Former Nebraska quarterback Zac Taylor offered his thoughts on the Huskers’ football program in an email to the Journal Star’s Brian Rosenthal on Friday.

When I came to Nebraska, I was drawn in by the tradition, the facilities, the atmosphere, and most of all, the fans. At that time, it wouldn’t have mattered if Bob Knight was the football coach, I was coming to Nebraska the moment they offered me. Granted, I didn’t have a lot of other big name schools come after me, but honestly I don’t think that would have mattered. I can specifically remember a day when I was a student at Wake Forest and I had come home for a break, and I was driving around Norman. Every car I passed had an OU bumper sticker, or flag, or something showing their support for their team. I remember thinking to myself, “Man, I would give my left arm to play for a team with this much support and tradition.” I could never have imagined how quickly things would change for me, and that in two short years I would hit the college football jackpot and end up in Lincoln, Nebraska, the greatest college football town in America.

Coach Callahan gave me that opportunity, and he took a BIG chance on me. He did not promise me a single thing (although my mom did put him on the spot several times on my recruiting trip), all he said was that he would give me a great opportunity. He sold me, even though there were 5 other scholarship QB’s on the roster at that time. Not once did he talk bad about any of the other QB’s in order to get me there, and I have seen him do the same firsthand with several other recruits since then.

I know that this season hasn’t shaped up the way everyone had hoped for. I am disappointed, the fans are disappointed, but most of all, these players and coaches are 100 times more disappointed than anyone else out there. If fans could only see the amount of time, energy, and preparation that Coach Callahan and his staff put into each week, it would blow their mind. I have never seen someone so dedicated to accomplishing his goals as Coach is. It kills me to read papers, internet ramblings, and tv shows, knowing that they don’t know what I know, they don’t know what these players know. We still have talent. We still have a great staff. This has been a crazy year, and I am still confident that this team will rebound and salvage the year.

Fans say this system won’t work, in college or at Nebraska. This system does work. If you could have a one on one conversation with any player on that offense, they would assure you that this is what we need to be running. It will be successful, and it has been successful. My first year I ran this, my head was spinning, and so was everyone else’s. But then it clicked. My second year, I was a totally different player, whether fans saw it or not, and I would have paid ANY amount of money for a third. Sam Keller is a great player. He is competing his tail off, and he wants to win as bad as anyone else. But I know Sam would tell you that he would have loved to have one more year in this system to learn the ins and outs, and not have to of come in his Senior year with only one shot. The improvement each player sees in Year 2 is incredible, and I feel bad for Sam that he won’t get that opportunity. Even when I was a player, I often told people close to me, “Wait until they can get me out of here, and play a QB who has come through this system since their freshmen year. That’s when you will see this offense take off.” I was just there to plug the hole until they could groom someone behind me to be the guy, and I have NO problem with that whatsoever.

Trust me, I know people are frustrated because they look at this season and see what is happening. I can completely understand that. I just think this staff needs one more shot, one more season to see what they can do. We have the talent to make this thing work and turn it around. The fans will not be disappointed. I honestly think this season is a fluke; I was there for two months this season, I see the problems and I know that they can and will be corrected.

I wouldn’t write this just to defend Callahan. The tradition of excellence is too important at Nebraska for us to waste a year. The fans deserve to see this team have great success; it’s what they are used to, and it’s what they should expect. If I didn’t think he and his staff could get this done, then I wouldn’t put myself out there and I would just sit here in Canada and keep my mouth shut. I just want to ask people to hang tight, ride this out, and give Coach one more chance to prove that we will win Championships with this staff at Nebraska.