Ex-Nebraska QB Adrian Martinez says Kansas State is 'most talented squad' in career

So, I wonder, if KSU wins or contends for the conference championship, will those Heisman comments be heard  again - The way to early Heisman comments we heard after his Freshman year. Yes, 2 games doesn't make one a candidate but it will be interesting to watch things develop.  His confidence level seems to be sky high right now.  KSU has found the right mix - using AM properly, Duece and some good WRs.   All it took is some good coaching and a good OL.  Something Frost never delivered on. 

 
I'm really tempted to revise history, but I'm almost certain that Adrian was always very talented and managed to become the Career Total Offense Leader at Nebraska with whatever offensive line he had, but his reputation took a hit for turnovers under pressure and questionable decision-making, and that was pretty much on him. It did seem like he regressed -- including his confidence -- from his Freshman year. Some of that has to be on Frost. 

What's weird is that the previous Nebraska QBs — Tommy Armstrong and Taylor Martinez — had the second and third highest career total offense numbers running through two different coaches and they had very similar MOs and love/hate relationships with the fans. 

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
I'm really tempted to revise history, but I'm almost certain that Adrian was always very talented and managed to become the Career Total Offense Leader at Nebraska with whatever offensive line he had, but his reputation took a hit for turnovers under pressure and questionable decision-making, and that was pretty much on him. It did seem like he regressed -- including his confidence -- from his Freshman year. Some of that has to be on Frost. 
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I've always wondered if the turnovers and questionable decision making were a byproduct of him trying to do too much.  We were constantly right on the verge of winning so he felt like he had to make a play to win the game.

Guy Chamberlin said:
What's weird is that the previous Nebraska QBs — Tommy Armstrong and Taylor Martinez — had the second and third highest career total offense numbers running through two different coaches and they had very similar MOs and love/hate relationships with the fans. 
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Because QBs tend to get too much credit when things go well and too much blame when they don't.

 
Mavric said:
Because QBs tend to get too much credit when things go well and too much blame when they don't.
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Guys like Matt Turman are hailed as heroes for having a tiny, tiny part of a National Championship season, while the Martinezes and Armstrong are treated like bums by so many fans because they didn't win enough.

 
I’m not sure the ‘love/hate’ deal was so obvious with Taylor and or Tommy  as compared to Adrian.  I tend to think fans - generally as it doesn’t include me - expected Adrian to be a better passer / QB frankly.  Not his fault as Frost held him up as ‘the one’ essentially.   No other QBs were seriously considered by Frost.  
 

Most fans understood that Tommy and Taylor were RUN / pass QBs vs Adrian was a PASS / run guy.  I don’t think the formers bore the burden of being THEE offensive cornerstone like AM.  
 

This season, so far, Adrian seems to be fully healthy and happier in purple.  Blame Frost there.  Whipple wants great play from Casey too but he wants him to be a good game manager and distribute the ball.  Casey seems to react better under pressure.  He has held the ball a bit too long and scrambles less. I wish he would tuck it and run a couple times a game. It would slow the pass rush a bunch.  But I like Casey overall better than the other three.  I put Adrian 4th but who knows. It’s early yet. 

 
Mavric said:
Because QBs tend to get too much credit when things go well and too much blame when they don't.
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Definitely some truth to that, but all three were dual threat QBs who earned national reputations for having playground ball success and making playground ball mistakes, often in the same game.

Todd Blackledge said this of one of them, but it applies to all three:  "he has the unique ability to keep both teams in the game."

Zero doubt that a better OL and defense makes Adrian better, as it does any QB. 

Given that Casey Thompson is a nationally ranked passer on a 2-3 team rather than sitting on the sidelines for a 3-2 team, I'm thinking he doesn't regret transferring to Nebraska either. 

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
Definitely some truth to that, but all three were dual threat QBs who earned national reputations for having playground ball success and making playground ball mistakes, often in the same game.

Todd Blackledge said this of one of them, but it applies to all three:  "he has the unique ability to keep both teams in the game."
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I personally don't feel that Armstrong is in the same category as the Martinez boys.  He was a good runner but not as good as Adrian and not anywhere close to Taylor.  And he was the worst passer of the three by a wide margin

Career stats:

Taylor - 59.8% completions, 7258 yards 7.5 ypa, 56 TDs, 29 INTs; 2975 yards rushing, 5.1 ypa, 31 TDs

Tommy - 53.3% completions, 8871 yards, 7.6 ypa, 67 TDs, 44 INTs; 1819 yards rushing, 4.3 ypa, 23 TDs

Adrian - 63.4% completions, 9145 yards, 7.8 ypa, 48 TDs, 30 INTs; 2770 yards rushing, 4.8 ypa, 44 TDs

Taylor and Tommy also had significantly better running backs and (arguably) better OLs.

So I think that description is much more applicable to TA than the other two.

 
Casey is doing very well and has some more upside left imo.  Too bad we don’t have a great O line cause he’d be a heisman type imo.  Not saying he’d be a serious candidate cause the defense has heretofore been poor.  But with a line, we could have a top ten offense imo. Whip has done well so far considering.  He mixes plays well.  If we could block the edge better, an outside run game (sweeps, pitches, even options) would be a perfect complement to our offense.  The RBs could turn the corner if we could just get outside the DEs etc.  

 
Mavric said:
I personally don't feel that Armstrong is in the same category as the Martinez boys.  He was a good runner but not as good as Adrian and not anywhere close to Taylor.  And he was the worst passer of the three by a wide margin

Career stats:

Taylor - 59.8% completions, 7258 yards 7.5 ypa, 56 TDs, 29 INTs; 2975 yards rushing, 5.1 ypa, 31 TDs

Tommy - 53.3% completions, 8871 yards, 7.6 ypa, 67 TDs, 44 INTs; 1819 yards rushing, 4.3 ypa, 23 TDs

Adrian - 63.4% completions, 9145 yards, 7.8 ypa, 48 TDs, 30 INTs; 2770 yards rushing, 4.8 ypa, 44 TDs

Taylor and Tommy also had significantly better running backs and (arguably) better OLs.

So I think that description is much more applicable to TA than the other two.
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Actually Blackledge said that about Taylor Martinez, who remains my personal favorite of the three.

No matter where you come down on each of them, Nebraska's top three career total offense leaders came in succession (ignoring the Tanner Lee palate cleanser) all of them dual threats playing across three different coaching administrations. I'm not concluding much more than that, but I do believe they all shared similar reputations both inside and outside Husker fandom: exciting players prone to ill-timed mistakes, with a style of play that would never translate into an NFL career. 

Our memories of Turner Gill, Tommie Frazier, Scott Frost and Eric Crouch would be entirely different had they been backed by a recent Nebraska defense. 

 
I'm glad to see 9AM finally enjoying some success after what had to be four frustrating as hell years at NU under Frost.

Beyond his numbers, 2AM was always a class act when he was here. Even with the all that went wrong and all grief he took it would have been easy to just shut it down or lash out at the fans / media instead of remaining level headed as he did.

 
I would also lump Taylor and Adrian into together buckets of being talented runners who lost their edge after leg injuries. Pre Mizzou Taylor (Longer time to put on tape) and Adrian (Colorado-which to be fair is game one) both seemed to be devastating runners who would also be able to throw. Granted Adrian seemed to have showed up with more ability to throw, Taylor definitely worked to be a pretty good passer as time went on. 

Tommy had a wizard like spin move that created some awfully good highlights and bailed out a lot of very sad tackle play in his career. Oh yeah, he had a freaking cannon too. 

 
I agree with your takes on dissecting the passing stats of the three, @Mavric.

I'm also pretty blown away in these conversations how nobody ever mentions the running backs that each of these QB's had on their team. I'm not even talking about offensive line comparisons - just running back talent.

Once Maurice Washington got himself kicked off the team there weren't any backs that could really do anything good/great to take over the game and move the chains. Can't overstate how much pressure that takes off a QB.

Imagine Anthony Grant coming to our program as a true freshman and playing all four years with Martinez...

This is also why I really laugh at any comparisons of "success" that Adrian had compared to Frost, Frazier, & Crouch. Look at the running backs some of those guys had...even the ones Taylor & Tommy had.

 
Undone said:
I agree with your takes on dissecting the passing stats of the three, @Mavric.

I'm also pretty blown away in these conversations how nobody ever mentions the running backs that each of these QB's had on their team. I'm not even talking about offensive line comparisons - just running back talent.

Once Maurice Washington got himself kicked off the team there weren't any backs that could really do anything good/great to take over the game and move the chains. Can't overstate how much pressure that takes off a QB.

Imagine Anthony Grant coming to our program as a true freshman and playing all four years with Martinez...

This is also why I really laugh at any comparisons of "success" that Adrian had compared to Frost, Frazier, & Crouch. Look at the running backs some of those guys had...even the ones Taylor & Tommy had.
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I was thinking the same thing. Grant and Martinez would have really been something. Even with the current state of the Online.

But I don't know if Adrian would have survived this season here. Casey has already taken some hella hard shots, and Adrian already had 4 years of that on his body.

 
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