Judging from Friday's Big Red Breakfast, Shawn Watson's approval ratings are on the rise.
Nebraska's offensive coordinator, maligned a season ago for his unit's lackluster production, was received warmly Friday at the breakfast.
And he charmed the crowd of about 250 by speaking from his heart.
“I took a lot of ... stuff last year,” Watson said, while explaining how injuries and inexperience affected his offense. “Those things happen for a reason, not because I went stupid overnight.”
His most popular topic, of course, was the quarterback situation and how redshirt freshman Taylor Martinez earned the confidence of the coaching staff before being named the starter over Zac Lee and Cody Green.
Watson called Martinez “explosive'' on multiple occasions, and he described Green's play as “almost flawless” in the 49-10 win over Western Kentucky.
But it was a moment close to the end of Watson's talk that brought an ovation. Watson was asked if there were times in 2009 that he wanted to defend himself.
“Absolutely, at times I did,” he said. “The thing you've got to understand, you've got a lot of pride in your work. It cuts you, it does. It wasn't pretty, trust me. It hurt.”
Few people, he said, knew that at times NU had only six healthy offensive linemen who could practice. Even fewer understood the severity of Lee's elbow injury, which required offseason surgery that forced him to miss spring practices.
“A year ago we were in a storm,” Watson said. “We had to survive. We had to find ways to get a win."
Watson said he took the offense's struggles last season “very, very personal” and said he was “really upset” about the quarterback play.
“My product, that's my coaching,” he said. “That's me.”
It wasn't all serious, though. Of the many one-liners Watson delivered, a couple stood out.
When asked if he expected many run plays called for the fullback, Watson asked, “You're not related to (NU fullback Tyler) Legate, are you?”
His answer when pressed about senior receiver Mike McNeill's lack of catches against Western Kentucky?
“Yeah, he told me about that.”
Watson referred to the offense as the “West Coast passing game” and joked that he avoided using that phrase a season ago because “people were so thin-skinned about it.”
He said former Husker quarterback Joe Ganz, now a volunteer assistant, sometimes “thinks he's Bill Walsh'' when it comes to the West Coast offense, a comment that drew another big laugh.
Watson praised the play of a number of offensive linemen, including freshman Andrew Rodriguez, who the coach said would continue to see playing time.
Watson said he met last winter with former coach Tom Osborne and Milt Tenopir, one of Osborne's longtime assistants. Watson wanted to pick their brains about the variations to NU's running game in the Osborne era.
Watson offered a scouting report on Idaho, and not just on the Vandals' defense. Watson spoke at length about Idaho quarterback Nathan Enderle, a senior from North Platte, Neb.
Watson said he tried to recruit Enderle to Colorado while serving as CU's offensive coordinator. Enderle was next up on the CU board to receive a scholarship offer after one of the Buffaloes' targets had committed elsewhere. By the time Watson and the Buffs got around to making the offer, Enderle had already made a decision.
“He's one of the better, I would think, senior quarterbacks in the country,” Watson said. “He'll be somebody the defense obviously has their attention on.”
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