QB's wild ride from Norman to Lincoln
Ex-Sooners fan Taylor might be key to Callahan's job security at Nebraska
College football
COMMENTARY
By Matt Hayes
Updated: 3:04 a.m. ET July 6, 2005
Matt Hayes
It's a funny game, all right. One minute you're buried on the depth chart at Wake Forest, the next you're the key to Bill Callahan's job security at Nebraska.
One minute you're standing on the sideline carrying a clipboard in a half-full stadium, the next you're practicing in front of 60,000 fans.
One minute you're as significant as a no smoking sign in Winston-Salem, the next you're the savior of a stale program that not long ago won three national titles in four years.
"It's been a wild ride," Zac Taylor says.
You think?
Say this much for Taylor: At least he's not Joe Dailey. You remember Dailey, the quarterback who put up crazy numbers in the Nebraska spring game, circa 2004. He was supposed to provide a quick transition from a gazillion years of Crawl Ball to the sleek, slick West Coast offense.
There was only one teensy, weensy problem: Dailey ran off the field in spring 2004 with his index finger held high after lighting up a patchwork defense of scrubs. We know the rest of the story, including Dailey's transfer to North Carolina after a 5-6 season in Lincoln. So guess whom Taylor torched in spring 2005, throwing for 357 yards in one half.
"It wasn't our ones," Callahan says. It wasn't their twos, either.
But before we bury Taylor -- and, in the process, pull the noose tighter around Callahan, who has gutted the program -- understand that Dailey, who was recruited to run the option, couldn't grasp the offense. Of course, he even had trouble with former coach Frank Solich's scheme (hand it to the fullback, pitch it or keep it).
Taylor, meanwhile, is a classic pocket passer -- you know, the five steps, the progressions, the release. After the 2003 season, he left Wake Forest, where he wasn't a good fit because the Deacons don't throw the ball 30 times per game. But Butler County (Kan.) Community College did, and Taylor led the Grizzlies to the junior college championship game last year.
In other words, cover 2 and man mustang and umbrella blitzes don't look like graffiti on a subway car to Taylor as they did to Dailey. And Taylor won't crumble under the pressure of having to perform -- and having to stay one step ahead of the guy behind him. Dailey always was worried about his job security, and it showed in the way he played, even though there wasn't a soul behind him who could strike fear in a Pop Warner defense.
