2020 Quarterback Competition
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ColoradoHusk
Heisman Trophy Winner
The practice clips you have seen in practice represent about 5% of the practice time. There are plenty of closed scrimmages where the QB’s aren’t wearing the green jerseys and are taking contact.
84HuskerLaw
All-Conference
I’d say the truth of this matter is somewhere in the middle. Adrian is a very good athlete and a good QB though he certainly is not America’s best QB even for Frosts specific offense. IMO. I believe he can and likely will play better with a better line and receivers around him. We need a much more consistent running game as well. Teams won’t blitz nearly so hard if they fear run plays more. All of this should happen but opponents are figuring out how to stop the core plays Frost has been using.
As for the other QB options, the evidence is rather limited but Luke M is a better pure athlete (quicker, faster, maybe more football smart with his football family background), more elusive and seems to be more confident and less hesitant to try to make things happen in plays that aren’t quite going as planned. This suggests he may have more “it factor” but we just haven’t seen enough to really know. Smothers will be green and likely to make more mistakes and be limited in his overall understanding and ability to manage the offense under pressure.
Unfortunately we didn’t play Luke more so we end up having to defer judgement to the coaches despite the eye test which most feel leads to give Luke a real chance to play a couple games at least. If we’d have won several more games I suspect more fans would be less anxious to bench Adrian.
Lets all hope that every player improves enough we can win
8 this fall. Maybe we play several QBs and the picture gets clearer.
As for the other QB options, the evidence is rather limited but Luke M is a better pure athlete (quicker, faster, maybe more football smart with his football family background), more elusive and seems to be more confident and less hesitant to try to make things happen in plays that aren’t quite going as planned. This suggests he may have more “it factor” but we just haven’t seen enough to really know. Smothers will be green and likely to make more mistakes and be limited in his overall understanding and ability to manage the offense under pressure.
Unfortunately we didn’t play Luke more so we end up having to defer judgement to the coaches despite the eye test which most feel leads to give Luke a real chance to play a couple games at least. If we’d have won several more games I suspect more fans would be less anxious to bench Adrian.
Lets all hope that every player improves enough we can win
8 this fall. Maybe we play several QBs and the picture gets clearer.
Hilltop
All-Conference
"Unfortunately we didn’t play Luke more so we end up having to defer judgement to the coaches despite the eye test which most feel leads to give Luke a real chance to play a couple games at least."
Your sense of reality is laughable. We don't have any say in who plays or not. All fan bases have to always "defer judgement" to the coaches. Saying that most feel Luke is better is absurd. You have absolutely no idea what most feel because 90%+ of Nebraska fans don't take the time to post on message boards.
Do you really believe that Scott would play AM if he didn't think he gave us the best chance to win?
I like to drink beer, watch a lot of football, and pretend that I know more than the coaches at times. A lot of us do that but most of us sober up and realize that it's pretty likely that the guy getting paid millions to do the job probably knows more.
Your sense of reality is laughable. We don't have any say in who plays or not. All fan bases have to always "defer judgement" to the coaches. Saying that most feel Luke is better is absurd. You have absolutely no idea what most feel because 90%+ of Nebraska fans don't take the time to post on message boards.
Do you really believe that Scott would play AM if he didn't think he gave us the best chance to win?
I like to drink beer, watch a lot of football, and pretend that I know more than the coaches at times. A lot of us do that but most of us sober up and realize that it's pretty likely that the guy getting paid millions to do the job probably knows more.
EZ-E
All-American
Quality take here. We all have to remember that 100% of message boards are completely detached from all reality as is all social media. None of this is real life and the tone of all of it doesn't reflect the feelings of most or any truth.
Nebfanatic
All-American
Huskers93-97
All-American
Coaches can make the wrong call. Saban played hurts all year then tua came in the natty game and led them to the win. I think even frost commented how did it take all year to figure out he was better than hurts or something to that effect.
So so even Saban makes mistakes and maybe luke is tua and frost can’t see it quite yet.
So so even Saban makes mistakes and maybe luke is tua and frost can’t see it quite yet.
Hilltop
All-Conference
If Luke was Tua he would have had more than one Power 5 school offering him a scholarship to play QB. I like the kid and hope he turns into a Heisman winner but I'm not going to spend my time publicly posting that I know he is better than whoever based on a handful of scripted plays during a rough season.
Huskers93-97
All-American
Your missing the point. It’s not if Luke was rated the same as tua out of high school. The point is sometimes coaches stick with what’s comfortable. Saban stuck with hurts because he trusted him due to games played vs tua potential. I could see frost sticking with Martinez early next year for the same reasons
Hilltop
All-Conference
Or he will stick with him because he thinks he is the QB that gives us the best chance to win. Do you really think anything about last season made Frost "comfortable"?
madrat
Four-Star Recruit
That same Luke McCaffrey offered by Ohio State, Michigan, Washington, Virginia, Mississippi, Colorado, Duke, Colorado State, and Western Kentucky.
That same Luke McCaffrey that is son of Ed McCaffrey, head coach of his high school team, Stanford All-American, and 13 years in the NFL. And who did Luke not start over? His brother, Dylan, who has multiple Colorado Class 5A state championship wins under his belt and now is on the Michigan roster as a QB. Then Luke took over and won the Class 5A state championship, too. Ed didn't too bad, because his oldest son, Max, had a pretty good professional career as a wide receiver. His next oldest was a Heisman candidate as a RB at Stanford and then went to Carolina for the pros. And now both Dylan and Luke are in major college programs.
Adrian doesn't get his name called out loud by fans every time he enters the game. That "LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUKE" that erupts from the fan base is because he is exciting. I can't wait to see if they both lead their teams when Michigan comes to Lincoln in 2021.
So I'm not sure how you judge QBs because so far you're bagging on guys that got stuck behind Martinez for no good reason.
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Nebfanatic
All-American
I'm not bagging on anyone, I'm stating facts. You said Martinez has minimal experience at the position when McCaffrey has less experience at the position. It's a stupid comment to make about Adrian when Luke is plain and simple less experienced at the position. That isn't to say anything about his playing ability.
Huskers93-97
All-American
I doubt he is comfortable with what he saw last year. But I also think he was hoping he would snap out of it and be the guy we saw freshman year. He has made comments about Martinez battling injuries. Now could those injuries be to blame for his issues? I am not sold on that. A non throwing arm injury should not explain lack of accurate throwing, failure to read a defense and find open guys, or looking slow- I would have felt better about why he looked bad this year if it was his throwing arm.
I said I think Frost picks Martinez to start the year because of the hype and excitement he saw freshman year. But if he starts out playing a 2 games like last year. At that point I think Frost will have seen as many bad games as he saw good games and will move on to Luke. Its just my gut feeling is how it will play out.
Or Martinez will come out and play like the Heisman candidate he was supposed to be this year. If that happens I am happy- I am not hitching anything to Martinez or Luke. I just want the best guy on the field.
Next year there should be no excuse to try someone else. This year I understand the situation Frost was in- he wanted to redshirt Luke and to be honest why burn a redshirt to go 5-7.
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ColoradoHusk
Heisman Trophy Winner
I think we all know about the McCaffrey family. We aren’t morons. A few things.
1) All of those schools offering Luke were offering as an athlete, and not a QB. NU was the only school who promised him an opportunity at QB, because Luke was such a project at QB.
2) Luke also was behind another QB besides Dylan. Now, that QB was very good as is now at CU, but Luke wasn’t a great QB prospect in high school.
3) Luke was the QB of the state championship team, but the Valor Christian program is a private school machine who is able to recruit players to their school, and get the best players in the entire state go there. Luke was a key component of that program, but he also had a TON of help.
madrat
Four-Star Recruit
Your facts sound like opinions, especially how you remember Cody Green. And you want to say Martinez has more experience so it excuses his performances, which is also just another opinion. I have an opinion that performance matters. I also have an opinion that great people are excellent groomers of great people. So Like growing up in a family of athletes that know the game at a professional and all-American level does likely rub off. And his ability to repeat the track record of his older brothers lends credence to that theory.