The 2016 Nebraska football season hasn’t been on the books for a week and everyone can officially look to Tanner Lee as an option at quarterback.
That’s no knock on redshirt freshman Patrick O’Brien. However, barring injury or an amazing spring and fall effort from him, Lee’s your likely candidate to take snaps when Nebraska opens the 2017 season against Arkansas State.
Yes, that’s a lot of pressure on No. 13 and that’s a curious issue for some. The fact is, if Lee could’ve been Nebraska’s starter in 2016, I have a hard time thinking Tommy Armstrong, Jr. doesn’t ride the pine eventually and stays put.
Will Lee make you forget about what Armstrong can do with his feet? No.
Will he make you forget what Armstrong couldn’t do with his arm? Absolutely. He made those who attended Nebraska practices wonder what he could’ve done when No. 4 was throwing ducks and darts on Saturdays.
Let’s not kid ourselves. Lee was brought on with one reason in mind: to start. He doesn’t need an offense built around him. Head coach Mike Riley and offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf have the car keys ready for him. He’s the driver they want.
Armstrong was the little Lego® guy that came with a box full of pieces that go to a bunch of different sets and somehow, some way he had to get from Point A to Point B. It worked more often than it didn’t, but when it didn’t, the extra gum that held pieces together went dry fast.
What kind of productivity can Nebraska football fans expect from an offense that has a genuine, no foolin’, may-actually-get-drafted-as-a-quarterback kinda quarterback?
Looking back at the days when Riley and Langsdorf were rocking it in Corvallis tells us a little bit.
In 2004 and 2005, eventual sixth-round NFL draft pick Derek Anderson would throw for 7,673 yards and 53 touchdowns under the offensive guidance given.
UCLA transfer Matt Moore started wearing Beaver gear in 2005 and flipped a ten-game 2,711-yard season with an 11-19 touchdown-to-interception ratio to a 2006 season that saw him start all 14 games. Langsdorf helped his signal-caller direct traffic to the tune of 3,022 yards while completing 60 percent of his passes and throwing 18 touchdowns to just seven interceptions.
You may be familiar with Riley and Langsdorf’s most recent quarterback protege.
Sean Mannion was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in the third round of the 2015 NFL Draft and currently backs up 2016 No. 1 overall draft pick Jared Goff.
Mannion threw for a yearly average of 3,400 yards with a 65 percent completion rate at Oregon State. The last time Nebraska had a quarterback with numbers like that was in 2008 when Joe Ganz was under center. He would throw for 3,568 in 13 games for the Cornhuskers while logging 25 touchdowns to 11 picks.
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If you think that Ganz would be a fantastic addition to this modern day bunch of Huskers and a Lee-Ganz battle has a little more mystery to it, you’re not mistaken.
Fantasy quarterbacking aside, it’s Lee’s time now. Honestly, once things got dicey in Big Ten play last season, it may already be if he was eligible to take the field during, say, the Northwestern game last September.