[Husker] Joe Ganz (Long, but hopefully informative)

[Skylar Dodds]

A man is often times defined by what he does when he was wrong, this is one of those times for me.

I was one (if not THE one) who was very critical of Ganz after the KU game (and I still maintain that was not a good performance).  That being said, Ganz was excellent today.  His passing was very accurate (minus 3 deep balls he missed, can you imagine he could have had 100 more yards ☺).  Joe showed he's more than just an average arm with decent legs.  He can legitimately play QB in this offense and is more than just 'capable'.

I still don't think Ganz should have been put in for Keller this season (without the benefit of hindsight) as Keller was NOT the problem for the most part.  He had a couple tough games, but had Ganz played through that awful stretch he would have had struggles too.  To be fair, this is a shell of a KSU team.  Most KSU fans I've talked to really didn't think they'd win this game.

Those who say Keller's not accurate are insane.  He finished with a 63% completion rate AND had a TON of dropped balls and often times in 'drive killer' situations.  If we had the 'normal' amount of drops, his percentage would be up near 70%.  If that's not accurate, I don't get what it is you're looking for.  As for the deep ball, that was Keller's forte.  Time after time he just dropped a gorgeous ball in from 30-40 yards out.  The ONLY knock on Keller I can come up with is I think he checks down a little too quickly and doesn't let the play develop all the way.  Sometimes I wonder if that's not from being beat up all the time.

Last point:  As for Ganz throwing to Purify.  You're missing one very important fact.  Up until recently Purify was never on the field for more than 50% of the plays.  It's hard for Keller to throw to Mo when he's sitting on the sidelines.  That's the biggest crime of them all.  Keller probably could have thrown him the ball more, but the fact that Mo never saw the playing field was downright criminal. 

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Skylar
mailto: sklarbodds at cox.net