grossmont (Calif.) College; Beau Davis of Venice, Calif.; and Joe Ganz of Palos Heights, Ill.

For now, Dailey takes the majority of practice snaps with the first-team offense.

"Joe's starting to come around,"Nebraska offensive coordinator Jay Norvell said Friday. "There are a lot of things we're asking him to do - there are a lot of reads - and he has good days and bad days. But he's made a lot of progress in the last couple of days.

"It's a teaching process. We'll go through some growing pains, but he's learning and improving."

Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@;journalstar.com.