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Tom Shatel: Ganz exits the shadows
BY TOM SHATEL
WORLD-HERALD COLUMNIST
LINCOLN — Joe Ganz was not unlike many kids of his generation. If it was an autumn Saturday, he was watching college football on TV. In the mid '90s, that meant he was watching Nebraska.
After the game, Ganz would bolt for the backyard, put on his imaginary No. 15 jersey. He would survey the defense, call the audible. Take the snap. Run to the right. Fake the pitch. Gallop to daylight. Touchdown, Tommie Frazier.
Ganz grew up in suburban Chicago wanting to be Tommie Frazier.
How could he have ever guessed that his career might turn out more like Brook Berringer's?
The late, great Berringer once waited, anonymously, in Frazier's shadow. Then he answered the bell heroically when called upon. For more than 12 years, Berringer has been the standard of patience, hard work and humility.
Now here comes Joe.
In nine days, he enters the 2008 season as Nebraska's starting quarterback. Finally, the coast is clear. There's no Josh Freeman or Sam Keller to fall out of the sky and onto his dream. Finally, the Joe Ganz story unfolds.
Who is Joe Ganz? On paper, he might be the 10th-best quarterback in the Big 12. But he already leads the league in perseverance.
Patience is hard to find these days. We are a society that has to have it now. We jabber on cell phones while driving. We send instant texts. How many of our kids quit or change a sport because they aren't playing? How many parents threaten the coach?
How many of us get passed over and over for the promotion and decide to leave, if we can afford to?
Ganz could have left Nebraska. But he never did.
He got here in 2004, coach Bill Callahan's first year. He wasn't exactly a guy a lot of Division I schools fawned over. But he had hope. There weren't a lot of quarterbacks at NU in 2004. And the leader, Joe Dailey, left after the season.
But one by one, they came. Zac Taylor transferred in. Recruiting superstars Harrison Beck and Josh Freeman looked like the future. When Freeman changed his mind and Beck left, it looked like Ganz would get his turn in 2007. Then Keller showed up.
Finally, everyone had left except one guy.
Joe Ganz.
Why?
"I don't know," Ganz said after practice on Wednesday, as if wondering why himself.
"It was tough," he said. "In my own mind, I had thoughts about leaving, because it was killing me to sit. But I really wanted to play here. I knew I didn't have it that bad here. I really wanted to play. Once you experience this here, you really want to play for these fans and this tradition.
"I would have been kicking myself if I had transferred to a Division I-AA school, because I knew I could start here."
Why does a young man hold onto that sliver of hope? Maybe it's because that's how you are brought up. Ganz said his father, Mike, was a "big-time UPS guy," who retired in his 40s when the stock split. There's a lesson there about the rewards of hard work.
"Joe was brought up by a family that taught him the right life lessons," said NU offensive coordinator Shawn Watson. "Life is a process. There's no easy answers. You've got to find the right answers through hard work."
There are two kinds of quarterbacks — those who look like quarterbacks and those who play like quarterbacks. Ganz is definitely the latter. He's one of those proverbial "intangible" guys. He could be named a team captain.
But is Ganz, a senior, more than just a solid role model? He says yes. Ask Ganz about Freeman and Beck and he says, "I wanted to wait and get them on the field. I knew I could play here."
Last fall, when the coaches said Keller and Ganz were virtually tied, a lot of folks smirked. Then when Keller went down at Texas, we saw Ganz play the last three games. And some folks said, "This guy should have played all along."
Now, with a new coach and a defense that is reloading, Ganz can show us what he's got. Finally.
"My parents always taught me to be a man of my word," Ganz said. "Once I was committed here, I was here. It crossed my mind to go somewhere else and just get on with life. But when it came down to it, I realized that I wanted to be here."
Why did he stay? Maybe because he didn't want that kid in the Frazier jersey to spend the rest of his life in that backyard.
"Me and my dad always watched Nebraska games," Ganz said. "Frazier was my favorite. That's who I was in the backyard. Then (Scott) Frost and (Eric) Crouch, watching all those guys growing up.
"I know who has walked on this field before me, and I know how I should play. I want to make my own history here. It's pretty cool just to be one of them now, knowing that some kid could look up to me one day."
He already should.
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1921
BY TOM SHATEL
WORLD-HERALD COLUMNIST
LINCOLN — Joe Ganz was not unlike many kids of his generation. If it was an autumn Saturday, he was watching college football on TV. In the mid '90s, that meant he was watching Nebraska.
After the game, Ganz would bolt for the backyard, put on his imaginary No. 15 jersey. He would survey the defense, call the audible. Take the snap. Run to the right. Fake the pitch. Gallop to daylight. Touchdown, Tommie Frazier.
Ganz grew up in suburban Chicago wanting to be Tommie Frazier.
How could he have ever guessed that his career might turn out more like Brook Berringer's?
The late, great Berringer once waited, anonymously, in Frazier's shadow. Then he answered the bell heroically when called upon. For more than 12 years, Berringer has been the standard of patience, hard work and humility.
Now here comes Joe.
In nine days, he enters the 2008 season as Nebraska's starting quarterback. Finally, the coast is clear. There's no Josh Freeman or Sam Keller to fall out of the sky and onto his dream. Finally, the Joe Ganz story unfolds.
Who is Joe Ganz? On paper, he might be the 10th-best quarterback in the Big 12. But he already leads the league in perseverance.
Patience is hard to find these days. We are a society that has to have it now. We jabber on cell phones while driving. We send instant texts. How many of our kids quit or change a sport because they aren't playing? How many parents threaten the coach?
How many of us get passed over and over for the promotion and decide to leave, if we can afford to?
Ganz could have left Nebraska. But he never did.
He got here in 2004, coach Bill Callahan's first year. He wasn't exactly a guy a lot of Division I schools fawned over. But he had hope. There weren't a lot of quarterbacks at NU in 2004. And the leader, Joe Dailey, left after the season.
But one by one, they came. Zac Taylor transferred in. Recruiting superstars Harrison Beck and Josh Freeman looked like the future. When Freeman changed his mind and Beck left, it looked like Ganz would get his turn in 2007. Then Keller showed up.
Finally, everyone had left except one guy.
Joe Ganz.
Why?
"I don't know," Ganz said after practice on Wednesday, as if wondering why himself.
"It was tough," he said. "In my own mind, I had thoughts about leaving, because it was killing me to sit. But I really wanted to play here. I knew I didn't have it that bad here. I really wanted to play. Once you experience this here, you really want to play for these fans and this tradition.
"I would have been kicking myself if I had transferred to a Division I-AA school, because I knew I could start here."
Why does a young man hold onto that sliver of hope? Maybe it's because that's how you are brought up. Ganz said his father, Mike, was a "big-time UPS guy," who retired in his 40s when the stock split. There's a lesson there about the rewards of hard work.
"Joe was brought up by a family that taught him the right life lessons," said NU offensive coordinator Shawn Watson. "Life is a process. There's no easy answers. You've got to find the right answers through hard work."
There are two kinds of quarterbacks — those who look like quarterbacks and those who play like quarterbacks. Ganz is definitely the latter. He's one of those proverbial "intangible" guys. He could be named a team captain.
But is Ganz, a senior, more than just a solid role model? He says yes. Ask Ganz about Freeman and Beck and he says, "I wanted to wait and get them on the field. I knew I could play here."
Last fall, when the coaches said Keller and Ganz were virtually tied, a lot of folks smirked. Then when Keller went down at Texas, we saw Ganz play the last three games. And some folks said, "This guy should have played all along."
Now, with a new coach and a defense that is reloading, Ganz can show us what he's got. Finally.
"My parents always taught me to be a man of my word," Ganz said. "Once I was committed here, I was here. It crossed my mind to go somewhere else and just get on with life. But when it came down to it, I realized that I wanted to be here."
Why did he stay? Maybe because he didn't want that kid in the Frazier jersey to spend the rest of his life in that backyard.
"Me and my dad always watched Nebraska games," Ganz said. "Frazier was my favorite. That's who I was in the backyard. Then (Scott) Frost and (Eric) Crouch, watching all those guys growing up.
"I know who has walked on this field before me, and I know how I should play. I want to make my own history here. It's pretty cool just to be one of them now, knowing that some kid could look up to me one day."
He already should.
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1921
