Dailey looks to restart career under center at UNC

By Mike Medina  |   Saturday, August 05, 2006  |  Comments( 2 )

North Carolina Tar Heels
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Everything mounted for Joe Dailey at Nebraska -- the interceptions, the losses and, worst of all, the pressure.

So, he did what mobile quarterbacks do best. He escaped.

After fleeing the Cornhusker State for Tobacco Road, Dailey is embracing a fresh start and the competition for the starting job at North Carolina.

"I've got two years to redeem myself," Dailey said Saturday during the team's media day. "I guess I'm out to dispel all rumors."

And the junior is out to prove that he's no longer the square peg who two years ago was thrust into the round holes of Nebraska coach Bill Callahan's West Coast offense.

"I'm pushing the restart button, I guess," Dailey said.

Surviving Lincoln's pressure-cooker prepared the Tar Heels' new quarterback for his battle with redshirt freshman Cam Sexton -- and for the grind of the Atlantic Coast Conference season, North Carolina coach John Bunting said.

"At that university, there's pressure there. In this conference we play in, there's pressure every single week," Bunting said. "He's been there and done that. He's going to face that every single Saturday."

Dailey hopes the results are better in Chapel Hill than they were in Lincoln. During his last season at Nebraska, he threw 19 interceptions and was blamed for the Cornhuskers' first losing season since 1961.

These days, Dailey is working to master a toned-down version of the West Coast scheme being installed by new Carolina offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti.

"What I was involved in (at Nebraska) was a whole lot different ... different motions, you could run a play from every different formation," Dailey said. The Tar Heels' system, he said, is "very generic, very basic and all I want to do is complete the ball."

That seems a whole lot simpler than what he was trying to do as a 'Husker.

Dailey came to Nebraska in 2003 to run coach Frank Solich's triple-option. But Solich was fired after that season and replaced by Callahan, who then scrapped that system for a passing scheme that the mobile Dailey never really seemed to grasp.

The Cornhuskers struggled all season, capping a 5-6 finish with a 26-20 loss to Colorado in which Dailey was picked off four times. During the following spring, he sank to fourth on the depth chart.

Not surprisingly, many fingers pointed at the quarterback. All Dailey could do, he said, was suck it up.

"No one stuck up for me. I had to take the blame," he said. "That's what I had to do. I realize that. I've got to take responsibility for everything that happens in my life."

So, he decided to transfer and called up one of the Cornhuskers' former assistants - Marvin Sanders, who was fired by Callahan and later surfaced at North Carolina.

He sat out last season as a redshirt and now has two years to resurrect his playing career.

"At the time, I was very young, obviously, and I didn't understand the dynamics of the game or the situation," Dailey said. "I felt like I was put in a situation where it was hit-or-miss. Obviously, it was a miss. Struck out. But I had a second chance (and) I was very grateful for it."

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