Ganz wants to eliminate costly picks
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By BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star
By the time Joe Ganz got his turn last year, the Husker football season had already turned into something so bizarre that it scarcely resembled any sort of football Nebraskans had previously known.
The Husker defense had long been done dealing, and so the scores in NU’s last three games of the season seemed stolen from a kids’ PlayStation: 76-39, 73-31, 65-51.
It was strange enough to watch. You can only imagine how strange it was to be baptized as a starting college football quarterback in these games.
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With the other team scoring almost at will, the requirement of Ganz was to throw, throw, throw some more.
In his three 2007 starts, Ganz threw the ball an incredible 148 times, an average of almost 50 passes a game. He threw for 1,399 yards (466 a game), 15 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
Through five games this year, Ganz’s numbers are much more modest — not bad, mind you — just not of the ridiculous heights of his first three starts.
The numbers don’t bother the senior in the least. Making a costly pass that leads to a touchdown for the other guys, which has happened the past two weeks, does.
“Last year and this year are two totally different animals,” Ganz said. “I didn’t expect to put up those numbers. Nothing really came easy to me last year. Nothing came easy to me this year. You still have to go out and earn everything you get. It just so happens we don’t throw the ball 60 times (a game) this year.”
Ganz has thrown the ball 142 times this season — plenty — but still six short of how many passes he attempted in two less starts last year. He’s completed 93 of those passes for 1,287 yards, nine touchdowns and five interceptions.
His completion percentage is up from last year — 65 percent compared with 58 — but there have been some hurtful interceptions. A first-quarter pick against Virginia Tech set the Hokies up at the Nebraska 5. A touchdown resulted.
And in Saturday’s 52-17 loss to Missouri, a second-quarter interception was returned 17 yards for a score to make it 31-7. After the game, the hardest person on Ganz was Ganz.
“That pick for a touchdown was kind of a turning point,” he said. “I just feel like I let the other guys down and it’s hard.”
Husker head coach Bo Pelini and offensive coordinator Shawn Watson have been full of praise for Ganz, though Pelini said the quarterback has to be cautious of forcing the issue when the issue would be better taken up on another down.
“He’s got to take what comes to him,” Pelini said earlier this week. “At times, you got to tuck it up and pull the ball down. If it’s third down, you got to be willing to punt in that situation.
"I think Joe puts a lot on his shoulders, sometimes too much, and sometimes tries to make a play when there’s not a play to be made. But overall, he’s playing excellent football for us.”
Said Ganz: “You want to go out there and help your team as best you can, but sometimes that works out for the worst.”
Consider, however, that Ganz is still completing a respectable percentage of his passes without any help from a quarterback’s best friend — a running game — and it’s tough to attach much blame to him.
Ganz doesn’t use the lack of running game as an excuse, but also knows that part needs to come around to boost this offense, especially with a challenge against No. 7 Texas Tech looming this Saturday.
“Time of possession is going to be big and the running game will help that. It helps to demoralize defenses if you’re able to run the ball against them. It’s what we want to do,” Ganz said.
“We want to be able to run the ball, and trust me, we’re not going out there saying, ‘OK let’s rush the ball for 50 yards this game that’s our goal.’ We’re trying, we’re coming up with different ways, different schemes, and we’ll be able to run the ball.”
Some have espoused the theory that the change in offensive philosophy over the last four years has made this a team that isn’t built to run the football.
“I don’t believe in that,” Ganz said. “I know you ask our offensive line and they won’t believe in it either. The last four years we still practiced running the ball. It’s not like all we did was the two-minute drill. We still had the same type of half-line run drills, team-run drills.
"These guys know how to run the ball, it just goes to confidence we have early in the game. I think we need to be able to have a couple breakout runs and have the offensive line gain the confidence back knowing that they can run the ball. I think that’s all it’s going to take.”
It’s an offense still searching for an identity, which is why Watson said he kept Ganz in for every snap in the blowout loss to Missouri. Down 42, Nebraska’s offense was still trying to weed out the bad and find some positives to take it forward.
Watson expresses great confidence in his quarterback, recently saying that even when Ganz momentarily gets off track, “all you have to do is talk to him and he’ll get back in the right place.”
Another Saturday brings another major test. Ganz isn’t worried about his stats. He just wants a win. He’s 4-3 as a Husker starter.
“I don’t really care how many yards I throw for,” Ganz said. “It doesn’t matter to me. It doesn’t matter to the rest of the team. We just care if we have one more point than the other guys at the end of the game.
"Individual stats mean nothing for me, and it doesn’t reflect on how hard I’m playing or how well or bad I’m playing.”
Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7439 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.
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