Rhythm, footwork and senses of humor: Whipple, Husker QBs using spring to learn the same language | Football

Logan Smothers spent 22 months minus some pandemic disruption learning quarterback play at the School of “Verdu.”

Heinrich Haarberg did the same for the opening nine months of his college football career.

While much of the quarterback-related focus so far this offseason and spring for Nebraska football has been on what is new — power conference transfer quarterbacks Casey Thompson and Chubba Purdy and offensive coordinator Mark Whipple — there is also, in the pair of young returning Husker signal-callers, what is merely changed.

Or, perhaps more accurately, what is significantly changed.

Smothers and Haarberg saw their position coach, Mario Verduzco, fired in November and replaced with Whipple in December. Both men are 40-plus year veterans of college football, with roots anchored in the NFL, and yet their personalities, processes, linguistics and teaching methods all appear to be quite different.

So, broad question first, how’s it going so far?

“You probably have to ask them,” Whipple said Wednesday. “Sometimes they like me, sometimes they don’t understand my humor. They’re great. It’s been fun. Like I said, yeah, it’s important and I get upset, but hey, we’ve got to have some fun, we’ve got to have some laughs. You meet a lot with the guys, meet with the quarterbacks more than anybody because they’re not on special teams, so they’ve been a really good group.

“I’ve seen them grow, I’ve seen them relax.”

Haarberg, the Kearney Catholic graduate, hesitated when asked if Whipple was funny but didn’t when asked to describe his new coach.

“He’s a super-smart guy and the way he talks about things, they’re easy to understand,” he said. “It’s not super-complicated stuff and he dumbs everything down.”

Dumbed down, perhaps, but this is not an overnight transition.

Nebraska’s coaching staff and players have all said they’ve attempted to keep as much of the playbook terminology as possible for the Husker players despite changing four offensive coaches and the play-caller this offseason.

Only time will tell how much different the offense actually looks when the 2022 season begins, but there is little doubt at this point that there is still plenty of new stuff for the Husker quarterbacks — and everybody else — to learn this spring.

“I think all the quarterbacks in general are really comfortable with some of the things we used to do and still figuring out some of the new things,” NU coach Scott Frost said Wednesday. “I think Casey, actually, is doing the best at some of the new stuff because everything is new to him. It’s a learning process for everybody.”

Based on interviews with coaches and players so far, the list of substantial changes for the quarterbacks includes footwork and mental processing.

Those two go hand-in-hand once the ball is snapped. Footwork is married to everything else that happens, whether it’s a simple handoff or the timing of routes developing down the field. A quarterback is making his reads as his footwork is getting him to the correct timing. If you’re thinking about your feet, it’s difficult to also think about the defense.

“It takes some time. There’s different drops. To me, the whole pass game is footwork,” Whipple said. “There’s one-step, there’s three-step, there’s three and a hitch, there’s three plant, there’s five, there’s one-four. Then you’ve got play action. So, you’re trying to get it on tape, and I know they’re thinking a lot about it. …

“If you’ve got good rhythm with your feet, then you’ve got a really good chance to be an accurate passer. That’s what we’re working on.”

This, rather than what concepts are called or what signal means what, is the new language the Nebraska quarterbacks are learning.

“Obviously, they’ve tried to keep the same terminology from last year, that way we can all understand it and not have to relearn everything,” Haarberg said. “But different keys, different reads, different progressions.”

And, in some cases, a different starting point altogether: under the center rather than in the shotgun. 

“Now we’re doing a lot of five-step drops, we didn’t do that with Coach ‘Verdu,’ so that’s new with us,” Smothers said. “A little more under center, so that’s a little bit new for us, but nothing we can’t handle.”

Whipple said part of the equation is that they want to develop quarterbacks to get ready for the NFL, and playing from under center is still essentially a requirement at the top level. But it is also about schematics in the college game, too.

“It’s part of the run game, especially the back has a chance for a better, more full-spectrum run, I guess, is what it comes down to,” he said. “When you have the ‘I’ tailback and you’re (next to the quarterback in the shotgun), it cuts off part of it. So when you get the full spectrum of zones, I think it helps their landmarks and I think it helps when the NFL scouts see those (quarterbacks) on tape.”

Haarberg said he thinks that learning via firehose last year as a true freshman actually will help him this year because, “I have kind of that process in my head of how to do that.”

Thompson pointed out that he’s essentially learning his fourth collegiate offense, all of which have their own quirks and differences. His coaches say that has paid dividends on the front end of this project.

“He sees the field really well,” Frost said. “There’s some things when you get a new QB, sometimes everything is moving fast and they get tunnel vision and that’s been apparent from the beginning that he sees the field. When he knows where to go, the ball comes out quick. He’s kind of a step ahead of the game. That only comes from experience that he already has.”

Added Whipple, “He’s been well-coached. Those guys that he had at Texas did a good job with him. He’s inquisitive, which is nice. They may have done it a certain way before that he may fall back into, but I’m fairly open. He’s going through his progressions, he likes it. I like what I see.”