Goodman gives great 1st impression

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God forbid, but if Joe D were to go down......

 

 

Goodman gives great 1st impression

BY BRIAN ROSENTHAL

 

Mind you, Ryan Goodman's primary sport is wrestling.

 

Football?

 

"I just thought he was going to play football for the fun of it,"Nebraska coach Bill Callahan said.

 

Well, guess who now appears to be the top candidate to back up starting quarterback Joe Dailey for the Huskers this fall.

 

 

That's right. A guy who's most notable stats include a New Jersey state record 145 wrestling victories and a 72-match winning streak.

 

Oh, you want football stats?Well, we know he ran some West Coast offense last year - playing under a former Husker player, no less - and led his team to the state semifinals.

 

Apparently, that's a pretty important stat in the eyes of the Nebraska coaching staff.

 

"His teams won, and they won because of his leadership," Nebraska offensive coordinator Jay Norvell said. "He's got great leadership skills. He's a very focused kid. He's very bright.

 

"He's a confident kid, and he exudes that. That's part of being a quarterback. You've got to have that kind of feeling for the game, and he does."

 

Goodman, a 6-foot-2, 189-pound true freshman, came to Nebraska on a wrestling scholarship, with intentions of playing football on the side.

 

Now, in the second week of fall football camp, he's taking the majority of the snaps with the No. 2 offense - probably more than true freshman Beau Davis, the guy Callahan last week tabbed as the No. 2 quarterback when Jordan Adams was sidelined with health problems.

 

"Inever thought I'd be in this position," said Goodman, a native of Cape May Court House, N.J. "Just thinking about a team like this, it's just crazy to think you're up there with all those good kids."

 

Goodman isn't such a bad kid himself, Callahan said.

 

"To watch him compete and excel and just lend the leadership at a young age ... he's a terrific young man," Callahan said. "Unquestionable character. He does possess the intelligence to run this offense.

 

"This system is really complex, and for him to come in here and be able to manage it and communicate all the idiosyncrasies is really impressive. I can only imagine where he'll be four or five years from now when he knows it all."

 

As for his football skills?

 

"He's working through the techniques and the fundamentals of the system," Callahan said. "He shows the ability to throw ball well. He's on time."

 

Said Norvell:"He understands that he's got to throw the ball on time. He's done a good job since he's been here. He picks up things quickly."

 

Not quickly enough, though, by Goodman's standards. He left Monday's afternoon practice shaking his head in frustration.

 

"Oh, it was a rough day," Goodman said. "So much new stuff thrown on all the time. I don't know ... it's hard to pick up everything."

 

But wait a second. Goodman's here to wrestle. He's not putting any pressure on himself for football, too, right?

 

"Yeah, I want to be No. 2, or I want to be the highest quarterback I can be," Goodman said. "Every mess-up doesn't help. There's always pressure. You try not to let it get to you, but when you don't know what you're doing, it's kind of hard."

 

Goodman played quarterback his senior season at Absegami High School for former Husker Doug Colman, who played with the Raiders when Callahan was an assistant coach in Oakland. Colman and his staff brought in a new offense that featured the West Coast attack.

 

"But nothing like this,"Goodman said.

 

The coaches, though, say Goodman is picking up the offense remarkably well, considering the circumstances.

 

"He's really a bright kid," Callahan said. "He's smart, intelligent. He has an excellent grasp of the system. He manages the offense well."

 

For now, Goodman is a walk-on to the football team, but if he plays this fall, he'll count toward Nebraska' 85-player scholarship limit.

 

Goodman says he plans on redshirting in wrestling, meaning he'll probably be able to still concentrate on football when the seasons begin to slightly overlap later this fall.

 

Nebraska wrestling coach Mark Manning, who stopped by Monday's afternoon practice, said he's more than happy with the situation.

 

"It's great," Manning said. "That's what he wants to do. He's a special kid, obviously, to want to do both at the Division I level. And to succeed like he is right now ... it's not a big deal to him. That's what he expects."