Sipple: Taylor Martinez captures our imaginations

N

Nexus

All-American
We live in a need-it-now world, so let’s not dally in rolling out redshirt freshman Taylor Martinez’s nickname among his Nebraska teammates.
How does “T-Magic” grab you?

The kid’s so fast we freaked, or something like that.

Martinez grabbed us. He shook us out of our spring slumber. He bolted 10 yards on third-and-9, 13 on first-and-10, and never mind the interception. His speed’s the thing. He reaches top speed in three steps. He explodes, and our imaginations run wild — Eric Crouch-racing-free-against-Missouri wild. We are enamored with athletes’ speed, for good reason.

Speed’s fun to watch, and hard to defend.

Isn’t this fun, Zac?

Zac Lee is an intelligent quarterback. A savvy person. He no doubt saw this coming. Lee had to know Martinez would dazzle against a vanilla Spring Game defense. Lee had to know Martinez was leather-tough and can stiff-arm his way to first downs.

Lee had to know Martinez and Cody Green would make strong cases in Saturday’s Red-White Spring Game that one of them should replace Lee as Nebraska’s starting quarterback in 2010.

“This is just a small part of the evaluation,” Husker head coach Bo Pelini cautioned.

Maybe we should keep reminding ourselves of that until at least August, when Lee re-enters the race after sitting out the spring following surgery on his throwing elbow. This race is far from over.

If Martinez ends up in a reserve role at quarterback, Nebraska coaches ought to somehow find a way to get the pigskin in his grips.

However, it says here Martinez is a quarterback. A dangerous quarterback. No wonder Pelini kept telling me during the offseason how much he likes the kid’s game. No wonder Carl Pelini, the Husker defensive coordinator, recruited Martinez to play in the secondary but now is happy to watch T-Magic play tricks on defenders for the good of the team.

Or am I just another Spring Game sucker? We’ve seen it all before. Players dazzle in the Spring Game and vanish come fall. I don’t see that happening in Martinez’s case. Many of us got our first good look at him Saturday. Trust me, Nebraska coaches have known of his prowess all along.

Bo’s no spring sucker. He’s been around too long to step into that trap. Same goes for offensive line coach Barney Cotton, who smiled broadly as he discussed Martinez’s speed.

“He’ll put his foot in the ground, take off and make a defense take bad angles,” Cotton said.

Yes, Martinez intrigues us. He stretches the field laterally on option plays and hands off to physical running backs who can get vertical — through holes — in a hurry. He becomes dangerous on broken plays.

Plus, he’s coming along well as a passer, offensive coordinator Shawn Watson said. Martinez’s first touchdown pass Saturday, a 6-yard strike to fullback Tyler Legate, required accuracy and touch. Legate was in the flat. A defender was right behind. There was little margin for error.

Watson smiled as he recalled a conversation with former Colorado quarterback Mike Moschetti, who played for Watson at CU in 1999 and coached against Martinez’s high school team in California.

“Mike called me up and said, ‘Wats, I’m telling you, this guy can play quarterback. Don’t let anybody tell you he can’t. He’s your kind of guy,’ ” Watson said.

Meaning?

“Mike saw the arm talent,” Watson said. “Everybody knew Taylor could run.”

So, Watson sees ample promise in Martinez’s passing. Intriguing, indeed.

“I like guys with athletic, fast releases, and I like competitors,” Watson said. “Taylor fits the profile.”

Martinez fit the Spring Game profile, for whatever that’s worth. Something tells me it’s worth a lot in Martinez’s case.

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You are the man Nexus! :thumbs You make this a one stop shopping place. Nice to get all my Husker info in one spot.

 
Fun as it is to imagine the second coming of Crouch, QB is a lot more than a quick burst and a stiff arm. It's also more than a nice touch on passes. Today was vanilla ice cream with a few sprinkles on top. The regular season will be Ben and Jerry's. And he won't be running against half a first team defense.

Cautious optimism, then.

 
If this was Osborne or Solich's offense, then yeah Martinez would fit nicely.

Regardless though, I'm rooting for him as well as Green, Lee, Spano, Washington and Kellogg. I want all of them to succeed. May the best man win.

 
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Nexus said:
If this was Osborne or Solich's offense, then yeah Martinez would fit nicely.

Regardless though, I'm rooting for him as well as Green, Lee, Spano, Washington and Kellogg. I want all of them to succeed. May the best man win.
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im kinda not sold of TM..... like sipple said the kid shined agaist a vanilla defense......

i think we need to go with someone who isn't learning on the job anymore... whether that be lee or green... now if 100 percent the coaches are sure TM can lead the huskers confidently and multi dimensionally over our opponents then throw him in... i just think one spring game isn't enough for me to get on the band wagon just yet....

 
irieboy8 said:
Nexus said:
If this was Osborne or Solich's offense, then yeah Martinez would fit nicely.

Regardless though, I'm rooting for him as well as Green, Lee, Spano, Washington and Kellogg. I want all of them to succeed. May the best man win.
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im kinda not sold of TM..... like sipple said the kid shined agaist a vanilla defense......
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I'm kind of not sold on Cody Green. My gut tells me he was overhyped. Like Nexus said may the best man win and I hope that the best man is someone we can truly depend on. For a Freshman though Martinez's potential is definitely intriguing. I'm still waiting for Carnes.

 
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I'm kinda not sold on Lee. Sure, he looked good vs the Sunbelt teams last year. Then vs real Div1 teams he blew chunks the size of Jupiter.

Why everyone wants to have him win the job this year is a mystery to me. Because we were 12th in the BigXII in total offense? Why do we want "experience" at failure? Maybe we should bring Cally/Coz back?

For me, still desperately hoping Green or Martinez gets the nod.....

 
...because Lee's got a better shot at learning and growing from mistakes he's made, where Green and Martinez just have mistakes yet to be made? When they make them, we'll write them off as freshman/sophomore/he's developing mistakes, but bottom line is performance. A lot of CG fans last year wrote them off as just that; okay, granted. But how that is something that supports CG starting, I don't understand at all. We'll take the QB who performs worse because we can make more excuses for him?

I wasn't a CG guy, but I notice now with disappointment that the backlash is in full swing - give him a chance, guys. He still has all the promise in the world for the future.

Also, the doom and gloom about Zac Lee is overblown. He didn't perform great, and neither did the offense, but it's always possible to do worse. Our D did not win those games by themselves...the offense could have very well lost those games for us, but they didn't. Had Green been playing for example, I don't know that this would still be the case.

About Taylor, he gave me visions of Eric Crouch, not gonna lie. He's one fast motha. Here's to seeing him wreak havoc out of the wildcat.

 
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bshirt said:
I'm kinda not sold on Lee. Sure, he looked good vs the Sunbelt teams last year. Then vs real Div1 teams he blew chunks the size of Jupiter.

Why everyone wants to have him win the job this year is a mystery to me. Because we were 12th in the BigXII in total offense? Why do we want "experience" at failure? Maybe we should bring Cally/Coz back?

For me, still desperately hoping Green or Martinez gets the nod.....
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lets not forget his arm was jacked up. how much of a difference that made is debatable(I tend to think that if it required a surgery and this much recovery time it certainly wasnt a minor issue)but we know for certain it had some effect.

 
I am an old athelete and jar head. I tore my rotator cuff last December. I still lift and ride my bike and 99% of the time I am fine, but I am continously worried about quick moves in emergency times. Terrible pain that I can not protect myself from under unusal situations. I would imagien Zac has or had the same situation. Works well under normal circumstances, but when pressed or out of the norm the pain is just around the corner. Peforming to your best is hard under those situations.

Whether Zac is the QB in the fall is up to Zac. I hope he makes a full recovery and has the chance to clean out the demons that some feel he has. I hope Cody someday actually begins to live up to the hype he had coming in. I honestly have not seen what most take for granted. I did not see the game this weekend, and hardly got to listen to it. Read a little of what all had to say about Martinez and hope it is true. I do know he was the offensive player of the year in California. That tells me that he is tremendous athlete.

I think we will be better this year at QB than how it played out last year. My guess is that it will be Lee and Martinez, with Martinez seeing wildcat opportunities even with Zac being the starter. I do not see Green being a threat to start, I look at him a lot like Lucky, has the talent, just needs to bring it to the fore front on a regular basis. Needs to concentrate on football and step away from the ladies a bit.

Lee is a warrior, Martinez is warrior, with either we will be fine I think as long as the Oline can handle the situations. I do not see us going undefeated, but it certainly could happen. Still not as talented as Texas or Oklahoma, but this group has bought in to what Bo is selling, and that can certainly make up for a talent shortfall it appears.

I truly like the feeling we have about the QB situation this year. These are all kids that want to play for Nebraska, not showing up here to play one year, and not thinking about transfering away because they might not start.

All positives in my mind.

 
Yes i would love to see Bo and Shawn get together and start to bring back some high caliber option plays for T-Magic.

Here's to the return of the option and Nebraska's return to college football greatness! :koolaid2:

 
skersfan said:
I am an old athelete and jar head. I tore my rotator cuff last December. I still lift and ride my bike and 99% of the time I am fine, but I am continously worried about quick moves in emergency times. Terrible pain that I can not protect myself from under unusal situations. I would imagien Zac has or had the same situation. Works well under normal circumstances, but when pressed or out of the norm the pain is just around the corner. Peforming to your best is hard under those situations.

Whether Zac is the QB in the fall is up to Zac. I hope he makes a full recovery and has the chance to clean out the demons that some feel he has. I hope Cody someday actually begins to live up to the hype he had coming in. I honestly have not seen what most take for granted. I did not see the game this weekend, and hardly got to listen to it. Read a little of what all had to say about Martinez and hope it is true. I do know he was the offensive player of the year in California. That tells me that he is tremendous athlete.

I think we will be better this year at QB than how it played out last year. My guess is that it will be Lee and Martinez, with Martinez seeing wildcat opportunities even with Zac being the starter. I do not see Green being a threat to start, I look at him a lot like Lucky, has the talent, just needs to bring it to the fore front on a regular basis. Needs to concentrate on football and step away from the ladies a bit.

Lee is a warrior, Martinez is warrior, with either we will be fine I think as long as the Oline can handle the situations. I do not see us going undefeated, but it certainly could happen. Still not as talented as Texas or Oklahoma, but this group has bought in to what Bo is selling, and that can certainly make up for a talent shortfall it appears.

I truly like the feeling we have about the QB situation this year. These are all kids that want to play for Nebraska, not showing up here to play one year, and not thinking about transfering away because they might not start.

All positives in my mind.
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This sums it up for me too. Good post Skersfan! For me...I was down on Lee last year. I really thought Lee would be a better runner then he was. But honestly, I have more confidence in Lee then I do the younger guys. I wouldn't say he is great like some QB's out there, but he has more good things going for him. Hope your rotator cuff gets better Skersfan.

 
:cheers

HuskerGBR said:
skersfan said:
I am an old athelete and jar head. I tore my rotator cuff last December. I still lift and ride my bike and 99% of the time I am fine, but I am continously worried about quick moves in emergency times. Terrible pain that I can not protect myself from under unusal situations. I would imagien Zac has or had the same situation. Works well under normal circumstances, but when pressed or out of the norm the pain is just around the corner. Peforming to your best is hard under those situations.

Whether Zac is the QB in the fall is up to Zac. I hope he makes a full recovery and has the chance to clean out the demons that some feel he has. I hope Cody someday actually begins to live up to the hype he had coming in. I honestly have not seen what most take for granted. I did not see the game this weekend, and hardly got to listen to it. Read a little of what all had to say about Martinez and hope it is true. I do know he was the offensive player of the year in California. That tells me that he is tremendous athlete.

I think we will be better this year at QB than how it played out last year. My guess is that it will be Lee and Martinez, with Martinez seeing wildcat opportunities even with Zac being the starter. I do not see Green being a threat to start, I look at him a lot like Lucky, has the talent, just needs to bring it to the fore front on a regular basis. Needs to concentrate on football and step away from the ladies a bit.

Lee is a warrior, Martinez is warrior, with either we will be fine I think as long as the Oline can handle the situations. I do not see us going undefeated, but it certainly could happen. Still not as talented as Texas or Oklahoma, but this group has bought in to what Bo is selling, and that can certainly make up for a talent shortfall it appears.

I truly like the feeling we have about the QB situation this year. These are all kids that want to play for Nebraska, not showing up here to play one year, and not thinking about transfering away because they might not start.

All positives in my mind.
Click to expand...
This sums it up for me too. Good post Skersfan! For me...I was down on Lee last year. I really thought Lee would be a better runner then he was. But honestly, I have more confidence in Lee then I do the younger guys. I wouldn't say he is great like some QB's out there, but he has more good things going for him. Hope your rotator cuff gets better Skersfan.
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well, i gotta jump on the skers bandwagon here too...must be us old guys think alike, but as many times before, i am on the same page with ya.... :cheers

 
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