Steven M. Sipple: Watson not cutting Lee any slack
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Good luck, Zac Lee, against this competition.
Hope your arm’s as strong as everyone says.
Turns out, the man you’re battling is experienced and poised. He possesses an unmistakable calm, but also a combustible side — somewhat surprising given his generally laid-back persona.
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Good luck competing against Shawn Watson.
“I told Zac recently, ‘In all reality, I am your competition,’” Nebraska’s offensive coordinator said in reference to a spring quarterback race that, for a variety of reasons, fizzled like a damp firecracker.
“There’s a standard of play that I hold Zac accountable to,” Watson said. “And he has done an outstanding job of living up to that standard and improving his game this spring.”
Make no mistake, the starting job is Lee’s to lose. It’s reached the level of a foregone conclusion. The other quarterbacks aren’t ready to challenge Lee. Not right now. And probably not in August, either.
“I sat Zac down and said we have three (other) guys learning the system,” Watson said Friday. “Two of them (true freshman Cody Green and converted linebacker Latravis Washington) haven’t been in it. One of them (redshirt freshman Kody Spano) has been it only briefly and just knows the terminology, but doesn’t know the system in detail.
“So, I told Zac, ‘Your push has to come from me, and I’m going to coach you hard. And I’m doing this because it’s what’s best for the team, and it’s also what’s best for you. I’m doing it because I really care about what you become.’ He took that challenge, and he’s really letting me coach him hard.”
Somebody has to push Lee, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound junior. Patrick Witt left the team. Spano tore up his knee. Green hurt his hip. However, Lee faces a formidable challenge living up to Watson’s expectations. If you doubt that, you missed Watson ripping into the offense after a poor practice Wednesday.
“With our tradition at Nebraska, there’s a certain level of expectation that I have for our offense,” Watson said. “And it all begins with guys who play with relentless effort. I just felt there were some things in that practice that we let slip, that were uncharacteristic of us. That’s not going to happen under my watch. No way. Not in this program.
“It was my responsibility to put that out in front of the team.”
Watson clearly has a quiet confidence about this offense, and the quarterback running it. He appreciates that Lee has toned town “a little bit of a gunslinger mentality.”
“Zac has a lot of confidence in his arm,” Watson said.
But Lee has to understand when to check down to a second or third receiver instead of throwing a deep ball or trying to zip a strike into a very small window. Also, Lee at times leaves the pocket a tad too quickly.
“I’m really proud of him because he has shown enormous improvement in those areas,” Watson said.
Today, Watson wants to see Lee manage the offense well. Command the huddle. Make good decisions at the line and with the ball. The basics.
Watson will be vanilla with his play-calling.
“I mean, we’re not going to put a lot of stuff out there offensively or defensively because you never know where the information’s going to go,” he said.
Should Lee fall short in any area, he’ll have to answer to Watson, who intensely enjoys the challenge of preparing QBs.
“Zac’s not sensitive. He takes my coaching well,” Watson said. “I think he’s the product of an awesome home. He’s always had to go out and earn his keep. I can just tell that because he doesn’t scare off of my coaching. He says, ‘OK,’ and just goes forward.”
Forward as Nebraska’s starting QB into the foreseeable future.
Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com.
