It is hard to know what kind of overall impact Ganz has had until we see others come through the same offense. The guy threw a nice ball most of the time, but there were mistakes. I think changes in our offense make it easier to be the qb. Look at Booger, he has all kinds of stats and records at MU, but I'll bet you don't see him ever play in an NFL game. Either Texas Tech has had unbelievable luck recruiting quarterbacks or it's the offense they run. How many TT qb's do you see in the pros? If we struggle at qb for a while, then maybe it was Joe, but I'm guessing we look back at Ganz as just another qb we had. My vote is Swift. Dude played all-out all the time.
Team MVP
- Thread starter holvy83
- Start date
I See Red People
All-Conference
winnerI'm gonna put a little love on this thread
MVP Offense: Ganz & Swift - they moved the chains, set Husker records, and were the heart & soul of the offense. Swift wasnt just catching passes. He altered field position on punt returns at times. He ran decoy routes full speed. He blocked on the perimeter and down field. He set an example how to play the game for the young & inexperienced recievers. And all season he made tough catches and big plays. Those younger guys might have better years down the road, but they know what it takes and how hard to work b/c of Swift. Ganz was the leader and directed this offense. He was tough and for the most part, got his team down field and scored points. He had a great season and I couldnt really ask more for a QB.
MVP Defense: The line. Suh, Steinkuhler, Potter, Allen. The big boys played solid and came up with sacks, turnovers, QB pressure, scored a few points, and snuffed the run for the most part. Considering how inexperienced the LBs & secondary were, they were more than just a band aid. These guys played together as a unit. They were close and fought together. It was a joy to watch these fellas all year.
Most Improved Player: Pierre Allen - After B.Turner went down with an injury, PA stepped up his game considerably and helped the D-line. There was never a let down when he played. He had a great season and will be relied upon again next year.
Most Valuable Play: Henery's kick. Without the 57 yard FG, the Huskers are 7-5 and NOT playing on Jan 1st. The kick put a smile on every Husker player, coach, and fan across the nation. It will always be a great memory for a lot of us.
I See Red People
All-Conference
double post failure
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Pedro Guerrero
Team HuskerBoard
Whoever made up that schedule gets my vote for MVP. We started off with the 5 straight home games, 3 of which were against JV squads and then the awesomeness that is ISU, Baylor, KSU, and CU. On top of that with the combined record of 41-55 for the teams we beat Steve Pederson and the Big 12 schedulers are my Co-MVPs for this year.
real'97champs
Five-Star Recruit
Helu- the offense was more fluid and balanced when he was in the game. When lucky was in the game the offense seemed to sputter more. Helu.
junior4949
All-American
I look at it like this. It really can't be a RB because we had a 3 man rotation. Helu had a great season but had he gone down with an injury I think we would have been just fine. I'm not sure we can really give it to a WR either as we had injuries and simply just plugged someone else in there and did just fine. I can live with Swift as being the backup MVP not so much for his WR skills but more because of what he did on special teams. The offensive MVP has got to go to Ganz. We didn't see enough of the backups to know if we'd have been fine or not had Ganz gone down to injury. I look at it like this: who couldn't we have lived without? I think answering that question comes down to just one player and that is Ganz. People want to point out how he threw some costly INT's and things of this nature, but they fail to remember we wouldn't even have been in the VT or TT game without him. It's conceivable we lose the Baylor and CU game without Ganz.I just don't think you can give it to Ganz considering the amount of stupid turnovers, sacks, etc.. he made. If they'd started Helu earlier in the year and gave him the bulk of the reps all year long I think he probably would have earned himself the MVP.. but alas, his time is coming in the next couple years
lucky? nah.
swift? very possibly, guy put up big numbers and broke big records this year
i changed my mind.. I think the offensive mvp might just have to go to McNeil. Sure he's not used anywhere near as much as swift... but as far as how VALUABLE he is in this offense, man he changed the dynamic of this offense in a big way.
Hmm, I think we all knew this was coming.
caveman99
All-American
Are you really going to go down this road? Let us look at the schedule again shall we? 6 of the 12 opponents went bowling this year. NU played 3 teams, MU, TT, and OU, that were ranked in the top 10 when we played them, 2 were top five teams, MU and OU. 4 teams are still in the BCS top 25, OU (1), TT (7), VT (19), and MU (21). Incidently those 4 teams are also included in any other top 25 poll you can think of. 7 of the 12 teams played ended with a .500 record or better, and 6 of 12 teams had better than a .500 record.
Out of the four non-conference games, only 1 of those was a true cupcake and that was New Mexico St. Here is a listing.
Western Michigan 9-3 (Texas Bowl Participant)
San Jose St. 6-6
New Mexico St. 3-9
Virginia Tech 9-4 (ACC CHAMPS, BCS Bowl Participant)
In conference play, NU played 2 of the 3 BEST teams in the conference. True that NU plays in a mediocre Big XII North, and frankly there is nothing they can do about that. I am not sure that it matters anyway.
The one part that I will give props to Pederson for is the number of games at home. NU played 8 home games this year, a definate advantage.
If you want to look at strength of schedule in a more analytical nature, Sagarin's analysis has NU as having the 28th toughest schedule as of December 6th. That rating is a very in-depth mathematical look and accounts for such things as games played at home. Sure looks like a cupcake schedule to me. :sarcasm
Pedro Guerrero
Team HuskerBoard
Sorry next time I’ll just post a stock answer and give Ganz some more leg humping.
Although if I had to vote for MVP I would vote for Suh. He is arguably the biggest reason this defense improved so much from last year. The offense stayed on par with what was going on last year so we knew going in what to expect.
People can mark this down or whatever you do with predictions, if Suh leaves the DL play will suffer a lot more next year without him then the QB play will without Ganz.
Pedro Guerrero
Team HuskerBoard
4 of 6 beat bowling teams we lost to. 3 Top 10 teams when we played them we lost to. 2 Top 5 team when we played them we lost to. 4 teams in BCS Top 25 we lost to. 4 of 6 teams with winning records we lost to. (Finishing 6-6 does not make you a worthy opponent) There is a trend here.
Texas Bowl participant is fine but honestly are they really a good team? I guess they did beat Turner and Buffalo.
6-6 does not make you a worthy opponent when one or more of your wins is against lower tier programs.
New Mexico St was, is terrible
Va Tech not brought up in my first post because they are decent.
And we lost to those 2 of the best 3 teams in the conference. I know there is nothing you can do about the conference teams but come on they stunk and we were lucky we played them. ISU, KSU, CU, Baylor, and A&M are the 5 worst teams in the conference of which we played 4 of 5. If you throw KU in there we played 5 of the bottom 6.
This was huge for this team. With the new staff and a ton of inexperienced players not having to go on the road until game 6 was huge. Who knows what would have happened if our first road trip was before Tech.
This is boosted by the good teams that we lost to. I’m sure the 41-55 record of the teams we beat didn’t help our ranking out in this poll.
I still don’t know why people take my posts so seriously. Maybe I should learn how to use those little smileys. <_< :madash
caveman99
All-American
If you want to argue how NU faired against good opposition, then your rebuttal would be right on target. However you made a point of saying that NU's schedule was terrible this year. I clearly proved that was a wrong assertion by any stretch of the imagination. Having to play 6 bowl teams out of 12 total opponents is tough no matter how you cut it. Some of those teams are better than others, some are not. Are you saying that KU is a horrible team now because they are only 7th in the conference? I think if you put KU in most other conferences they have a shot to win them. Conference record inside the Big XII this year is quite misleading.
I completely agree that as you point out NU finished 8-4 because of the tough schedule no doubt about it. That clearly shows that Bo has his work cut out for him. Getting the team to the point of winning 9 games or better in the regular season means that NU has to start winning against the top quality opponents. That is what I will measure Bo's success by in the coming 2-3 years. He already has the team playing harder and better. Now he has to continue on that.
Malth
Starter
I think overall that Ganz has had an outstanding year, especially considering this is the 1st year he was the starting quarterback. Yes, he's done some bonehead sh#t and has thrown some INT's that have just killed us, but I don't think that should take anything away from his overall play this year. I think it would be fantastic if we could keep him for another year.
I've always been a fan of Swift. He's not a flashy receiver by any means, but I think he has been very reliable, and has made some huge plays. I'm going to miss seeing him on the field
Suh has definitely stepped up his game, and has made a huge contribution because of it.
I don't know if I can pick one single player to be MVP. These 3 together I think made the biggest contribution to our 8-4 record.
I've always been a fan of Swift. He's not a flashy receiver by any means, but I think he has been very reliable, and has made some huge plays. I'm going to miss seeing him on the field
Suh has definitely stepped up his game, and has made a huge contribution because of it.
I don't know if I can pick one single player to be MVP. These 3 together I think made the biggest contribution to our 8-4 record.
junior4949
All-American
Actually, I was thinking maybe just a wee bit less leg humping of Pud and Clownahan.
