Cody Green has the look. He's right out of central casting. Tall, rifle for an arm, fleet wheels that can get you seven yards. And he has that presence. If you saw him in an airport, you'd say, “That chap is either a quarterback or he just won the Oscar for best actor.''
But when it comes to who will start at quarterback for Nebraska next fall, it's not about looks.
It's a matter of trust.
Who do you trust? Last November, Green's freshman year at Nebraska lasted approximately five quarters, or when he was pulled in the first quarter of the nationally-televised Oklahoma game because Bo Pelini and Shawn Watson were concerned the moment might ruin their young quarterback. Then there was Zac Lee, who finally shined in the Holiday Bowl, but after an inconsistent season influenced by injury but also Lee's inability to execute basic plays in games.
There are high hopes for 2010. ESPN just jumped on the bandwagon, ranking NU No. 9 in its pre-preseason poll. A lot of people think the offense is going to have some octane. Before any of that, Watson still has to find a quarterback he can trust.
Lee will have to wait. He's recovering from elbow surgery this spring. He'll get his chance next fall to show the Holiday Bowl was no fluke. Meanwhile, Green is making up for lost time. He's trying to pull even, and maybe even a little ahead, by the time the August sun arrives.
It figures to be the hottest quarterback race at NU in a long time, maybe since Eric Crouch-Bobby Newcombe. The winner will show he can keep the car out of the ditch. In other words, don't screw it up, kid.
“They have to show they can manage our football team,'' Watson said. “Running the huddle, fixing things when they get broke, the leadership aspect of it. Just like Joe Ganz. He knew it, inside and out. He could take everyone to the top of the mountain.''
Watson would love to have Ganz's heart and head inside Green or Lee. Whatever happened to the old poster boy for trust, anyway?
What a coincidence: He's a football intern at NU, tutoring Green, Lee and the other quarterbacks in the matters of execution, leadership and trust.
“Trust is not just knowing the system we're running, it's having the coaches' trust and the players' trust to have you in there and make the right decision,'' Ganz said. “That's what we're looking for: guys that know how to make the right reads and know where to go with the football. Whoever does that is going to win the job.''
Ganz, who just started his internship this winter, was around Lee as a player. He's just getting to know Green. But he says pulling Green was absolutely the right move last fall and has paid off so far this spring.
“Cody has had a really good spring,'' Ganz said. “He's starting to see on film how the system works and not to play outside of it and trust what we're doing. His decisions have been great. He's making his reads quicker, he's getting the ball out of his hands. We sped up his delivery a little bit. He's doing everything he needs to do to put himself in position to be the starter.
“I think they did the right thing. A game like that can ruin a young guy's confidence. That stage might have been a little too big. But if we were in that game right now, I wouldn't even think twice about having him in there. I would trust him to make the right decisions and reads. He just needs to grow up and be a mature college quarterback. It's not something that you can just throw on a switch.''
Is Watson's offense too complicated for young quarterbacks? Ganz, who didn't get to play until the end of his fourth year, says no.
“You rarely see a true freshman quarterback go in and play,'' Ganz said. “College football is so different from high school. It takes a while to understand that.
“From when I got here, we've cut out a lot of the offense. It's night and day. We're bringing these guys along slowly. It's the right thing to do. After my first spring, I was comfortable enough with what we were doing to go in and do it. For Cody and Taylor (Martinez) and those guys, they'll be ready to go and execute the offense.''
It will be interesting to see which Lee shows up. Last fall, Lee was sometimes better in practice than in games. He had an awakening in San Diego. Good news for Lee: All reports from the spring say that Watson's offense has taken on the look of the Holiday Bowl scheme, which was run-heavy and featured several quarterback runs.
“I think Zac was more comfortable in the bowl game,'' Ganz said. “The extra couple weeks of preparation helped him. Once you get in the grind of the season, you can lose some of your preparation, you kind of get lost in the translation there. He played well. That's more of the style we want to do around here and he executed. He didn't make mistakes and didn't go outside the system, delivered the ball where he should. He was in a zone, feeling the game.''
Which means we will have a good, old-fashioned quarterback duel in the August sun.
“It should be a lot of fun — that's what you coach for,'' said Ganz, with a look that said he wished he could be right in the middle of it. In a way, he will.
Contact the writer:
444-1025, tom.shatel@owh.com
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