No position determined the fate of the Nebraska offense more in 2010 than quarterback. That figures to be the case once again in 2011. Granted, that could be said about any football team at any level but – you get the concept.
In the first ten games of 2010, Husker quarterback Taylor Martinez was a big play waiting to happen. He rushed 887 yards on 112 carries and 12 touchdowns. In the pasing department, he completed 63 of 119 for 1,161 yards, ten touchdowns and three interceptions. After sustaining an ankle injury, however, Martinez became pretty oridinary as he carried 50 times for 79 yards. In the passing department, he completed 44 of 76 for 470 yards, no touchdowns and four interceptions.
Martinez sat out wins over Iowa State and Colorado but also left losses against Texas A&M and Washington, giving way to since transferred Cody Green in relief each time.
Other than since departed offensive coordinator Shawn Watson, Martinez was perhaps the biggest scapeoat in the offense’s struggles in the second half of the season. However, the coaching staff would have been much served to have Martinez sit out and hopefully return in the Big 12 title game, or whenever he reached full health. Putting a less than full strength Martinez on the field was a liability more than an asset.
Martinez’s performance in the second half of the season had may Husker fans wondering if the talented sophomore is truly the right person to lead the offense. One must also realize, however, that with the exception of Tommie Frazier, the great majority of other good college quarterbacks (San Bradford, Tim Tebow, Terrelle Pryor to name a few) as far as recent times go didn’t start shine right out of the gate. Most of them were unknowns outside of their local fanbase until they were juniors or seniors which is when they were finally good enough to start.
As far as the Martinez’s inconsistency goes, I think it’s only something that needs to be developed just like anything else. Many players improve after their first year of starting and while I’m not saying he’s going to be zipping the ball around with pinpoint accurancy like Stanford’s Andrew Luck, he should be better in every aspect of the game over last year.
Where Martinez especially needs to improve is his game management and leadership skills. He has the ability to be a great player, if he can understand the defense better and earn the respect of his comrades. Some people were put off by Martinez’s aloof demeanor but great NFL quarterbacks like Joe Montana and Tom Brady to name a few were the furthest thing from being drill seargants and it didn’t stop them from being all-time greats.
Again, there is plenty of reason to wonder how good Martinez truly is but when he is intact and has opportunities, look out! When the offensive line looks like a sieve and he is injured, Nebraska is in for a long game.
Nebraska’s 20-13 loss to Texas signifies why there is reason to wonder. The worst Texas team in literally years was able to shut Martinez totally down when he was plenty healthy.In that game, Martiez carried 13 times for 21 yards and completed just 4 of 12 passes for 63 yards before getting replaced by Zac Lee.
However, in that game, Nebraska receivers dropped five passes, two would have been for sure touchdowns. If anyone could catch a ball that day, his passing numbers would have been much better and probably would have opened up a lot more running lanes. Could have been a totally different game.
As for the leadership issue, if your quarterback has excellent leadership skills, that’s great but leadership also must come from coaches. They should be able to make the team play well together regardless of whether the quarterback is shy, a jerk or whatever.
You don’t want a jerk as your quarterback, but in college I don’t think he has to be the undisputed leader of the team. I’d rather see him perfom well on the field and keep to himself clean off of it (as long as it doesn’t cause locker room problems) than be a terrific guy who can’t play.
One also has to consider that Martinez became a starter as a freshman, which means even with his dynamite start, he probably would have endured growing pains at some point. Keep in mind, most good starters at good programs don’t start when they’re freshmen or sophomores, they struggle or sit behind someone for 2-3 years a lot of times.
We can only hope Martinez improve in general. Actually, if he can just hold on to the ball, that would be a major improvement. The problem is that if the Huskers don’t fix many of the problems with the offensive line, regardless of how well Martinez plays, the offense will stall.
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