You guys expect more from Armstrong than you'd get from 95% of college football players.
Yes, this is very much true in my view. 95% of college football players CANNOTplay quarterback and maybe 10% of those who play QB play it well enough to put Nebraska back in the elites of the game. We want to recruit, train and play the best of the best of the best. That is how you win at the highest level.
We want the best dam QB in the game if possible. Certainly we need one of the ten best QBs who can pass like Tom Brady and run like Michael Vick. We've never had such a player yet but we should be ever looking. Until then, we need to recruit about 4 'good' QBs who are excellent passers that run much better than R. Fyfe. If we are stuck with a mediocre (or worse) offensive line, then we better have a QB who can REALLY throw and can atleast buy time to keep the sacks from killing us. The problem with QBs like Armstrong and Martinez before him is that our opponents simply made the wise strategic decision to minimize their pass coverage defense and attack our running game and limit the QB runs.
Most defensive coaches will state that the best way to scheme defensively is "to make the offense one-dimentional" and therefore predictable. In a majority of those cases, the goal will be to 'stop the run first' and make them pass. If the opponent decides (rightly so in the case of Armstrong and Martinez for example) that our offense is more dangerous if our offense is successfully running the ball and they more greatly fear Armstrong/Martinez and Nebraska running the ball than passing it The defense is created to stifle our runs and take their chances with some pass completions. This has been the case as we have won many more games when we have been successful running it over passing it. This is because, in part at least, in my view - rush yards are worth twice as much as pass yards in general. You will win more games running for 400 yards than passing for 400 yards 'on average'
The pass first QB proponents want a QB that can make the defense pay for overplaying the run. If so, then the run game will work. BUT without a strong offensive line, the run game will go nowhere unless we can pull them back with pass success.