[Husker] Ganz

[Nick Chevance]

On Thu, Sep 4, 2008 at 7:51 AM, Tim Silvey <tjsilvey at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I could not agree more.  It was obvious that Ganz was the better player last year.  I would find it hard to believe that Ganz became a much better player sitting on the sidelines.  So you are correct, either BC has no idea what he is doing, or he made a promise to Keller's dad.
> But what do we know, this stuff is "way too technical" for Husker fans....
>
> Tim Silvey

I'm not sure I completely agree with Tim and Steve here.  I would
agree that Ganz was a much better quarterback than we had been led to
believe.  I remember how the spring and fall competition for starting
quarterback was characterized by the coaches (very close and very
competitive), and by the media (yah, sure, Ganz.  We all KNOW its Sam,
so this is just so much hoo-hoo).

I wouldn't doubt that promises were made to Sam to get him to come
here for one year.  He had the creds of a NFL quarterback and was
looking for a spot for him to shine in order to get that big paycheck.
 Billy C wanted that type of QB to come in and show what his 'system'
could accomplish with the right QB.  The previous QB wasn't in that
NFL mold; he moved to avoid trouble.  Sam and Billy C's system was a
marriage made in heaven.  But of course, the devil is in the details.

For starters, his Oline was a tad bit porous on pass defense, and just
never quite got the hang of run blocking.  So, when they couldn't move
the ball on the ground consistently, Sam was forced to throw more, and
on many occasions to move out of the pocket, and that was something
Sammy boy just wasn't particularly good at.  Of course, playing from
behind didn't help things, either.

If you want to find fault with Billy C in this, I'd say it was his
slavish dedication to his prototype QB, three step drop and throw,
despite what his line was actually allowing him to do.  As we saw
after Sam went down, Joe is best when he moves.  His drop back passing
is fairly average (tends to strong arm the ball and it rises on him),
but get him moving and his accuracy and completion percentage goes up.
 He admits this himself - he sees his strength as moving and throwing.
 Where I sit, the problem was not with Billy C's evaluation of talent;
since the competition was so close, Billy C knew he had two good
quarterbacks with different skills, but chose to stay with the NFL
prototype over the kid who could take advantage of the lapses in line
play.  Was that due to promises made to Sam and his Dad?  In part I
would assume (but that's sort of open to conjecture because we don't
really know), but I think a majority of the blame lies in Billy C's
arrogance and firm belief that his 'system' could overcome.  The
'system' ultimately didn't fail, but his prototype QB wasn't the
answer.

Just my $0.02 worth.

Nick
-- 
"In India, "cold weather" is merely a conventional phrase and has come
into use through the necessity of having some way to distinguish
between weather which will melt a brass doorknob and weather which
will only make it mushy."
Mark Twain