Lots of room to grow for Martinez

[Ratt Mhule]

Article

 

LINCOLN — “The Eyes of Texas” blared from the southwest corner of Memorial Stadium. Husker players flooded off the field, jogging to the locker room.

 

Every Husker except Taylor Martinez. The freshman quarterback stood behind the Nebraska bench for photos with his family.

 

Snap. Snap. Snap.

 

At 2:30 p.m. Saturday, T-Magic was a national phenom, a Heisman candidate, the difference between a brutal 2009 offense and a prolific 2010 offense.

 

Two hours later, the honeymoon had ended. Martinez grabbed a headset midway through the third quarter and listened to Shawn Watson tell him Zac Lee was taking his place.

 

“He’s no different than I would be, or you,” Watson said after the game. “He’s stung by it. But he’s going to have to understand it and come back to work. ... He’s still our starting quarterback.”

 

But what kind of starting quarterback will he be? A jaw-dropping athlete, no doubt.

 

But what kind of leader? When the going gets tough and defenses shut down the zone read, what will Taylor do?

 

He’s a freshman with time to learn. But he’s also the starting quarterback — the most important player on a team trying to do big things — the man to whom everyone looks when the deficit is 10 points and panic begins.

 

After Martinez got yanked Saturday, he spent most of the second half alone on the sideline, arms crossed.

 

When the offense huddled for a timeout, he didn’t. When teammates reacted to a bad call, he didn’t. When they pumped fists, he didn’t.

 

Nebraska kicked a field goal, cutting the lead to 20-6. Lee walked to the sideline and picked up a headset. Cody Green grabbed another headset. Martinez stood behind them, listening to nothing but crowd noise.

 

In the fourth quarter, his expression didn’t change when Lee converted a fourth down and it didn’t change when a penalty nullified it and it didn’t change when Brandon Kinnie dropped a fourth-down pass.

 

Ricky Henry walked to the sideline and threw his helmet to the ground. Injured Jesse Coffey smacked his crutches against a metal bench. Lee came off the field and soon started encouraging teammates for one final rally.

 

Martinez blended in to the background.

 

As time elapsed, he shared a few laughs with the backup quarterbacks.

 

Only once did he pick up a teammate — patting Kinnie on the head.

 

Only once did he lift his arms — for about a second, during Eric Hagg’s incredible punt return.

 

Maybe this is all just the personality of an introvert. We’re all still getting to know Martinez.

 

With 1:20 left he did respond to the person he knows best. During a break in the action, with defeat all but sewn up, Martinez locked eyes with his dad in the stands.

 

Casey Martinez came down the stairs and they talked as the clock ran out.

 

Martinez left his dad when the game ended, then returned for pictures as teammates bolted for the locker room.

 

Watson said he pulled Martinez because he sensed his frustration. Receivers dropped balls. Linemen missed blocks. Martinez tried and failed to make big plays. He got out of sync, Watson said.

 

“There were a lot of things happening to him that he couldn’t help,” Watson said. “He got in a situation where it started snowballing a little bit. We went with Zac because he had the experience and the maturity to kind of handle it.”

 

Bo Pelini also defended Martinez.

 

“We weren’t pointing the finger at Taylor when we made the change,” Pelini said. “We just felt we needed a spark.”

 

After completing his radio commitment, Pelini spent at least five minutes talking to Martinez, his dad and his stepmom in a hallway outside the locker room.

 

The conversation ended with Bo giving Taylor an encouraging pat on the shoulder and walking away.

 

Then Martinez, his dad and his stepmom entered the massive weight room where, at the east end, media conduct player interviews. It’s a task that goes with the territory of being a team leader.

 

Casey Martinez opened his phone and took a photo of Taylor’s picture on a wall — he’s the all-time record holder for quarterbacks in the pro agility run and vertical jump.

 

For 15 minutes, the three Martinezes loitered in a room where players never hang out after games. It was a strange scene — Taylor not 25 yards from reporters who wanted to ask him about his first loss.

 

A Nebraska spokesman said Martinez had declined interview requests. I approached him and asked again.

 

“No, I’m good,” Taylor said.

 

Meanwhile, seniors Niles Paul and Roy Helu stood before reporters and did the heavy lifting. They answered questions about what went wrong — and where NU goes next.

 

Nebraska still has an outstanding defense in a league where defense is optional. And the critical game on the schedule — Missouri — is at home.

 

But can the offense be trusted? And does it have a leader?

 

On the field, Martinez’s quiet mind and lack of self-awareness is a gift. He doesn’t get nervous. He keeps to himself. He just plays.

 

But there’s a reason quarterbacks don’t isolate themselves. It’s hard to lead that way. And quarterbacks must lead, even through adversity, even as freshmen.

 

Have you ever sat in a dark theater and watched a man pull a rabbit out of a hat or escape from shackles without a key?

 

It’s jaw-dropping. It’s magic.

 

But study the trick again. Examine it from a different angle. Sooner or later, a solution emerges. Truth is revealed.

 

It’s the magician’s job to refine the act.

[Hercules]

[TripleOption]

Ouch. That sounds really bad. But how should a freshman QB hailed as the second coming of Eric Crouch react to being benched twice in three games? To feeling like he will be blamed for losing the biggest game in NE for a long, long time. One which the conference change means he can never avenge?

 

To be clear, I don't blame Taylor for this loss, especially since he was denied a shot at making good. Hopefully, he'll be able to understand the call and won't blame himself. 9 times in a row. 9 times. That's 36 quarters of misery and he only played through 2.5 of them. I'm frustrated that we haven't gotten a chance to see if he can pull it together when it's on the line in the 4th quarter. The truly great QB's often pull off miraculous turnaround when all the chips are down.

 

Ok -- The benching was a tough call that could have gone either way. But I am really nervous about our guy now. Here's hoping he can rise above it. He truly has amazing potential. And Big Red needs him.

[zoogs]

Watson said he pulled Martinez because he sensed his frustration. Receivers dropped balls. Linemen missed blocks. Martinez tried and failed to make big plays. He got out of sync, Watson said.

 

“There were a lot of things happening to him that he couldn’t help,” Watson said. “He got in a situation where it started snowballing a little bit. We went with Zac because he had the experience and the maturity to kind of handle it.”

 

That's what this was, frustration. Not 'introverted' personality as earlier suggested in the article.

 

Put another way, the chips were down and the team's leader could not handle it. As a starter, or on the bench. A starting QB should be able to handle this type of situation.

 

For weeks as we were blowing teams out, I thought you had to wonder how the offense - and Taylor specifically - would react when he got into a struggle, things weren't working, bad plays were happening all around us and we had to claw our way back in a game. Yesterday, we got the none-too-surprising answer.

 

Contrast with Zac, who saw Kinnie's dropped sure touchdown and was back at it with hyping up his teammates for a final rally. For all the 'leadership' talk of Martinez, he was a lone wolf out there, even as QB1, and not the field general you trust the keys of the offense to. Not to take away from his talent, but he's got to grow a lot here. And he isn't going to do that growing by taking lumps this year.

 

Taylor should not have declined interview requests. That may have been okay when he was an unknown in a 3-team QB battle. But he's the starting QB, and supposedly still the starting QB, of the team after a tough home loss. No matter how hard it is to face reporters, he has to man up and do so. He's the QB of the team. He's got to have everyone's backs and take responsibility upon himself, and show maturity in a situation like this. How did Lee react to the Texas Tech game last year?

 

Skills or not, the intangible side seems to be all be stacked up against him. Where's that 'wanting to win' x-factor he had? I get that he's a freshman, but as the article says, that's not an excuse. He's the starting QB. There's things he's got to do, freshman or not.

[Ratt Mhule]

Watson said he pulled Martinez because he sensed his frustration. Receivers dropped balls. Linemen missed blocks. Martinez tried and failed to make big plays. He got out of sync, Watson said.

 

“There were a lot of things happening to him that he couldn’t help,” Watson said. “He got in a situation where it started snowballing a little bit. We went with Zac because he had the experience and the maturity to kind of handle it.”

 

That's what this was, frustration. Not 'introverted' personality as earlier suggested in the article.

 

Put another way, the chips were down and the team's leader could not handle it. As a starter, or on the bench. A starting QB should be able to handle this type of situation.

 

For weeks as we were blowing teams out, I thought you had to wonder how the offense - and Taylor specifically - would react when he got into a struggle, things weren't working, bad plays were happening all around us and we had to claw our way back in a game. Yesterday, we got the none-too-surprising answer.

 

Contrast with Zac, who saw Kinnie's dropped sure touchdown and was back at it with hyping up his teammates for a final rally. For all the 'leadership' talk of Martinez, he was a lone wolf out there, even as QB1, and not the field general you trust the keys of the offense to. Not to take away from his talent, but he's got to grow a lot here. And he isn't going to do that growing by taking lumps this year.

 

Taylor should not have declined interview requests. That may have been okay when he was an unknown in a 3-team QB battle. But he's the starting QB, and supposedly still the starting QB, of the team after a tough home loss. No matter how hard it is to face reporters, he has to man up and do so. He's the QB of the team. He's got to have everyone's backs and take responsibility upon himself, and show maturity in a situation like this. How did Lee react to the Texas Tech game last year?

 

Skills or not, the intangible side seems to be all be stacked up against him. Where's that 'wanting to win' x-factor he had? I get that he's a freshman, but as the article says, that's not an excuse. He's the starting QB. There's things he's got to do, freshman or not.

 

I agree with everything you said. When reading the article I couldn't get the picture of Albert Haynesworth out of my mind just walking the sideline by himself while the rest of the defense was huddling up and talking. I know its not the same thing but still, if you want to earn the respect of your teammates you need to show it even if your not happy at the situation.

[BigWillie]

Dirk Chatelain's inbox is likely being flooded with venom.

 

And as much as people will not buy into it, he pretty much hit on a ton of points in this article.

[nepolo7]

I have noticed this as well. I do think he will grow into a leader and pull it out. I never thought Crouch was the complete leader he could of been, but found a way. He also never had to be a huge leader teh rest of teh team was that good.

 

I am sure Bo and Watson notice this as well and will work on this. Hopefully Zac Lee gets into him as well.

 

I still believe Martinez will be a hell of a player as he develops into a soph and junior.

[Hercules]

Dirk Chatelain's inbox is likely being flooded with venom.

 

And as much as people will not buy into it, he pretty much hit on a ton of points in this article.

 

Yeah. I especially liked how he implied Taylor's relationship with his family gets in the way of Taylor's more important relationship with his team.

 

I also like how he feels that Taylor's shortcoming is that he isn't enough of a cheerleader on the sideline. Because we all know that "leaders" like Tommie Frazier weren't really leaders because they didn't get excited enough on the sideline when their backup was in making plays.

 

Is Taylor Martinez a leader like Grant Wistrom or Jason Peter? No. But guess what - neither is anybody else. How about someone write an article on the lack of leadership from the SENIORS such as Rickey Thenarse or Niles Paul.

 

This article was cheap. This is the kind of article that sends coaches like Mike Gundy and Urban Meyer into a rage.

[schuhbdoo]

Dirk Chatelain's inbox is likely being flooded with venom.

 

And as much as people will not buy into it, he pretty much hit on a ton of points in this article.

 

Yeah. I especially liked how he implied Taylor's relationship with his family gets in the way of Taylor's more important relationship with his team.

 

I also like how he feels that Taylor's shortcoming is that he isn't enough of a cheerleader on the sideline. Because we all know that "leaders" like Tommie Frazier weren't really leaders because they didn't get excited enough on the sideline when their backup was in making plays.

 

Is Taylor Martinez a leader like Grant Wistrom or Jason Peter? No. But guess what - neither is anybody else. How about someone write an article on the lack of leadership from the SENIORS such as Rickey Thenarse or Niles Paul.

 

This article was cheap. This is the kind of article that sends coaches like Mike Gundy and Urban Meyer into a rage.

 

This article was and is a total cheap shot at a freshman QB that has faced he first test of adversity.

 

That loss had nothing to do with Taylor, he played well enough to win. He threw a couple balls behind WR's but all in all he put the ball in the right spot for a couple TD's. Zac Lee in his place put the ball in the right spot or another TD. We left 3 to 4 TD's on the field yesterday and not on the scoreboard.

 

I would have respect for that Dirk if he picked on the lack of senior leadership by Paul and Thenarse.

[nepolo7]

Hopefully as the last Callahan class moves on the leadership void will begin to fill.

[HuskerNMO]

This isn't anything that hasn't been said about Taylor for the past year or so.

[captain obvious]

Taylor Martinez was the least of our problems on Saturday.

[zoogs]

The leadership we need from a WR or a FS (any class) pales in comparison to the leadership demands of the starting QB (again, irrespective of class).

[mnhusker]

It was a team loss (the offensive 1/2 in particular). It would be nice for T-mart to try and stay a bit more engaged but he is quiet but nature and he will grow with others. Even thought the QB feels the pressure I have to assume that some of the players who were part of the problem also felt the sting of failing their QB.

[Hercules]

The leadership we need from a WR or a FS (any class) pales in comparison to the leadership demands of the starting QB (again, irrespective of class).

 

Don't buy this at all.