OMAHA, Neb.—Huskers, Tuskers.
The rhyme, surely irresistible to headline writers and the like, falls a little flat to the ear of Joe Ganz. The former Nebraska Cornhusker quarterback figured he would be in an NFL training camp this week rather than awaiting a tryout with a UFL team whose nickname, still unofficial, depicts a type of wild boar.
“It’s annoying,” he said.
It also could be Ganz’s last opportunity to find a job in pro football.
Ganz said if he doesn’t sign with the Orlando, Fla., franchise in the upstart United Football League, he’ll return to Lincoln to work for the Huskers’ radio network and appear on a weekly football program on statewide public television. He said he then would take an offer from coach Bo Pelini and become a Nebraska graduate assistant in 2010.
Overshadowed last season by Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford, Chase Daniel and others, Ganz might have been the Big 12’s most under-appreciated quarterback. He set Nebraska records for passing yards, total offense and completion percentage, and led the Huskers to a 9-4 record and a tie for the Big 12 North title.
The situation, he said, reminds him of his senior year in high school. Former coach Bill Callahan brought in Ganz as one of the last players in a 2004 recruiting class. Before that, Ganz had no offers from big programs, and he was considering playing college baseball instead.
He bided his time on the bench before becoming the starter late in 2007. Ganz figured his impressive statistics would get him an invitation to the NFL scouting combine, but that didn’t happen. He held out hope he would be drafted in the late rounds, and that didn’t happen, either.
“After the numbers I put up and the system we ran,” he said, “I felt I would get some looks. I got two. I thought there would be more.”
Ganz signed as a free agent with Washington Redskins. But the Redskins decided to take only four quarterbacks to training camp, and Ganz was the odd man out. The guy who edged out Ganz was Daniel, the standout Missouri quarterback.
“They said I was first to get a call if anyone got hurt,” Ganz said. “I thought that was my best shot. They run the same offense. I could step in and run it. It came down to the whole political part of football, which I’m used to, I guess.”
A tryout with Buffalo followed, but nothing came of it.
“They said they liked me,” he said, “but they said I might be a little too small for what they’re looking for.”
Size, or lack of it, has always been the knock against the 6-foot-1, 210-pound Ganz.
So now he will try out with the Florida Tuskers on Aug. 22.
The Tuskers, led by former New Orleans Saints coach Jim Haslett, have former Wisconsin star and NFL backup Brooks Bollinger on their roster. They also have the rights to Michael Vick, who could use the Tuskers as a fallback if he doesn’t sign with an NFL club. Vick was conditionally reinstated by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell last month after serving 23 months in prison for running a dogfighting ring.
The UFL’s mission is to give a second chance to veterans who want to return to the NFL and to young players who might have fallen through the cracks coming out of college. Each team will play a six-game schedule beginning in October.
“This UFL thing might work out,” Ganz said. “It might be kind of a springboard, so we’ll see.”
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