QB race

[knapplc]

Apparently they couldn't tell that Sam Keller was hated by many on the football team and so players wouldn't give 100% effort when playing for him on offense.

 

Keller wasn't hated by the team.

[GSG]

Apparently they couldn't tell that Sam Keller was hated by many on the football team and so players wouldn't give 100% effort when playing for him on offense.

 

Keller wasn't hated by the team.

 

 

I thought everyone said Keller was pretty humble and came in and busted his ass on the scout team the year he had to sit out which earned the team's respect

[HuskersNow]

Apparently they couldn't tell that Sam Keller was hated by many on the football team and so players wouldn't give 100% effort when playing for him on offense.

 

Keller wasn't hated by the team.

 

 

I thought everyone said Keller was pretty humble and came in and busted his ass on the scout team the year he had to sit out which earned the team's respect

I got my info from BigWillie

 

Posted 11 May 2009 - 02:52 PM

If you are friends with a former Keller's teammate or roommate, then there should be no reason to ask questions because you should already know.

 

Keller was one of the most hated teammates I can ever remember hearing of. And probably one of the worst things to ever happen to our program as well.

 

Callahan had nothing to do with the problems Keller had. Callahan's biggest sin was seeing a uber-talented QB and his willingness to give him a second chance in CFB. Callahan got burned, heavily.

 

Every single drop of hate that Sam Keller gets is because of Sam Keller. No one else can be to blame. In fact, the guy comes nowhere close to getting the type of hatred he honestly deserves.

 

And no, Sam should never be remembered as a Husker. Ever. I would honest NEVER invite that kid back to the campus to be near any single kid on this campus where he could possibly have an influence on them.

 

 

 

Posted 14 May 2009 - 02:31 AM

 

Keller never cared an ounce about football. His head was focused on so many other very wrong things that he could never reach his potential.

 

I know people think Keller got the job promised to him, but I've said it a buncha times and I'll say it again, Keller flat out beat Ganz simply because he was better. Unfortunately, Keller alienated damm near every player (minus a couple) in that locker room and they basically gave half hearted effort with him at QB. No one respected him and no one wanted to play for him.

[knapplc]

Unfortunately, Sam Keller seems to have embodied the Bill Callahan Era for many fans. Keller wasn't a NU recruit, he kinda came here under shady circumstances, he didn't lead the team to glorious victory (or anything like a decent win), and his replacement surpassed everything Keller did at the helm. In retrospect it seemed like Keller was just handed the job by a coach that is loathed by most of us now, and that's not a great combination in Sam's favor.

 

Keller was the better QB for the offense we intended to run that year, and promise or no promise he legitimately won that starting gig. After Keller got hurt he stood on the sidelines and did everything he could to help Ganzy out. He was Joe's biggest cheerleader, and he never had a bad thing to say about Nebraska. He gave interviews on the sidelines wearing a sling, gushing about Ganzy and Nebraska, always positive.

 

Aside from all that, Keller raised the ire of many gamers by trying to get a slice of the pie from the games makers who use the likenesses of these kids without any recompense. I see his point whether I agree with it or not, but that pissed off yet more people.

 

Keller was a good guy with some decent skills on an average team coached by a guy with one foot out the door. He was mostly caught up in circumstance and didn't deserve the ire he got from some of our fans. And I've never heard from anyone with a source inside the team that Keller was anything but liked in the locker room. Maybe Big Willie or someone inside has more info on that.

 

 

 

 

 

EDIT - see bold in my post... I typed my response here while HuskersNow was posting his, so I didn't see it until after I'd hit submit. It's funny that I missed those quotes by Big Willie when that thread was active, but then I didn't follow that thread much. Very interesting stuff about Keller being disliked. I'd never heard that before.

[GSG]

Well I guess I stand corrected. Although with that many guys on a team, not everyone is going to best buds with everyone else, especially a new guy who was in a position to take someone's spot. Someone that "everyone" was in love with.

 

And like knapplc said, he seemed to try to stay as involved with the team as possible after his injury and I've never heard him say a bad word about DONU or anyone associated with the program.

[74Hunter]

While some of you will try to debate this, Tommie Frazier was not a very good throwing QB.

 

I'd like to see someone try to make a case for Tommie being a good passer.

 

 

I really don't have the time or desire to go back through all the dead threads, but there were posters claiming Frazier was a great passer. They said he was a better passer than Vince Young, etc. Tommie was a great QB for Nebraska, but he wouldn't have been a great QB for a lot of other teams running pro style offenses.

Vince Young was no great passer, either. Saying that Tommie was a better passer than Vince Young wouldn't be much of a stretch. Tommie had a better yards-per-completion average than Vince and had double the TDs with half the INTs, but then again, Vince's offense required him to throw almost twice as often. It's pretty much a wash.

 

There's no way in hell I'd trade Tommie Frazier for Vince Young, though.

fwiw, imo, Frazier was not very good his first 3 years, but in his Sr. year, he developed into a good passer. He put touch on the ball, and with the exception of the Fiesta bowl, he made very, very few bad passes (4 ints.).

 

He probably would have played pro ball as a qb at some level, maybe in Canada.

[BigWillie]

Dr. Saturday from Yahoo Sports has an article about our QB picture. Basically a rehash of what's been said from the end of the Holiday Bowl up to the media day yesterday.

 

I watched the first half of the VaTech game over lunch. It seemed like Lee had almost no time to throw the ball. Our O-line was whiffing left and right. I just hope we can put most of the pieces together this year and at least score some points when our D gives us good field position.

 

 

 

Edit: Does anyone have any links to videos of Lee's JUCO or high school highlights?

 

The VA Tech game is where the majority of Zac's injury issues manifested. I think the hit Worilds hit was where he really jacked his hand up pretty badly. It was already injured going into that game, but it was a wreck coming out of that game.

 

Really, Zac should not have even played after that game. Should have rested his hand, and gotten it cleaned up ASAP. But I'm seriously inclined to believe our medical staff are a bunch of idiots. After the Spano debacle, Cody Glenn taking nearly a year to get back from a 'sprained' ankle, and them trying to convince Lee he needed no surgery, I have to wonder about quite a few of those guys.

 

Apparently they couldn't tell that Sam Keller was hated by many on the football team and so players wouldn't give 100% effort when playing for him on offense.

 

Keller wasn't hated by the team.

 

Keller WAS hated by the team. And it was no different when he was at ASU. His teammates at ASU didn't go to the coach because they liked Rudy Carpenter that much, they simply hated Keller that much and wanted him gone. No one liked him, no one respected him, and no one wanted to play alongside him.

 

The thing is, he WAS the best QB on our roster, but his teammates hated him and no one respected him. Keller only really cared about partying and other things. Football was just his avenue to do those things even more. It was almost comical to watch him in front of the cameras act like Captain America, then hear stories about how much of a douc .. (well you know), behind the scenes.

 

But it wasn't just Keller. There were guys like McKeon, and others, who were just as bad.

 

Those guys were a pure cancer to our team and our locker room.

[knapplc]

Keller wasn't hated by the team.

 

Keller WAS hated by the team.

 

I'm coming to understand that.

 

From everything I saw outside the locker room, he was a good egg. Obviously looks can be deceiving. I don't know if I've seen you speak so passionately about any player as I saw from that video game lawsuit thread, which I just read today.

[druski_2k5]

Ugh, not the dreaded 2007 topic.

 

From what I understood, and this maybe wrong, I've heard stories that Keller was guaranteed the starting quarterback job before he transferred to Nebraska, in a back-room kind of deal, and Callahan promised Keller and his father he would start no matter how summer/fall camp turned out.

 

I also understood, and correct me if I'm wrong or what you've heard, Joe Ganz actually out-performed Keller at camp and the majority of the team wanted him/expected him to be the starter, but Callahan opted to go with Keller due to his "NFL Potential" and the so called "Promised deal", and Joe and the rest of the players were in shock.

 

I've heard stories on how much of a jerk he is off the field and just a party animal, remember when he threw the cup in that parking lot somewhere and got into an altercation with some older female I think it was? I was under the impression he was football smart and obviously had the physical skills, but I never heard that he "didn't care as much as he should" and that football was "just a means to get what he really wanted and it truly wasn't football", that explains a lot now looking back on it.

 

I rag on him and the EA/NCAA lawsuit because I think it's B.S. but I won't get into that here.

 

I will give Sam credit though, I have never PUBLICLY seen him say one bad thing about Nebraska, the University, or the fans. Of course that is all through media, he could be badmouthing Nebraska and everything else behind closed doors as well, you just never know, look at the Tiger Woods fiasco. I'm not comparing Sam and Tiger, but you just don't know someone from just watching them in the public eye. He had nothing but good things to say about Nebraska and I watched him trying to help Joe on the sidelines and he was close with a few teammates. But that was mostly the impression/stories that I got.

 

I was drinking the Kool-Aid when he came here, thinking that he would get revenge on USC because Arizona State SHOULD have beat them in 2005 but Arizona State/Keller had a terrible 2nd half if I remember correctly. But of course, the Kool-Aid was just a fairy tale fantasy that I was living in, which turned into a real-life nightmare, so from that instance when I watch talent tape or games, I watch more closely on the "true" forms of the game and not some fairy tale that Keller had me thinking he was something he was obviously not. I was thinking that it was his shot to get back at USC and put us back on the national map. Not so much.

 

I also remember when Joey came in, we would move the ball more. Sure the guy had his faults and turnovers as the backup, but he had to sling it around because our defense was so piss poor. Keller had good games against mediocre teams, and kept us in the USC game for as long as he could in the 1st half, but after the Ball State game, things just went down him for him and the entire team. [ugh I hate re-living this!] STATISTICALLY, he had some "decent" games, but some of the stats could be inflated due to garbage points in the late game [uSC, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M] or against weaker opponents [Nevada, Ball State, Iowa State, Wake Forest [1-2 TD to INT ratio at Wake Forest], but his best game actually came in the game he got hurt at Texas.

 

From what I also remember, we would hardly stretch the field in 2007 like Zac Taylor did in 2006 where we ran a multiple set of routes that went short, medium, and long. In 2007 I remember wee would go with "ball control" through the air on slants, hitches, curls, out routes, and we would rarely see a 15 yard post route, or a double move, or a play action deep pass to a tight end on a delay or a streaking receiver after being set up by the run. Keller also had a bad habit of checking down quite frequently to whoever was in the backfield if memory serves me right.

 

When Joe came in, we we're more of a spread option team, took more chances down field because we had too, and maybe Watson was calling more of the plays and Callahan wasn't, because there was a difference when Ganz came in to run the offense as opposed to Keller. Perhaps not only the looks we gave and the plays we ran, but maybe the team tried harder with Joey in.

 

It's hard to say he wasn't a Husker, but thankfully we haven't ran into those problems of guys being such idiots we don't consider them Huskers, but I may put Keller in that category.

 

He didn't provide anything in terms of great results on the field, and off the field he was a mess, although not LP mess, and he is the focal point of a disastrous season and regime of everything that could go wrong, did go wrong in terms of Callahan/Pederson.

 

Now Cory McKeon IS a disgrace to wear the Husker uniform, I was so high on the guy in 05 and 06, but maybe because we had other players around him that made him look good as some of those guys were coached by Bo in 2003, or so it could seem, because there was no reason for McKeon to play as bad as he did in 2007 after coming off pretty solid seasons before. I remember our linebackers, Octavien and Bo Rudd, being very slow and very suspect that year, course most of that is due to coaching, if not all of it, but McKeon was CLEARLY a cancer to that team/defense when he was supposed to be a leader.

 

Ironically, that disastrous cancer lead us BACK to Bo, and really that's the only thing that matters.

 

As Tommie Frazier once told Ray Lewis on a New Years night in Miami, "It's not where I've been, it's where I'm going fat boy." Or something like that.

 

*Looks at topic*

 

Oh yeah right, QB race. I got my popcorn out, it should be a fun one, but the starter has to be a leader on and off the field, and to be able to move the ball consistently or when we need it the most, improved offensive line should help out our offense as a whole as well, may the best man win.

[bshirt]

Well I personally will take an unproven martinez over cody green and zach lee

 

If a redshirt freshmen with no game experience is our starting QB we will not meet any expectations that we have for this season.

 

1. Zac Lee

2. Cody Green

3. Taylor Martinez

 

 

Why??

 

I just don't get this mindset. What is it about Lee that makes him impossible to be beat? He was a lousy qb on a lousy offense last year. Especially after the SunBelt teams.

 

So if Martinez beats a lousy qb the season is in the toilet?? I would think just the opposite.

 

Maybe Lee will be great this year. Who knows? But it's not like Green/Martinez have to beat out a Crouch/Frazier/Frost.

[REDSTEEL]

Ugh, not the dreaded 2007 topic.

 

From what I understood, and this maybe wrong, I've heard stories that Keller was guaranteed the starting quarterback job before he transferred to Nebraska, in a back-room kind of deal, and Callahan promised Keller and his father he would start no matter how summer/fall camp turned out.

 

I also understood, and correct me if I'm wrong or what you've heard, Joe Ganz actually out-performed Keller at camp and the majority of the team wanted him/expected him to be the starter, but Callahan opted to go with Keller due to his "NFL Potential" and the so called "Promised deal", and Joe and the rest of the players were in shock.

 

I've heard stories on how much of a jerk he is off the field and just a party animal, remember when he threw the cup in that parking lot somewhere and got into an altercation with some older female I think it was? I was under the impression he was football smart and obviously had the physical skills, but I never heard that he "didn't care as much as he should" and that football was "just a means to get what he really wanted and it truly wasn't football", that explains a lot now looking back on it.

 

I rag on him and the EA/NCAA lawsuit because I think it's B.S. but I won't get into that here.

 

I will give Sam credit though, I have never PUBLICLY seen him say one bad thing about Nebraska, the University, or the fans. Of course that is all through media, he could be badmouthing Nebraska and everything else behind closed doors as well, you just never know, look at the Tiger Woods fiasco. I'm not comparing Sam and Tiger, but you just don't know someone from just watching them in the public eye. He had nothing but good things to say about Nebraska and I watched him trying to help Joe on the sidelines and he was close with a few teammates. But that was mostly the impression/stories that I got.

 

I was drinking the Kool-Aid when he came here, thinking that he would get revenge on USC because Arizona State SHOULD have beat them in 2005 but Arizona State/Keller had a terrible 2nd half if I remember correctly. But of course, the Kool-Aid was just a fairy tale fantasy that I was living in, which turned into a real-life nightmare, so from that instance when I watch talent tape or games, I watch more closely on the "true" forms of the game and not some fairy tale that Keller had me thinking he was something he was obviously not. I was thinking that it was his shot to get back at USC and put us back on the national map. Not so much.

 

I also remember when Joey came in, we would move the ball more. Sure the guy had his faults and turnovers as the backup, but he had to sling it around because our defense was so piss poor. Keller had good games against mediocre teams, and kept us in the USC game for as long as he could in the 1st half, but after the Ball State game, things just went down him for him and the entire team. [ugh I hate re-living this!] STATISTICALLY, he had some "decent" games, but some of the stats could be inflated due to garbage points in the late game [uSC, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M] or against weaker opponents [Nevada, Ball State, Iowa State, Wake Forest [1-2 TD to INT ratio at Wake Forest], but his best game actually came in the game he got hurt at Texas.

 

From what I also remember, we would hardly stretch the field in 2007 like Zac Taylor did in 2006 where we ran a multiple set of routes that went short, medium, and long. In 2007 I remember wee would go with "ball control" through the air on slants, hitches, curls, out routes, and we would rarely see a 15 yard post route, or a double move, or a play action deep pass to a tight end on a delay or a streaking receiver after being set up by the run. Keller also had a bad habit of checking down quite frequently to whoever was in the backfield if memory serves me right.

 

When Joe came in, we we're more of a spread option team, took more chances down field because we had too, and maybe Watson was calling more of the plays and Callahan wasn't, because there was a difference when Ganz came in to run the offense as opposed to Keller. Perhaps not only the looks we gave and the plays we ran, but maybe the team tried harder with Joey in.

 

It's hard to say he wasn't a Husker, but thankfully we haven't ran into those problems of guys being such idiots we don't consider them Huskers, but I may put Keller in that category.

 

He didn't provide anything in terms of great results on the field, and off the field he was a mess, although not LP mess, and he is the focal point of a disastrous season and regime of everything that could go wrong, did go wrong in terms of Callahan/Pederson.

 

Now Cory McKeon IS a disgrace to wear the Husker uniform, I was so high on the guy in 05 and 06, but maybe because we had other players around him that made him look good as some of those guys were coached by Bo in 2003, or so it could seem, because there was no reason for McKeon to play as bad as he did in 2007 after coming off pretty solid seasons before. I remember our linebackers, Octavien and Bo Rudd, being very slow and very suspect that year, course most of that is due to coaching, if not all of it, but McKeon was CLEARLY a cancer to that team/defense when he was supposed to be a leader.

 

Ironically, that disastrous cancer lead us BACK to Bo, and really that's the only thing that matters.

 

As Tommie Frazier once told Ray Lewis on a New Years night in Miami, "It's not where I've been, it's where I'm going fat boy." Or something like that.

 

*Looks at topic*

 

Oh yeah right, QB race. I got my popcorn out, it should be a fun one, but the starter has to be a leader on and off the field, and to be able to move the ball consistently or when we need it the most, improved offensive line should help out our offense as a whole as well, may the best man win.

Wasn't Ray Lewis it was Warren Sapp

[druski_2k5]

Ugh, not the dreaded 2007 topic.

 

From what I understood, and this maybe wrong, I've heard stories that Keller was guaranteed the starting quarterback job before he transferred to Nebraska, in a back-room kind of deal, and Callahan promised Keller and his father he would start no matter how summer/fall camp turned out.

 

I also understood, and correct me if I'm wrong or what you've heard, Joe Ganz actually out-performed Keller at camp and the majority of the team wanted him/expected him to be the starter, but Callahan opted to go with Keller due to his "NFL Potential" and the so called "Promised deal", and Joe and the rest of the players were in shock.

 

I've heard stories on how much of a jerk he is off the field and just a party animal, remember when he threw the cup in that parking lot somewhere and got into an altercation with some older female I think it was? I was under the impression he was football smart and obviously had the physical skills, but I never heard that he "didn't care as much as he should" and that football was "just a means to get what he really wanted and it truly wasn't football", that explains a lot now looking back on it.

 

I rag on him and the EA/NCAA lawsuit because I think it's B.S. but I won't get into that here.

 

I will give Sam credit though, I have never PUBLICLY seen him say one bad thing about Nebraska, the University, or the fans. Of course that is all through media, he could be badmouthing Nebraska and everything else behind closed doors as well, you just never know, look at the Tiger Woods fiasco. I'm not comparing Sam and Tiger, but you just don't know someone from just watching them in the public eye. He had nothing but good things to say about Nebraska and I watched him trying to help Joe on the sidelines and he was close with a few teammates. But that was mostly the impression/stories that I got.

 

I was drinking the Kool-Aid when he came here, thinking that he would get revenge on USC because Arizona State SHOULD have beat them in 2005 but Arizona State/Keller had a terrible 2nd half if I remember correctly. But of course, the Kool-Aid was just a fairy tale fantasy that I was living in, which turned into a real-life nightmare, so from that instance when I watch talent tape or games, I watch more closely on the "true" forms of the game and not some fairy tale that Keller had me thinking he was something he was obviously not. I was thinking that it was his shot to get back at USC and put us back on the national map. Not so much.

 

I also remember when Joey came in, we would move the ball more. Sure the guy had his faults and turnovers as the backup, but he had to sling it around because our defense was so piss poor. Keller had good games against mediocre teams, and kept us in the USC game for as long as he could in the 1st half, but after the Ball State game, things just went down him for him and the entire team. [ugh I hate re-living this!] STATISTICALLY, he had some "decent" games, but some of the stats could be inflated due to garbage points in the late game [uSC, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M] or against weaker opponents [Nevada, Ball State, Iowa State, Wake Forest [1-2 TD to INT ratio at Wake Forest], but his best game actually came in the game he got hurt at Texas.

 

From what I also remember, we would hardly stretch the field in 2007 like Zac Taylor did in 2006 where we ran a multiple set of routes that went short, medium, and long. In 2007 I remember wee would go with "ball control" through the air on slants, hitches, curls, out routes, and we would rarely see a 15 yard post route, or a double move, or a play action deep pass to a tight end on a delay or a streaking receiver after being set up by the run. Keller also had a bad habit of checking down quite frequently to whoever was in the backfield if memory serves me right.

 

When Joe came in, we we're more of a spread option team, took more chances down field because we had too, and maybe Watson was calling more of the plays and Callahan wasn't, because there was a difference when Ganz came in to run the offense as opposed to Keller. Perhaps not only the looks we gave and the plays we ran, but maybe the team tried harder with Joey in.

 

It's hard to say he wasn't a Husker, but thankfully we haven't ran into those problems of guys being such idiots we don't consider them Huskers, but I may put Keller in that category.

 

He didn't provide anything in terms of great results on the field, and off the field he was a mess, although not LP mess, and he is the focal point of a disastrous season and regime of everything that could go wrong, did go wrong in terms of Callahan/Pederson.

 

Now Cory McKeon IS a disgrace to wear the Husker uniform, I was so high on the guy in 05 and 06, but maybe because we had other players around him that made him look good as some of those guys were coached by Bo in 2003, or so it could seem, because there was no reason for McKeon to play as bad as he did in 2007 after coming off pretty solid seasons before. I remember our linebackers, Octavien and Bo Rudd, being very slow and very suspect that year, course most of that is due to coaching, if not all of it, but McKeon was CLEARLY a cancer to that team/defense when he was supposed to be a leader.

 

Ironically, that disastrous cancer lead us BACK to Bo, and really that's the only thing that matters.

 

As Tommie Frazier once told Ray Lewis on a New Years night in Miami, "It's not where I've been, it's where I'm going fat boy." Or something like that.

 

*Looks at topic*

 

Oh yeah right, QB race. I got my popcorn out, it should be a fun one, but the starter has to be a leader on and off the field, and to be able to move the ball consistently or when we need it the most, improved offensive line should help out our offense as a whole as well, may the best man win.

Wasn't Ray Lewis it was Warren Sapp

 

 

 

I feel like an idiot now.

 

Stupid typos, the keys are like...right next to each other.

 

At least he was on the team, just the wrong person.

[EZ-E]

Well I personally will take an unproven martinez over cody green and zach lee

 

If a redshirt freshmen with no game experience is our starting QB we will not meet any expectations that we have for this season.

 

1. Zac Lee

2. Cody Green

3. Taylor Martinez

 

 

Why??

 

I just don't get this mindset. What is it about Lee that makes him impossible to be beat? He was a lousy qb on a lousy offense last year. Especially after the SunBelt teams.

 

So if Martinez beats a lousy qb the season is in the toilet?? I would think just the opposite.

 

Maybe Lee will be great this year. Who knows? But it's not like Green/Martinez have to beat out a Crouch/Frazier/Frost.

 

It is uneducated posts like this that anger me. It has been hard for me to remain reserved when people rag on Zac Lee. I was one that was calling for Cody Green in the middle of the year. I felt very bad when I learned the position that Zac Lee was actually in.

 

HE HAD A SERIOUS INJURY IN HIS THROWING ARM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IF A PITCHER HAD TO HAVE AN OPERATION ON HIS THROWING ARM WOULD YOU EXPECT HIM TO WIN THE CY YOUNG???????? NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (turn off Dan Gilbert mode) I just dont see what people dont understand about that.

 

I am not going to make the claim that Zac is one of the greatest QBs that we have ever had, he might not even be the best out of Ganz and Taylor. But he certainly isnt terrible and he will make a lot of Husker fans eat some crow this year. Zac Lee should be praised for the immense about of crap he took about his play and he has never once blamed it on his injury. He is 100% and he is going to be better this year. He will give us our best chance to win. Martinez is far behind the two in terms of being a quarterback. If Martinez is our starting quarterback we will not win the Big 12.

[BigWillie]

Ugh, not the dreaded 2007 topic.

 

From what I understood, and this maybe wrong, I've heard stories that Keller was guaranteed the starting quarterback job before he transferred to Nebraska, in a back-room kind of deal, and Callahan promised Keller and his father he would start no matter how summer/fall camp turned out.

 

I also understood, and correct me if I'm wrong or what you've heard, Joe Ganz actually out-performed Keller at camp and the majority of the team wanted him/expected him to be the starter, but Callahan opted to go with Keller due to his "NFL Potential" and the so called "Promised deal", and Joe and the rest of the players were in shock.

 

Just to point this out again - as much as I truly despise Keller, he won the job legitimately. Nothing was promised to him.

 

Ganz was the definition of a 'gamer'. Ganz was not a good practice player at all, but you put him on the field in a game and the kid was great. Keller, OTOH, was as good in practice as he was in a game.

 

Unfortunately for Callahan, regardless of what happened on the practice field, he did not measure how much the locker room was clearly behind Ganz and wanted him to be the starter. In the end, that alone may have cost him his job. That and his blind following of that Cosgrove fellar.

[Lil' Red]

Ugh, not the dreaded 2007 topic.

 

From what I understood, and this maybe wrong, I've heard stories that Keller was guaranteed the starting quarterback job before he transferred to Nebraska, in a back-room kind of deal, and Callahan promised Keller and his father he would start no matter how summer/fall camp turned out.

 

I also understood, and correct me if I'm wrong or what you've heard, Joe Ganz actually out-performed Keller at camp and the majority of the team wanted him/expected him to be the starter, but Callahan opted to go with Keller due to his "NFL Potential" and the so called "Promised deal", and Joe and the rest of the players were in shock.

 

Just to point this out again - as much as I truly despise Keller, he won the job legitimately. Nothing was promised to him.

 

Ganz was the definition of a 'gamer'. Ganz was not a good practice player at all, but you put him on the field in a game and the kid was great. Keller, OTOH, was as good in practice as he was in a game.

 

Unfortunately for Callahan, regardless of what happened on the practice field, he did not measure how much the locker room was clearly behind Ganz and wanted him to be the starter. In the end, that alone may have cost him his job. That and his blind following of that Cosgrove fellar.

 

I kind of believe the back room deal because I don't think Callahan was that stupid not to recognize that Ganz could be a better player. Keller couldn't accurately throw the ball more than 10 yards down the field and had no mobility at all and that had to show up some even in practice. Who knows how bad Keller would have done had it not been for Lucky.