Posted: Friday, September 2, 2005 7:00 pm
The sign wasn’t meant specifically for Zac Taylor, but he should have definitely been one of the first to grasp its meaning: “The road to success is always under construction.”
It hugged a wall in one of Nebraska’s meeting rooms in Memorial Stadium, and following his performance in the Huskers’ unimpressive 25-7 win against Maine Saturday night, Taylor easily could have missed it. That would be because his head might have been hanging over having failed to make the kind of impression he wanted in his Husker debut.
Having overtaken incumbent Joe Dailey last spring, Taylor entered Saturday with a firm grasp on the starting spot.
So where does he stand after misfiring more passes than he completed (he was 15-for-36 with a pair of interceptions) against a NCAA Division I-AA opponent? Under construction.
At least Nebraska fans don’t have the false sense of security they might have gotten from last year’s season-opening, 56-17 blowout of Western Illinois. You remember that one, don’t you.
Dailey, making his first start, threw for four touchdowns and ran for two more. He also got picked off four times, which should have set off fire alarms throughout the Huskers’ complex.
One week later, Dailey tossed three more interceptions to negate a 476-yard performance by the offense and leave the Huskers with a stunning 21-17 home loss to Southern Mississippi.
As he showed in that game, Dailey had a penchant for freelancing — perhaps because he was a little shaky on playbook knowledge. We soon found out that risk-taking in the West Coast offense is pretty much a no-no.
So now NU has a guy like Taylor, who comes from a passing system and must know Callahan’s better. Did you notice that unlike Dailey last season, he wasn’t running over to the sidelines after every play Saturday?
Did you notice he also throws a pretty nice deep ball? That 73-yarder to Frantz Hardy was an in-stride play that Hardy should have taken to the house.
He also looks awkward throwing on rollouts, and doesn’t exactly zip the ball on those 20-yard outs.
But save for trying to force a second-quarter ball that got picked off near the Maine goal line, he made the kind of decisions that will at least allow you not to beat yourselves. For Nebraska, that would be a step in the right direction.
Remember this, too. Prior to Saturday, Taylor had thrown one pass in a Division I-A game (when he was at Wake Forest).
“Zac is a disciplined person. He leads his life that way — and when he is on the field he plays within himself,” offensive coordinator Jay Norvell said. “You have to be disciplined as a quarterback in this offense. If you freelance, you have problems. You can’t be a freelance player.
It’s based on principles. It’s based on progressions. If you stay within those progressions, you’re fine. When you go outside of the boundaries, then you have problems. There is no question that we are protecting the ball better. We are eliminating the bad decision.”
If Hardy could have eliminated a couple of dropped passes inside the Maine 5, Taylor and his unit would look a lot better.
As it stands, he and the offense are left with a game to learn from and build on.
“It was one of those games you want to get under your belt and move on,” Norvell said.
So breathe a sigh of relief, and say a prayer for Taylor while you’re at it. He’s bound to have better days, but is still very much a product of construction.
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.