He’s been Nebraska’s starter for just three games, but Joe Ganz has already mastered this part: Breezing through the question-answer game with the media like he would some quiz about Shawn Watson’s playbook.

Some players already sound like coaches when they speak and Nebraska’s starting quarterback is one of those.

“You know who I really like is Mike McNeill,” Ganz said Saturday of the Husker sophomore tight end. “He’s been playing really well. He’s been running really good routes, blocking real well. He’s competing every play and that’s all you can really ask for. He’s got a lot of speed and really helps stretch the defense vertically at the tight end position.”

See? It’s like he stole some coach’s script for that quote. Give him a visor and some Dockers.

Plenty of questions come to Nebraska’s starting quarterback, but interestingly, Ganz is rarely asked about Ganz these days.

Three weeks before the Husker season begins, he’s asked about the backup quarterbacks and the running backs and which receivers are emerging as playmakers.

He has sufficient answers for each query. But the question of how Ganz himself is doing at fall camp rarely comes up.

Usually a guy who has started just three games would be labeled a big question mark going into a season, but after having thrown for 1,299 yards and 16 touchdowns in those games, there’s an air of confidence among Husker followers that the fifth-year senior will be just fine this fall, maybe outstanding.

So what is it about Joe that gives people this overriding confidence after having just seen him play a quarter of a season?

“It’s so comfortable having him out there. He’s really understanding,” said Husker sophomore running back Roy Helu Jr. “Last year, he helped me so many times when we’d go out on the field and play. I was kind of scared to ask the quarterbacks, ‘What do I do here and here when we’re in front of the defense?’ Joe, he doesn’t cut you down. He just supports you. He’s a really good quarterback.”

Offensive coordinator Shawn Watson has said before that Ganz is like a coach on the field.

When coaches visit Nebraska’s campus, Ganz often is summoned to give a tutorial about the Big Red’s offense.

His knowledge of the offense is one thing. His confidence is another. Senior wide receiver Nate Swift remembers Ganz having that assuredness in his abilities even when he was on the scout team.

“Even when he’s a backup he’s always a loud kid, he’s always joking around, making everybody laugh and is friends with everybody,” Swift said. “Everybody looks up to him, always has, and I think they always will.”

Ganz will tell you his take-charge attitude basically goes back to the tire swing on the playground.

“All my life growing up, any team I’ve played on, I’ve always thought of myself as the leader of that team,” Ganz said.

He watched each of the three games he played in last year about seven times, but he’s done looking at the past. There will be no more looking at those tapes, he said Saturday.

He’s moved on, glad that a summer of anxiousness has finally given way to fall camp.

“I haven’t started a whole year since high school so I’m really excited,” Ganz said. “It’s kind of that excited, nervous energy a little bit. But it goes away after the first day of camp. You’re back in your same routine, you’re back doing the same things you’ve been doing the last five years.”

And you’re back answering questions from the media — though plenty of times the questions aren’t about you.

Hey, Joe, what about the race for the backup quarterback spot between Patrick Witt and Zac Lee?

Ganz said both have shown flashes, but also still have moments when their youth shines through.

When they ask him questions, he’s happy to give advice.

“But I don’t want to undermine them,” Ganz said. “I kind of want them to lead their own way and figure it out for themselves a little bit. … because if I get hurt and they’re in, I’m not going to be out there on the field with them, so (I) kind of let them grow up a little bit and make their own decisions and tell me what they saw.”

Joe, What about those receivers? Is someone stepping up into a playmaker role?

“Todd (Peterson) and Nate, they’re going to be the guys,” Ganz said. “You can always count on them. They’re always going to play hard. They’re always going to practice hard. They’re always going to be in the right spots. But (Menelik Holt) — Meno’s having a good camp. He’s really emerged as that No. 3 guy, a guy I can go to and know exactly where he’s going to be and know he’s going to get open.”

If he sounds prepared to answer everything, he generally is. This is the season Ganz has been waiting for a long time. It’s finally his team, his turn to lead.

Last year’s 5-7 season is still lingering, he admitted, but he is  sure it’s nothing a strong fall camp and a flying start to September can’t handle.

“If we can do that,” Ganz said, “I think we can bury everything that’s happened in the past, and completely forget about it.”

Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7439 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.