[Video] Martinez speaks to media

[PaulCrewe]

Interesting point that he wasnt allowed to call audibles last year.

He seemed to be checking out of certain plays an awful lot last year though

[Lil' Red]

The poor guy looks SO uncomfortable out there among the media. That is so not his comfort zone. He's tremendously awkward, and it comes off as arrogance, but it really isn't.

 

Still, he's not going to get better at this by staying away from the microphones. So he goes up there and plugs away. And I cringe.

 

Thankfully he's a hell of a lot better behind center than in front of the mic. And that's all that counts.

Honestly he doesn't come across as that bright

 

Since when are media skills a sign of intelligence? You can be the smartest man in the world and still look like an idiot speaking to reporters.

[VA Husker Fan]

I sometimes wonder if he's got a disorder like Asperger's Syndrome. I don't really know that much about it to know how well the symptoms match. Just wondering if that's an explanation for how he appears.

[huskerjack23]

Coming as an experienced introvert, I noticed that he kept swallowing and fidgeting. Also, if you notice that when the reporters that we're behind him left, he loosened up and answered questions a tad more comfortably than he had been.

 

Shy and awkward. Oh I'm rooting for this kid until the day he steps off campus for more reasons than being an awesome athlete.

[strigori]

Interesting point that he wasnt allowed to call audibles last year.

He seemed to be checking out of certain plays an awful lot last year though

I don't think what that was last year was 'checking out' I think it was more 'oh crap this play wont work vs this defense, RUN'

[JTrain]

Absolutely positively unquestionably the most awkward interviewee in the history of major college or pro athletics.

 

I mean, it was basically decided before this interview, but this puts the nail in the coffin.

 

99% of interviews in major sports are total PR nonsense. But at least most people are good enough bullshitters that they make it seem reasonable. With Martinez, the delivery is so slow and painful it makes it seem like he was reading it off a faulty teleprompter.

 

Does anybody buy that he's "pretty close" with all the quarterbacks? All of the Huskerwood insiders around here seem to point in the exact opposite direction.

 

Most brutal line: "I wanna come back a lot stronger... for... the team and for... the whole... Nebraska... fan... base... and... just hopefully we can win a national championship."

[bshirt]

The poor guy looks SO uncomfortable out there among the media. That is so not his comfort zone. He's tremendously awkward, and it comes off as arrogance, but it really isn't.

 

Still, he's not going to get better at this by staying away from the microphones. So he goes up there and plugs away. And I cringe.

 

Thankfully he's a hell of a lot better behind center than in front of the mic. And that's all that counts.

Honestly he doesn't come across as that bright

Most people don't look that bright in front of that many reporters, especially at 20.

 

 

Most people are bright enough to know and understand that. But others.....

[HUSKER 37]

Coming as an experienced introvert, I noticed that he kept swallowing and fidgeting. Also, if you notice that when the reporters that we're behind him left, he loosened up and answered questions a tad more comfortably than he had been.

 

Shy and awkward. Oh I'm rooting for this kid until the day he steps off campus for more reasons than being an awesome athlete.

 

Thank You!

[HUSKER 37]

Somebody get him some sunglasses!

The lights even hurt MY eyes just watching.

 

Blame it on a detached retina like Jim McMahon.

[Hujan]

I think those who think he is not bright or are arrogant are way off the mark. Two quick stories:

 

When I was in high school, there was this beautiful girl who lived next door to my best friend. We'd always be hanging out in his driveway tossing the ball around and she'd come by on her way home from school or work and we'd say hello and she never responded. Eventually we got very obnoxious trying to get her attention and she always ignored us. Because she was so beautiful, naturally we assumed she was a stuck-up you-know-what. One day at school I went up and started talking to her. What I discovered is that she was not a stuck-up, ice queen. Quite the opposite, she was one of the most shy girls I'd ever met. Turned out she was a really nice person and ended up becoming my prom date when---get this---she asked ME! (As with my dinner with TO, I have the pics to prove it.)

 

Second story: When my dad came to the United States for school, he did not speak English. He was an engineering student and had a difficult time communicating orally in English. As a result, all the other students in the class thought he was stupid. Fortunately for my dad, he could do all the equations since numbers are numbers. Anyway, he eventually finished in the top of his class without having a total mastery of the English language.

 

Point of these stories is that it is easy to mistake shyness for arrogance and an inability to communicate for stupidity. I don't think Taylor is stupid or arrogant. I think he a very introverted, shy guy who's awkwardness is magnified by the fact that he is only 20 years old and yet the center of an entire state's media attention. Whoever said he falls somewhere on the Apserger's spectrum is right on, in my opinion. As someone who has first-hand experience with that, I can tell you that some of the traits are there and noticed this the first time I saw a Martinez presser. This is not to disparage him at all; if anything, I think it makes his willingness to face the media all that much more impressive.

 

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if he actually has a decently high football IQ, but just lacks the communication skills to express himself. I am guessing that, like us, a lot of guys on the team mistake Taylor's shyness for arrogance. I am also willing to be that the coaches have asked Taylor to be more visible and vocal in an effort to sell his ability to be a leader on the team and the fans. I think he could really benefit from some communications skills, both for his career and for life after football.

 

I really want to see this kid succeed.

[suh_fan93]

I don't think his interviewing style is going to change much. Canned short answers. I don't put much stock into interviews of college athletes anyways.

[zoogs]

The poor guy looks SO uncomfortable out there among the media. That is so not his comfort zone. He's tremendously awkward, and it comes off as arrogance, but it really isn't.

 

Still, he's not going to get better at this by staying away from the microphones. So he goes up there and plugs away. And I cringe.

 

Thankfully he's a hell of a lot better behind center than in front of the mic. And that's all that counts.

Honestly he doesn't come across as that bright

 

Ever clammed up talking to a pretty girl? He's got 20 mics in his mug. Do you really think this is the best situation to judge his intelligence?

 

Also, Dirk Chatelain is very dreamy

 

By the way - Taylor flat out throwing last year's coordinator under the bus, using "last year I wasn't given enough freedom to change plays" as an excuse, falls completely outside the scope of being awkward. The reporters even gave him a chance to say the freedom was a product of being a year older and a year wiser.

 

I am still none too comfortable with this rhetoric.

[BigWillie]

One thing that kinda struck me from that interview -

 

When asked if the criticism from media and fans towards the end of last year wore on him, he responded ..

 

"No, no, not at all. I don't really watch TV, or listen to stuff you guys write, or other people write. I've gotten tons of criticism, I've heard it from some players, some coaches, some people around town, that they all don't really like me. I don't really care what other people think about me."

 

Yikes.

 

I guarantee someone in the football offices had a little talk with Taylor about what to say, and what not to say when the media is around.

[corncraze]

One thing that kinda struck me from that interview -

 

When asked if the criticism from media and fans towards the end of last year wore on him, he responded ..

 

"No, no, not at all. I don't really watch TV, or listen to stuff you guys write, or other people write. I've gotten tons of criticism, I've heard it from some players, some coaches, some people around town, that they all don't really like me. I don't really care what other people think about me."

 

Yikes.

 

I guarantee someone in the football offices had a little talk with Taylor about what to say, and what not to say when the media is around.

To be fair on this, I think Martinez was trying to say that the players and coaches were telling him what the media was saying about him.

[huskerj12]

He sure is an interesting dude. I know people always throw out "Hey, he's just a 20 year old kid!" as an excuse for his awkwardness, but think about every single other college athlete who gets interviewed. They're all in the same boat, and Martinez is DEFINITELY in the top 10 most awkward I've ever seen. It's not about his youth. There are plenty of guys his age who can string together enough words to be a satisfactory interview. I don't think his age has anything to do with it at all. I just think he's a PAINFULLY shy guy and maybe a little more than that. Of course I don't hold that against him, I just hope he improves a ton from last year and if he ends up being our QB he makes us all proud.