Ganz is a 'player to watch'

Nebraska quarterback Joe Ganz will attend the 53rd annual Touchdown Club of Columbus (Ohio) Sports Banquet as a "player to watch'' in college football in 2008.

Ganz recently received an invitation for the Feb. 9 function. An invitation also was extended to Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, who won the Heisman Trophy last season as a sophomore.

It adds to the turnaround for Ganz, the senior-to-be who was a virtual unknown until starting the Huskers' final three games last season. In those starts, Ganz passed for 1,399 yards and 15 touchdowns, and ran for three more scores.

Ganz said his parents will make the trip to Columbus with him.

"It's a great honor to have, but it's not going to change how I go about working and how I go about everything,'' Ganz said. "I'm just going to be the person I'm going to be. Any notoriety isn't going to affect me.''

Millard North star to walk-on at NU

Millard North offensive lineman Brian Thorson has accepted a walk-on opportunity with Nebraska. The 6-foot-3, 280-pound Thorson said the conversations he had with members of the NU staff on his weekend visit pushed him toward the decision.

Thorson picked NU over scholarship offers from Buffalo -- a team he was once committed to -- and South Dakota.

"It was very hard to come to a decision to walk away from full-ride scholarships,'' Thorson said. "In the end, there was nowhere I'd rather play than Nebraska. There's nowhere else that would be worth the pain, the work, the sweat.''

Thorson said he delivered his decision to NU offensive line coach Barney Cotton in a phone conversation Monday night.

"I was planning on calling him and letting him know and he just happened to call me,'' Thorson said.

Thorson's one-on-one talks with Cotton, coach Bo Pelini and Athletic Director Tom Osborne put his mind at ease. He also heard from Jeff Jamrog -- Nebraska's assistant athletic director for football and a former walk-on -- about just how much tradition there is in the program.

"Just hearing them talk about the opportunity, you can tell that scholarship players and walk-ons will be treated the same,'' he said.

"I want to play for the best and I believe Nebraska is going to be that.''

Thorson joins Omaha Bryan's Jeremy Wallace, Omaha Creighton Prep's Matt Manninger and former Papillion-La Vista quarterback Steve Heiman as local area players who have chosen to walk-on with the Huskers after Pelini was hired.

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