Martinez at a crossroad entering sophomore campaign

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.

What was Cody Glenn thinking?

Oh that Cody Glenn.

In the aftermath of getting drafted in the fifth round by the Washington Redskins, the “real reason” why Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini suspended him for the final four games of the season came out.

Or so we thought.

Glenn, who made a position change from sporadically used running back to starting linebacker, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he made up the story about selling his tickets, which would have been a violation of NCAA rules. The fifth-round pick said he wanted to satisfy reporters and get them to quit asking him about the suspension. Various NU officials said the suspension due to ticket scalping was “news to us.”“It was me being dumb, just trying to have people leave me alone,” Glenn said in a Lincoln Journal Star interview. “It’s something I said that I probably shouldn’t have, looking at it now.”

The LJS also reported that Glenn spoke with department officials Tuesday morning to clear things up. At the time of the suspension, Pelini cited violation of team rules as the reason for his dismissal. Glenn on Tuesday refused to disclose the real reason for his suspension, saying it was between him and Pelini.

The first question I ask is, what the hell was Glenn thinking? How dare he throw the program under the bus after the coaching staff saved what was a languishing career?

This does not seem like it will end with the infraction being swept under the rug. It just seems like a can of worms has been opened now. I'm wondering why Glenn wouldn't have kept the "team violation" message and said something along the lines of "I've told my new coaches what they need to know, but out of respect for my former program it remains a private matter."

Which leaves me to ask, was Glenn advised to go in such a direction?

The best way I see out of this for Nebraska with zero punishment is if they inform the NCAA of the exact details of Glenn's suspension and do it right now. Further, either NU or Glenn needs to have a news conference and explain the details to the media so as to clear up any ambiguity and not have the issue drag.

If Glenn is making all of this up, it's quite obvious he's absolutely clueless about the media that cover the NFL. This isn't Lincoln anymore. We’re talking Washington DC. NFL media, especially that on the East Coast will not take "no comment" for an answer from anybody, politician or athlete.

This is not going to get better for Glenn. There will be reporters in front of his locker the first day of minicamp and they're not going to go away like they do in Lincoln. These guys will dig and report rumors with poor sources. Glenn's gotten the Nebraska athletic department in a PR bind even if it's completely fabricated. I really hope the first thing Tom Osborne does is call the NCAA compliance office and explain to them every single detail of Glenn's suspension, even if it wasn't due to an NCAA violation in any way. Otherwise, the NCAA's going to have questions and will look for any reason to get Nebraska in trouble. I'd rather it be Nebraska getting out in front of it before the NCAA starts sniffing, even if it's entirely unwarranted.

Glenn the draft day surprise for the Huskers

As mentioned in an earlier blog entry, the biggest reason I watch the NFL Draft is to see who the Bay Area teams select and where players from the University of Nebraska (my beloved alma mater) get drafted.

We saw linebacker Cody Glenn get drafted by the Washington Redskins in the fifth round. Offensive lineman Matt Slauson went to the New York Jets in Round Six while fellow line-mate Lydon Murtha went to the Detroit Lions in Round Seven.

I’m not terribly surprised that quarterback Joe Ganz or wide receiver Nate Swift did not get drafted but I must say that I’m surprised that no one drafted running back Marlon Lucky. Granted, Lucky was a virtual non-entity near the end of the season because of a turf-toe injury but he’s fast and showed great ability at times as a receiver.

I’m shocked that Glenn got drafted given his baggage. Glenn was the Huskers feel good story for the first half of the season, moving from a sporadically used running back to a starter at linebacker. Husker head coach Bo Pelini then suspended Glenn indefinitely after Game Nine.

Pelini never gave any specific reason for Glenn’s suspension but according to the Washington Post internet site, NFL sources reported that Glenn's suspension arose from ticket scalping. In short, Pelini had no choice or it would have been very bad for the program.

Just giving the Redskins the benefit of the doubt, they perhaps investigated the situation and are satisfied that Glenn is rectifying it.

I’m happy for Glenn and hope he has a successful career but he had not played enough to be drafted in the fifth round as a linebacker. Because of his lack of experience at linebacker, he could have been picked up as a free agent after the draft.

The dynamic that will bear watching is Slauson getting picked up by the Jets. Keep in mind, former Husker head coach Bill Callahan is the Jets assistant head coach and offensive line coach. Callahan recruited Slauson to come to Nebraska.

Slauson was pretty careful in his comments last year not to say anything bad about Callahan after he was replaced in favor of Bo Pelini but it was clear that he was pretty happy with the new staff and the way things turned out.

Callahan has a pattern of being petty and vindictive but I don't think they would have drafted him if there was a rift. I have to think that Callahan has input on who is selected, particularly along the offensive line.