Keller ready to work for starter's spot
digg it!
Facebook
del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit
BY STEVEN M. SIPPLE / Lincoln Journal Star
Sam Keller’s proficiency as a passer might eventually place Mark Helfrich in a rather unenviable position.
Helfrich, a former Arizona State quarterbacks coach, recruited Keller to ASU and groomed the strapping athlete for three seasons in Tempe, Ariz.
Which brings us to the unenviable part for Helfrich. Keller, of course, has since transferred to Nebraska. Meanwhile, Helfrich has become an assistant at Colorado, one of the Big Red’s foremost rivals.
“I know what Sam’s capable of doing, and I definitely don’t want to see it against us,” Helfrich said.
If all falls right for Keller, he will succeed Zac Taylor as Nebraska’s starter, although Keller isn’t exactly taking the role for granted. In fact, he told reporters Friday that while his experience at Arizona State is valuable ” he appeared in 20 games and started eight in three seasons ” Husker junior-to-be Joe Ganz will have the edge entering spring practice next month because of his keen knowledge of the offense.
“Joe is a sharp kid,” Keller said. “He can rattle off these plays and get the offense going, and that’s where I need to get. I need to get quick like Joe is. And then I’ll have a chance.”
Keller’s deference to Ganz was somewhat surprising when one considers Keller’s ballyhooed transfer to Nebraska last August. Ganz, meanwhile, was lightly recruited out of high school and has never started a game in college.
“I’m here to play, I’m here to start, I’m here to take it, obviously,” Keller said. “I’m here to do huge things, and I think fans should expect huge things from this team, and I think we should expect huge things from ourselves.
“But as far as me personally, I have some things I need to do on the practice field before fans throw me in there as the anointed one. It takes a lot of hard work in this offense.”
Helfrich, in his second year as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Colorado, predicts Keller will experience little difficulty learning Nebraska’s offense.
“Sam was probably the most natural learner at that position that we had at Arizona State,” said Helfrich, who recruited Keller out of San Ramon Valley High School in California. “Fitting into a system and learning a system will be the least of Sam’s problems.”
The 6-foot-4, 230-pound Keller, who has one season of playing eligibility, drew ample praise from Nebraska coaches this past season for his work on the scout team. He said he tried to pick up bits and pieces of the Huskers’ offense while simultaneously working to earn teammates’ respect.
“You don’t come in here and start walking all over guys who have put in work here,” Keller said. “That’s one thing I’ve tried to do with Joe, Zac and Beau Davis. You come in and respect the work they’ve put in. But you also know you’re going to make a serious run at this thing, and I expect to start.”
Keller posted impressive numbers through seven games as Arizona State’s starter in 2005 before a thumb injury ended his season. He threw for 2,165 yards and 20 touchdowns, with nine interceptions. He completed 58.7 percent of his passes and was sacked 15 times as the Sun Devils compiled a 3-4 record in that span.
“I was on fire,” said Keller, recalling the 2005 season. “Once I have the offense down and it’s in my back pocket, I become a pretty solid force because I like to compete and I like big games.”
Keller threw for 461 yards and four touchdowns in a 35-31 home loss to Louisiana State.
“I thought he was smart and knew where to go with the ball,” LSU defensive coordinator Bo Pelini said this week, recalling the Tigers’ victory. “He was a good get for Nebraska.”
Later in 2005, Keller threw for 347 yards and two touchdowns, but was sacked five times and threw five interceptions, in a 38-28 home loss to Southern California.
“Sam’s biggest weakness is he sometimes tries to make too many plays,” Helfrich said.
Former Arizona State head coach Dirk Koetter, recently named offensive coordinator of the NFL Jacksonville Jaguars, remains “a big fan” of Keller.
“I mostly appreciate his toughness and ability to throw it down field,” said Koetter, who was fired at ASU in November after a 7-5 regular season. “Hey, you have to understand, Sam’s done it already. It’s not like he’s coming to Nebraska from a high school or juco. Sam tore it up in the Pac-10.”
Although Koetter speaks in glowing terms about Keller, it was Koetter’s controversial flip-flop of Arizona State’s quarterback situation last August that led to Keller’s transfer to Nebraska. Koetter named Keller ASU’s starter in preseason camp, then changed his mind the next day after meeting with the team’s senior leadership council. Rudy Carpenter got the job instead.
Did off-field issues change Koetter’s mind?
“No,” he said flatly last week.
Keller understands why fans were confused by his sudden demotion.
“They thought there had to be something deeper when in reality it was just simply that ASU and Coach Koetter made a business decision to go in a certain direction that they thought was best for the team, and you have to respect that,” Keller said Friday.
Now Keller wants only to press forward. After all, he has an offense to learn.
“It’s going to take a lot of work on my own and a lot of work getting in with the coaches and getting help when I can,” he said. “During spring practice, I need to really, really, really push the pedal to the metal.”
Briefly
Joe Rudolph, a member of Ohio State’s strength and conditioning staff, is believed to have emerged as a leading candidate to join Nebraska’s full-time coaching staff. Rudolph played on the offensive line at Wisconsin in the early 1990s when Husker head coach Bill Callahan was the Badgers’ offensive line coach.
Meanwhile, UCLA tight ends coach John Wristen denied he’s a candidate for a Nebraska position, saying he has neither visited Lincoln nor spoken with Callahan about the position.
Most Commented news