Ganz adjusts to life in the spotlight
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BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star
Once just another average Joe in the crowd, he’s now recognized at the airport and approached by little kids with marker pens and wide eyes.
Sometimes they call him mister.
“Hey, Mr. Ganz, can you sign this?”
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That’s what the little kid said to Joe Ganz after Thursday’s practice.
A small hand held up a marker and a Green Bay Packers hat.
“I don’t sign Packers hats,” the Husker quarterback said, kidding.
“Oh, you better,” said the kid, getting braver.
“I’m a Bears fan. I’m signing on the brim so people don’t know I signed it.”
And so Ganz signed it on the brim. As if the kid cared. He’d gotten it, a signature from Nebraska’s No. 1 quarterback.
What a difference a year makes. Where were we a day before the Spring Game last year? Talking about a race between Sam Keller and Ganz, but mostly talking about Sam.
Sam was fresh. Sam had played in big games. Whatever a No. 1 quarterback is supposed to look like, it was decided that Sam filled the bill.
Ganz pushed on. After completing 11 of 18 passes for 157 yards and a touchdown in last year’s Spring Game, the quarterback said of the race with Keller: “I think you saw it today — it’s pretty even.”
It was a competition that fueled newspaper stories and local sports talk radio from April until August. Who’s the guy? Sam or Joe? Most were saying Sam.
Now everyone’s saying Joe.
With what seems to be a firm grasp of the starting spot in hand and a green hands-off jersey on his back, Ganz doesn’t seem to have much to fear when Saturday’s game kicks off.
“I can clear my head a little bit more, but I still get nervous,” Ganz said. “You still get nervous before you play every game.”
To understand Ganz’s mentality, all you need to do is ask him about the green jerseys coaches make quarterbacks wear, a not-so-subtle reminder to defenders to keep their hands off.
“If it was up to me, we’d have them off,” Ganz said.
The fifth-year senior is the rare quarterback who actually embraces contact. After all, it was Ganz who once hit two guys so hard he knocked them out of an Illinois high school playoff game.
So when Nebraska came out running its quarterback out of the zone-read offense on the first couple series against Colorado last year, no one was enjoying it more than Ganz.
“I love running the ball. I loved the Colorado game plan. I love getting in the mix,” Ganz said. “When you run the ball and you kind of get into the game, you get more into the flow as a quarterback.”
It’s a good thing Ganz likes the zone read, because Nebraska is apparently going to have a dose of it in the offense this year.
It’s Shawn Watson’s second year as offensive coordinator, but his stamp on the offense figures to be much more visible this fall. Last year, head coach Bill Callahan called the majority of plays.
Asked what difference he’s seen in Watson’s offense this spring, Ganz said: “A lot more creativity with things like the zone read, kind of that spread option, kind of what we did against Colorado. Just so every time we go back in shotgun, it’s not a pass. It brings a little more validity to our shotgun, so they can’t load the coverage and bring in their nickel and dime coverage every time we go to the gun.”
You better believe there were some anxious moments when Ganz found out Watson was being courted for the offensive coordinator position at Alabama.
When the news came that Watson was staying put, Ganz said he was relieved.
Both Watson and Ganz have seen tapes of the quarterback’s three starts enough to know them by heart. Keller may have won the starting job in August, but Ganz was all the talk in November.
After a season-ending injury to Keller gave him a chance, Ganz’s stats in NU’s final three games were something out of a video game: 1,399 yards passing, 15 touchdowns, seven interceptions.
Mention that number 7 and Ganz shakes his head.
He has watched each of his starts four times, a notepad always at his side. “Probably 28 times I’ve watched me throw an interception,” he said. “It doesn’t get any easier. You just want to fast-forward the film as soon as you know what play it is.”
With the team trailing, he said he sometimes tried to squeeze passes where footballs didn’t belong.
“It just comes with maturity, just letting the game come to me instead of going out there and trying to find the big plays,” Ganz said. “If I have to check it down, don’t be afraid to check it down. Punting’s a good option, too.”
Better than a pick, at least.
One of his favorite targets last season was Maurice Purify. Ganz hooked up with the receiver 24 times in the final three games.
There will be no Purify out there Saturday. But the receivers that remain still leave Ganz full of confidence.
“(Nate) Swift and Todd (Peterson), they’re going to be my go-to guys,” Ganz said. “They’re two guys I know I can trust, I know I can count on to be in the right spot at the right time. Those two guys are going to be my security blanket this year.”
Then he mentioned a trio of unproven receivers: Menelik Holt, Niles Paul and Curenski Gilleylen. “Those guys are some pretty physical freaks,” Ganz said.
He said being the favorite at quarterback hasn’t changed how he’s gone about anything. He practices the same and watches film the same. He’s still the same ultra-competitive Joe, teammates say.
Some have said he’s one of the most competitive people they’ve come across, especially when something is at stake.
Considering that, maybe favored status goes to Ganz’s Red team during Saturday’s scrimmage.
The Red and White teams will be playing for more than pride. They’re playing for their dinner.
The winning team gets steak. Losers get hot dogs.
When you’re the No. 1 guy, hot dogs won’t do.
Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7439 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.
