WyoHusker56
New member
I don't disagree and he was obviously a talented freshmen to even be in that position, but without the new redshirt rule and injuries he probably wouldn't have seen the field as a true freshmen.
2020 Quarterback Competition
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I don't disagree and he was obviously a talented freshmen to even be in that position, but without the new redshirt rule and injuries he probably wouldn't have seen the field as a true freshmen.
RedDenver
Active member
CAHusker
New member
Martinez doesn't need to be MCcaffery, but he does need to resemble his running form from his Freshman year, or it will be MCcaffery.
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deedsker
New member
I guess I thought you would have been smart enough to know that when you made the point about practice. You were the one bringing it up and using it as why Luke would be the starter whereby surpassing a practicing Martinez. Do you see why I would be skeptical of this being the case? Do you see the overwhelming transformation and/or collapse of Martinez would have to occur for this to be the case...or you know, coaches stringing along a young kid with promise to not lose him because everyone gets another year?
I don't think it is a hard case to follow.
Husker in WI
New member
Being healthy would help. And rewatching the games, I do think the narrative that he was hesitant running the ball was overblown and mostly came from a couple early games. He ran for 118 against Illinois, 89 against Wisconsin, and 94 against Maryland.
The rushing numbers from Freshman to Sophomore year are almost the same, which is where I think the disappointment came from, since everyone expected a massive jump forward. I'm in the camp that he was better last year than many are saying, but there definitely wasn't that leap. However, running the ball I don't think there was a big difference - we just expected one and classified the same production as regression.
BigRedBuster
Well-known member
The "hesitance to run" comment I don't think can be looked at in the stat column.
There were clearly times when he would scramble out of the pocket, be looking for a receiver that isn't open and have good yardage in front of him to just run....but he wouldn't. That happened all year. I don't specifically remember the plays he gained yards on in the games you listed. But, there were clearly more yards to be had all year.
There's also a fine line between taking what you can get and buying time for your receivers to work open. If you take off too soon you might get 8-10 yards on the scramble but miss a chance for 20-30 yards if you give your receivers more time. So it's kind of hard to know where the line should be.
Given the struggles of the offense, I think it's fair to say he should have been running more than he did in the situations you describe. But the reason doesn't have to be that he's hesitant to run.
CAHusker
New member
I think statistically you make a good argument, but we can all agree that he was tentative and was overly cautious on some of his runs last year. Additionally, he looked much slower towards the end of the year. This may have been attributed to injury and s#!tty line play, but it was clearly visible he was off. My statement was more the the point that if he shows those same traits this year, I think McCaffery is going to overtake him in the starting roll. Personally, I am hoping for a sharp and focused Martinez to play two more years, and McCaffery plays major roll somewhere, then takes over the starting position when Martinez leaves.
On a side note, I am still pissed Frost didn't leave McCaffery in at the end of the Iowa game, we should of one that freekn game!
GSG
Active member
In addition, I think Adrian being a banged up most of the season had him leaning more towards waiting for guys to get open rather than taking off running.
BigRedBuster
Well-known member
I would agree with this. Him being banged up was something we learned about after the season. It's very possible the coaches talked to him about running less because of it.
Husker in WI
New member
Yeah, it can't really come down to just the stats. I will say rewatching the games I saw a lot less of the hesitation than I thought I remembered, but I'm not going to claim it wasn't there.
The Iowa rewatch may have been the worst. Pulling McCaffrey is one of the questionable decisions, but even with that and the poor play throughout the game, we forced a fumble in a tie game and had the ball 1st and 10 on our own 44 with ~2 minutes left. How we melt down and not only don't score, but give the ball back and let them score was baffling. We had a terrible offensive outing, somehow managed to give up multiple long TDs to Iowa, kick return TD etc, and still had them right where we needed them. That was possibly the worst ending to a game I can remember.
Ironically one of the crucial plays was brining McCaffrey back in - they didn't bite on the 'trick play or not trick play roll out.' He did a good job to get anything positive but then had a totally unnecessary and only questionably illegal blindside block at the end. Also took forever for us to get the play in (inexcusable since it was one of a handful he was running), allowing Iowa to delay by pretending they might make a substitution -they didn't. So, so bad.
runningblind
Active member
Martinez will start, I would bet money on that. However, the difference between this year and last is that he's being pushed. If he struggles, he will come out at least for a series or two. That motivation is what should improve the QB play the most in my eyes. They both know they have to get it done or sit. That's what Frost is working towards at every spot and that's how you get a better football team.
J-MAGIC
New member
I'm not saying this to slight Luke or say that he can't have drastically improved to the point he could win the job outright. If he really has improved to that point as a passer, then we should be ecstatic because we are going to have an excellent quarterback.
But last year they basically had Luke running a glorified version of the Wildcat. He had a sweep play, a read-option play, a handful of screen passes, a shovel pass, a three-step play and then a heavy play action deep-shot play off the sweep action (that he threw both his touchdowns on). Frost called it a "package" and it really was just that: a handful of plays outside of the normal structure of the offense to be run with Luke specifically in the game. He was not trusted in games to run the full playbook and was not asked to make complex reads of coverage as Martinez and Vedral were. Luke looked incredibly explosive in this limited package and it was nearly enough to beat Indiana, which is great, but this is kind of a classic example of a small sample size: a guy with nine pass attempts in favorable conditions being compared to a guy who has had over 600 attempts to show us his flaws. If Luke had been/is the full-time starter, he would have been asked to make those complex coverage reads and would have had to make some throws to receivers without three yards of separation, and he would have shown some warts, and possibly (probably, even) a lot more than Martinez. It's very easy to get mad at Martinez for the dumb interception against Purdue or the dumb out-of-bounds decision on the final drive against Iowa because we've seen it and can hold it against him; it's likewise very easy to believe Luke wouldn't do the same thing because we truly haven't seen how he would respond in that same environment so everything is theoretical.