NU rushes into NEW Year with big bowl win

Trainers soon informed head coach Bo Pelini that they'd tested Ganz for a concussion, but the star quarterback felt he could still play.

"I said, 'He'll be back in,'" Pelini later said. "There was no doubt in my mind."

Ganz returned to the game with slightly more than 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter and eventually led the five-play, 49-yard field-goal drive that sealed NU's 26-21 victory. Ganz also ended up leaving the field with the massive trophy given to the Gator Bowl's Most Valuable Player.

The senior from Palos Heights, Ill., had done it again.

He'd recovered after a paltry offensive performance in the first half in which he threw for only 103 yards, an interception and no touchdowns. Yet he got things turned around to finish the game with more than 230 passing yards and two passing touchdowns.

Nebraska's other offensive stars included running back Quentin Castille, who shouldered much of the load on Thursday because Roy Helu Jr. and Marlon Lucky had been slowed by a knee infection and a foot injury, respectively.

Castille finished with a career-high 125 yards, including a career-long 58-yard rush in the third quarter and a 40-yard run in the fourth.

But Ganz ended the game as the star of the show. After spending much of the past two seasons in the shadows of former quarterbacks Zac Taylor and Sam Keller, Ganz finished his record-breaking senior year as one of the program's great quarterbacks.

"He epitomizes what this team is," Pelini said. "He had some bad things happen to him in the first half. A lot of kids who aren't as strong and don't have as much character would have wilted in that kind of circumstance, but Joe just kept going, the same way the rest of the team did."

Ganz, like many of his coaches and teammates, said Thursday's victory was a significant step in the process to rebuild a Nebraska football program whose prominence on the national scene had faded after consecutive disappointing seasons.

"It's big for this program to cement our legacies and cement our hard work and what it takes to get back to the top to win ball games and get back to where we need to be," he said.

Pelini said before the game that a victory would create significant momentum for the seasons ahead by bolstering the efforts NU's coaching staff and athletic department have made to re-invigorate the organization.

"Our kids are excited and are starting to believe and showing how good they are," he said. "It's fun to see. Now, we just have to keep it going and pick up that torch that the seniors left and keep running with it."

Ganz's concerns about the legacy he'll leave now that his collegiate career has ended were simple:

"I hope they remember me as someone who shut up, worked hard, never complained and left everything that I had on the field,” he said.