Ex-NU QB Ganz gets tryout with Bills

LINCOLN — Still actively pursuing a professional playing career, former Husker quarterback Joe Ganz will spend next weekend trying to impress the Buffalo Bills staff in his second post-draft tryout with an NFL team.

And it’s exactly the chance Ganz has been hoping to get.

“For me, just the opportunity to try to make a team, that’s all I can really ask for,” Ganz said Thursday. “It’s something that I’d love to do.”

Last fall, Ganz set single-season school records for passing and total yards in his only year as a full-time starter for Nebraska, yet none of the NFL teams selected him in April’s two-day draft.

A week later, Ganz did work out for the Washington Redskins in conjunction with a team mini-camp. But the Redskins elected not to keep Ganz, choosing to hang on to four other quarterbacks, including former Missouri star Chase Daniel.

“They said they really liked me,” Ganz said of the Washington staff. “But it just came down to a numbers game.”

No hard feelings, Ganz said. He’s staying positive, energized a bit about a chance in Buffalo next week.

Ganz said he even canceled this weekend’s trip to Las Vegas, where he planned to work out in front of coaches from the United Football League. That newly formed league is scheduled to premiere in October.

He’s also been told that he’s on several NFL teams’ short lists, an injury away from a getting a phone call.

But for now, Ganz will focus on making a good impression in Buffalo, where four quarterbacks are already on the roster: Trent Edwards, Gibran Hamdan, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Matt Baker.

And for some reason, if his football playing career does happen to fizzle away quicker than he’d like, Ganz wouldn’t hesitate to try becoming a coach. That’s not a bad second option, he said.

“I’m just keeping my head up, just working hard and hopefully, something will happen,” Ganz said. “If not, I think I have a pretty good backup plan to go into coaching.

“It’s not do or die for me as much as it might be for some other guys, but I would love to get an opportunity to play.”

Contact the writer:

402-473-9585, jon.nyatawa@owh.com