Senior Trio leaves NU with respect, records

[SwiftFan87]

Senior trio leaves NU with respect, records

 

BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star

Sunday, Dec 14, 2008 - 05:00:40 am CST

 

In these final days of his career, it’s funny the memories that surface.

 

Now on the brink of his last game as a Husker, Joe Ganz recalls a practice from four years ago.

 

Coaches had instructed him to throw an interception. He was just a true freshman then but in many ways the same Joe, forever riding a competitive high, occasionally to the point of rebellion. This was such a case.

 

The team was practicing “sudden change,” and so the scout-team quarterback was to throw a pick to prompt the first-team offense to suddenly have to take the field.

 

“I didn’t do it,” Ganz says. “I can’t just throw one. That’s not the type of person I am. So I threw like a rollout outback for a completion. Coach Cos (Kevin Cosgrove) ripped my (butt) for about 20 minutes.”

 

It’s a story that seems in many ways indicative of that 2004 Husker scout-team offense, which went against the likes of Fabian Washington and the Bullocks brothers but never conceded anything, not even a coach-ordered interception.

 

That scout team won its share of practice battles, didn’t it?

 

“Yeah, we did,” Ganz says. “You don’t want to say it. But we kind of did.”

 

It figures. It was a scout team that included three players who came to Nebraska without the hype but will leave with plenty of respect, not to mention many records.

 

Ganz will leave as NU’s single-season total offense record holder (3,589 yards), among other marks, Nate Swift will leave with the school record for career receptions, and Todd Peterson as a shining example of what a walk-on with some fortitude can get done.

 

Yes, they’ll leave with all that, but also something better.

 

“I’ll be friends with those guys for the rest of my life,” Ganz says.

 

OK, who wants to talk to the skinny reporter first?

 

Peterson is ready, but Swift jokes that he’s in a hurry.

 

“You wanna go first?” Peterson cracks back. “I mean, Johnny Rodgers.”

 

Ah, the Rodgers career-receptions record. You can’t mention Swift without mentioning that. It’s a record that stood for 36 years until some kid from Hutchinson, Minn., came along and just kept finding ways to get open.

 

Yes, Swift had four years and Rodgers just three, but you don’t catch 163 passes for 2,444 yards without having plenty of moxie.

 

Peterson, who walked on from Grand Island Central Catholic, knew all about Swift when he arrived.

 

“I guess you could say Nate was the bar I set for myself because he was a scholarship guy,” Peterson says. “So I tried to, not compete with him, but match his level of intensity and kind of set myself off of his accomplishments, which was rough in the early going. But it definitely helped me, and having him there pushed me the whole time to make myself a better player.”

 

Ganz knew that year on the scout team that Swift and Peterson were guys he could count on. There’d be others that would come with more fanfare, but Swift and Peterson just had a knack for knowing where to be.

 

“You could just tell they understood the game and they understood how to get open,” Ganz says. “I’d rather have that than a guy who could run a 4.3 (40-yard dash) and jump out of the gym. You knew what you were going to get. You saw it in those guys early on.”

 

And Swift and Peterson saw early on the talent and competitive fire in Ganz that would make him a success if ever given a chance.

 

It didn’t matter if the game was on the practice field as a scout-teamer or on the Nintendo 64 back at home. Ganz wasn’t going to give away anything cheap.

 

In practices, for defensive purposes, some coaches would want Ganz to throw it to a place where a quarterback wouldn’t want to throw it. So Ganz wouldn’t throw it there, getting an earful from Phil Elmassian more than a few times.

 

“We’d have to repeat a lot of plays,” Ganz says.

 

Off the field, Swift and Ganz —roommates their second year of college — would turn on the Nintendo 64 and play Mario Kart.

 

“It’d get pretty intense for three or four hours,” Swift says. “We did that daily.”

 

Peterson smiles when asked about Ganz the competitor.

 

“I probably really noticed it when we started playing pickup basketball games together,” he says. “If it’s checkers, it doesn’t matter, he wants to find a way to win, usually within the rules. Anytime, whether it’s intramural basketball or something else, if we’re not doing our best, he’ll let you know about it.”

 

Never was the competition for Ganz fiercer than the fall camp of his junior year when he was battling transfer Sam Keller for the starting quarterback job.

 

Keller got many of the headlines and eventually the starting nod. Ganz said all the right things in defeat, but the hurt was evident to his friends.

 

“It just seems like they kept beating up on Joe and not giving him a chance, so it’s great to finally see that he got a chance,” Swift says.

 

Swift and Peterson were right there to encourage Ganz after he lost out, telling him to hang in there, to keep pushing.

 

That meant about as much as any touchdown pass could.

 

“Knowing that you have friends like that on the team that really care about you, that’s what’s really special,” Ganz says. “Obviously you want to have success on the field, but those guys being there for you off the field means the world to me.”

 

Off the field, Ganz can be a character, sometimes as much of a jokester as he is a competitor.

 

In the midst of telling a reporter that not getting the starting job until late in his junior year “made me appreciate it more,” he stops in mid-answer to tell a teammate passing to the locker room: “God, you’re ugly.”

 

Then without missing a beat, he’s back to the answer. “It makes it that much sweeter really.”

 

Though Ganz came as a scholarship player, he came mostly under the radar, rated a two-star player by Rivals.com. It seemed there was always someone else for the media and fans to get excited about, whether it be Harrison Beck or Keller.

 

And even now, as he and Swift put up the biggest numbers in a season any Husker has put up at their positions, they mostly escape the national spotlight, often lost in the mix of a conference loaded with talented quarterbacks and receivers.

 

“We all kind of play with a chip on our shoulder,” Ganz says. “We all kind of play like that.”

 

There’s a kinship there and going into this senior season, Ganz made no doubt about his go-to guys. When games have been in the balance, it’s been Swift and Peterson he’s dialed up.

 

Swift has 60 receptions for 909 yards and nine touchdowns, and Peterson has 58 catches for 690 yards and three scores.

 

Peterson has shown up in some major moments for the Huskers. He caught a 22-yard pass on a fourth-and-3 play against Texas A&M in 2006 to keep a game-winning drive alive.

 

And it was Peterson who caught a 17-yard touchdown pass with 29 seconds left in the fourth quarter to tie Texas Tech 31-31. That was Ganz’s favorite pass to Peterson.

 

Ganz’s favorite connection with Swift is hard to pick. It might have been that 53-yard game-sealing touchdown against Baylor when he totally suckered the cornerback to bite, then hit Swift deep. Or it might have been the “goal-line shake” against Kansas when Ganz found Swift for a touchdown that “sealed the deal” and had the Huskers bowl-bound.

 

He just knows it’s been a fun ride, from the scout team to playing on the big stage with two of his best friends.

 

Even in the toughest times, the company around him was always enjoyable.

 

“It’s easy to like those guys because you’re comparable in all your goals,” Ganz says. “They’re quiet kids who don’t open their mouths. They shut up. They work hard. They don’t complain. It’s easy for me to get along with people like that.”

 

It’s easy to throw touchdowns to people like that.

[Touchdown Tommie]

Great article! I am really going to miss these guys....I am sure Bo wishes he had them for one more year. I feel bad that they had to put with BC and Co, but they rebounded well and they are finishing off their careers on top.

[redout22]

All seniors including these 3 were great. Nice article!

[WVhuskerXX]

Will miss all 3.....3 very good football players...but more important 3 great guys...

[SkullandBones]

They were all great, couldn't be prouder of the job they did. Who will be missed the most? Swift imho. Don't get me wrong they're all studs, but Nate was just f'ing clutch all year long.