OWH: Armstrong's quick success shocks no one who's coached him

RedRedJarvisRedwhine said:
Didn't they have a similar predicament with Hines Ward his senior year. Same with Brad Smith. I think both moved to receiver. This is why it should be allowed for seniors only to talk to evaluation scouts with NFL teams. So scout from team blah blah can say that they project Taylor in the 6th round at Safety or undrafted at QB. We've seen what you can do at QB and maybe you could move up in the draft if you put some WR/returner/safety on film.
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No, Hinds Ward played QB in HS. He was moved to QB from receiver his Jr. year because they basically had no healthy QBs left on the team. I think he started the last 4-5 games. His senior year he was back at receiver.

I also find it interesting that BP gave a definitive, "I don't know" if TM will be ready for Illinois. I think he feels fairly comfortable with TA that he won't play Martinez until he is 100%

 
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Guy Chamberlin said:
What some folks are keen to ignore is that Taylor Martinez is indeed a legitimate passing threat. You might hate his throwing motion. You might just hate passing. But Taylor Martinez is Nebraska's career passing leader, he's a much better passer than a lot of the Husker QBs you are fondly remembering, and his consistent 60%+ completion rate has actually help Nebraska revive its power running game. He was off to a good start this year with 9 TDs, 1 Int. and 65% completion rate. If you want to slough off Southern Miss, you don't get to be as wildly impressed by what Armstrong did against South Dakota State. Taylor might be one of the better passing quarterbacks in the Big 10 and he's finally locked in with the best receivers he's ever had. So let's just stop the Taylor can't pass meme. He can. He does. It helps the team. The fumbles are another story.

But it pretty much ends there. There's no Taylor Martinez scenario in the NFL. Arena League at best.

So give Taylor his props, let him run wild if healthy, put in Armstrong if the offense is clearly struggling.

But the quarterback position has not been the problem in Nebraska's fall from relevance.
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I don't have stats on this, but how many of Taylor's passing yards are due to yards after catch? I mean without the abiliity to heave accurate long balls down field the stats are a little misleading and he is basically a Christian Ponder. We all know how that is working out for the Vikings. (Vikings fan here BTW)

 
knapplc said:
I really hate to bring this up because I think it's WAY premature, and could turn this thread into something I hate, but here goes (fingers crossed for good discussion)...


In the context of Tommy's impressive live debut, and presuming that Taylor doesn't get healthy in the next few weeks, it's likely that Armstrong will get several starts this year. All due respect to Ron Kellogg III, who looked equally impressive out there against SDSU, but he is not the future. Were he a Junior I'd write this completely different, but since he isn't and we have next year to worry about, the focus has to be on Armstrong now.

So in the context of a competent -and hopefully winning- Armstrong, when Taylor does get healthy, what do you do with him?

Several things to consider at this point:

With the defensive struggles we have, accomplishing anything of importance this year is unlikely at best

Next year's schedule looks quite similar to this year's, and with a year under their belt the defense should be better. Therefore winning a conference championship would be a more realistic goal.

Experience this year can only help make 2014 Tommy Armstrong better. See above for why this is important.

Taylor has a life after 2013 ends. If that life is to include the NFL, he will not be playing Quarterback. Taylor is no Eric Crouch, and Crouch couldn't make it in the NFL as a QB. Taylor's best shot at playing professionally is at another position.

Taylor is too good of an athlete to leave off the field.

If Armstrong is proving to be equal to the task, I say he goes from here on out at QB, and we take our lumps starting a Redshirt Freshman. Again. It likely means four losses again, but who cares? The experience is more valuable than wins right now.

Martinez should be a return specialist. On kick or punt returns he could be a game-changer. Putting him out there would also get Kenny Bell off the field at that position. It's a position he could pick up in a week's practice, he wouldn't have to learn an entirely new position like receiver (and he likely wouldn't see the field at wideout anyway), and there's no way we could put enough muscle on him to make him into a corner or safety by year's end.
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A return specialist?!?! Have you happened to notice the kid's ball handling skills? He would be the LAST person I would want back there returning punts/kicks.

 
Mr. Accountability said:
It's easier to put a round peg in a square hole than it is a square peg in a round hole. In fact, if dimensions are the same, the round peg actually fits in the square hole just fine. Square peg in the round hole? Not so much.

Just sayin.
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round-peg-square-hole.jpg


 
Guy Chamberlin said:
Nebraska a good defense away from being relevant. None of these quarterbacks can do a thing about that.
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Offense caused us plenty of issues by not completing drives to put Wyoming away.......not to mention the inability to get a 3rd down conversion in the 2nd half of UCLA. Great showing by our offense against SDSU. Hope it's here to stay.
 
Although I am very excited about TA and his future as a Husker, let us PLEASE remember the competition. Why?

Here is an article about Zac Lee's success after his 340 yard 4 TD 0 Int game over Arkansas St.

http://espn.go.com/blog/big12/post/_/id/3611/lees-fast-start-not-unexpected

Here's another article about Sam Keller.

http://cjonline.com/stories/072407/haw_186507520.shtml

Let's remember that Keller had an amazing 438 yd 3 TD game against Brady Hoke's Ball State team...

Nothing against TA, but one game does not tell a full story. Otherwise, We're talking about legends Zac Lee and Heisman winner Keller. Just keep things in perspective guys...

 
Quick question. Take away the defense and have the receivers run the same routes. Does Martinez make the throws that TA and RKIII did? IMO, no. Which QB is able to lead the receiver better to allow YAC? We have seen Martinez play FCS talent to include SDSU twice. Which guy did better? When we dropped UT in 2010, they said that Martinez didn't "read" the zone read, he went as though it were a designed run. Would/does TA do it better? Lastly, put 8 in the box, which QB hows more ability to burn the D? IMO, TA is the better QB. He was actually recruited by schools as a QB as opposed to "athlete".

Martinez has done a fabulous job here. He will leave with pretty much every record at NU. But, IMO, TA has the skills to get the wins. We have 3 "easier games", a bye and then the murderers row. That gives TA 5 weeks to improve. If he doesn't go back to a healthy Martinez. Again, after SDSU scored, TA told the D, not to worry, they'd get it back (NU would score again).

 
cg_8 said:
Although I am very excited about TA and his future as a Husker, let us PLEASE remember the competition. Why?

Here is an article about Zac Lee's success after his 340 yard 4 TD 0 Int game over Arkansas St.

http://espn.go.com/blog/big12/post/_/id/3611/lees-fast-start-not-unexpected

Here's another article about Sam Keller.

http://cjonline.com/stories/072407/haw_186507520.shtml

Let's remember that Keller had an amazing 438 yd 3 TD game against Brady Hoke's Ball State team...

Nothing against TA, but one game does not tell a full story. Otherwise, We're talking about legends Zac Lee and Heisman winner Keller. Just keep things in perspective guys...
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Well said.

 
Lee hurt his throwing arm and wasn't the same at least for the remainder of the season. He was as good a quarterback prospect as we had ever seen since the Callahan era began. Keller did a pretty good job, really (we had some other issues that year), but appeared not to have the command or respect of the team for whatever reasons...at the time, we had an arm to stretch the field for the first time in the Callahan era, too.

It's one game and I don't think anyone is expecting the stats to duplicate. The offense did literally whatever it wanted. TA passes the sniff test though and really looks the part...as you say, who knows what might happen. A good prospect does not translate into a good career, but it's a darn good place to start.

 
I think a lot of coaches remain unsure how to play the dual threat QB angle.

Last year the San Francisco 49ers went to the Super Bowl because Colin Kaepernick ran wild. Even when defenses adjusted for him, he was beating them with both his arm and legs. Jim Harbaugh and his OC ran a few read options every game, and Kaepernick always had the green light to scramble.

This year: few, if any, read options. Given the choice between a sure six yard gain running or throwing to a well-guarded receiver Kaepernick goes with the incomplete pass. When he does hit the open field, he goes into a hook slide much earlier than he did last year, when he often didn't hook slide at all.

Keeping in mind that our backup QB is Colt McCoy.

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
I think a lot of coaches remain unsure how to play the dual threat QB angle.

Last year the San Francisco 49ers went to the Super Bowl because Colin Kaepernick ran wild. Even when defenses adjusted for him, he was beating them with both his arm and legs. Jim Harbaugh and his OC ran a few read options every game, and Kaepernick always had the green light to scramble.

This year: few, if any, read options. Given the choice between a sure six yard gain running or throwing to a well-guarded receiver Kaepernick goes with the incomplete pass. When he does hit the open field, he goes into a hook slide much earlier than he did last year, when he often didn't hook slide at all.

Keeping in mind that our backup QB is Colt McCoy.
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But last year they had a proven Alex Smith behind him. This year, nothing. The fear of injury to Kaepernick is a much larger presence. And as we've seen, it's hampered their attack somewhat.

Now this is why I am excited to see if Taylor gets back 100% how much more he'll be running. All fear of him being injured after seeing Armstrong's ability and leadership live should be out the window. We HAVE to have all cylinders on offense operating at full speed to have a chance now.

 
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I having a feeling TM won't be starting next week.

We'll get a good, solid dose of TA and really see what he is made of against D1 competition.

 
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