Taylor Martinez Sports Science

[ZRod]

I was also doing it for fun; it's his freaking job. If he can't figure out how to set his feet when he throws, is it because he just doesn't have it in him no matter how hard he works, or because he doesn't care? Because it's got to be one of the two.

Right, it's not because he's a student athlete who has classes and life outside of football... He puts in the hours and effort at practice, the weight room and film studies I'm sure, otherwise I guarantee you Bo would not have him on the field come Saturdays. Not to mention he's got to keep his grades up to even qualify to play. Your asking a 20 year old kid to sacrifice even more of his life than he already has when the vast majority of guys his age are out getting drunk and chasing tale. I think I'll give him a little leeway in his throwing motion and if he decides to work on it... hey, that's ok with me too.

 

[Blackshirt39]

I was also doing it for fun; it's his freaking job. If he can't figure out how to set his feet when he throws, is it because he just doesn't have it in him no matter how hard he works, or because he doesn't care? Because it's got to be one of the two.

Right, it's not because he's a student athlete who has classes and life outside of football... He puts in the hours and effort at practice, the weight room and film studies I'm sure, otherwise I guarantee you Bo would not have him on the field come Saturdays. Not to mention he's got to keep his grades up to even qualify to play. Your asking a 20 year old kid to sacrifice even more of his life than he already has when the vast majority of guys his age are out getting drunk and chasing tale. I think I'll give him a little leeway in his throwing motion and if he decides to work on it... hey, that's ok with me too.

THANK YOU! I really can't believe there are two pretty active threads dedicated to blasting this guy. Name one running QB that had good throwing mechanics. Randall Cunningham? Steve Young? You guys are asking way too much out of this kid. This isn't the NFL, its college ball. It's a totally different game, including the personal life.

 

[zoogs]

It isn't blasting him at all to say that if he isn't the best at his job, someone will take it from him. Taylor's been on the other side of that before.

 

[jayhawk]

The guy is fast and he is incredible and he was a freshman. I am not sure about the Steve Young comparison, but he is an explosive kid and if KU could take him I would run out and do a happy dance on my porch... Right now.

 

[Blackshirt39]

The guy is fast and he is incredible and he was a freshman. I am not sure about the Steve Young comparison, but he is an explosive kid and if KU could take him I would run out and do a happy dance on my porch... Right now.

I wasn't comparing him to Young, just wondering what the fans expect out of him. I wasn't very clear there, my bad. But you make an incredibly valid point, ANY school would love to have Taylor's speed on offense.

 

[ZRod]

The guy is fast and he is incredible and he was a freshman. I am not sure about the Steve Young comparison, but he is an explosive kid and if KU could take him I would run out and do a happy dance on my porch... Right now.

You're not the first Jayhawk I've heard say that. My Uncle's family in Lawrence was pretty impressed with him too and pretty taken back by his performance against k-state. They couldn't believe how we were so in love with him at the beginning of the year and suddenly everyone wanted him gone by the end.

 

[jayhawk]

The guy is fast and he is incredible and he was a freshman. I am not sure about the Steve Young comparison, but he is an explosive kid and if KU could take him I would run out and do a happy dance on my porch... Right now.

I wasn't comparing him to Young, just wondering what the fans expect out of him. I wasn't very clear there, my bad. But you make an incredibly valid point, ANY school would love to have Taylor's speed on offense.

Not you, sorry, the end of the video clip mentioned that comparison.

 

[jayhawk]

The guy is fast and he is incredible and he was a freshman. I am not sure about the Steve Young comparison, but he is an explosive kid and if KU could take him I would run out and do a happy dance on my porch... Right now.

You're not the first Jayhawk I've heard say that. My Uncle's family in Lawrence was pretty impressed with him too and pretty taken back by his performance against k-state. They couldn't believe how we were so in love with him at the beginning of the year and suddenly everyone wanted him gone by the end.

I wish that he was one of our biggest problems

 

[Hujan]

I think it's tough to hang too much on even one awful scrimmage performance. It was only one after all, and it's the whole body of work that you look at. Additionally, Sam McKewon has that theory of Taylor being stacked up against worse than Carnes and Kellogg faced, as well as getting that blindside corner blitz called and being affected by lack of cohesion on the offensive unit. Combined with not being close to our real offense that is being installed, I don't think it is a very good indicator of much...

Especially since Carnes is not close to having picked up the whole offense. I am one of the biggest fans of Carnes' skills on this board, but I have to say I am completely against the idea of him starting next year because it does not seem to be a good situation for him, and consequently, the team. We don't start a player who is still picking up the offense like he is, unless we have to, because there will be growing pains. Everything about Carnes right now screams "player who needs more seasoning/waiting in the wings." If we assert him as a starter in front of last year's incumbent, it's setting him up to fail.

I felt sort of similar about Taylor last year, only without being a fan of Taylor's skillset.

I think one thing we did see in the spring game...Taylor's not that great at rollout passes. Yeah, he had a completion, and I only have access to some highlight and fancams, but look at Taylor throwing on the run and then look at Brion throwing on the run. It doesn't mean we can't have it at all as part of the offense; multiplicity in attack is good. But I don't expect it to be the centerpiece in Taylor's throwing arsenal.

Another thing, his injury. I believe someone mentioned that Taylor pushed himself into playing this spring in spite of the injury. Hopefully the layover until fall gives Taylor plenty of time to heal. And the bit about Taylor needing to realize that he has to improve his fundamentals...seeking out a QB coach is a very promising first step.

If forced to choose between a QB with more solid passing skills but less familiarity with the offense or a QB with crappy throwing abilities who is more familiar with the offense, I'd take the former every time.

Your point about it being one scrimmage would have some value if T-Mart and Green looked good to end last year, and came out flat in the scrimmage. The problem for many fans like me is that the spring game seemed to confirm our worst fears: Green and Martinez have not improved at all from last December.

 

[Hujan]

I was also doing it for fun; it's his freaking job. If he can't figure out how to set his feet when he throws, is it because he just doesn't have it in him no matter how hard he works, or because he doesn't care? Because it's got to be one of the two.

Right, it's not because he's a student athlete who has classes and life outside of football... He puts in the hours and effort at practice, the weight room and film studies I'm sure, otherwise I guarantee you Bo would not have him on the field come Saturdays. Not to mention he's got to keep his grades up to even qualify to play. Your asking a 20 year old kid to sacrifice even more of his life than he already has when the vast majority of guys his age are out getting drunk and chasing tale. I think I'll give him a little leeway in his throwing motion and if he decides to work on it... hey, that's ok with me too.

Well, I think it's too bad that our starting QB is apparently too busy to figure out how to improve his throwing motion, hips, feet, or any of the half dozen other problems with his throwing abilities. Perhaps he really isn't to blame and between all the other responsibilities that Husker QB has to contend with, there is simply no room to improve passing mechanics. If so, then perhaps we ought to think twice about bringing in QBs who don't arrive with solid passing fundamentals so they can just spend time in film study, the weight room, and learning the plays at practice.

 

[zoogs]

I'm kind of shocked that we are on the sides of the argument that we are

I agree with you that solid passing skills is a VERY important trait to have. I just think familiarity with the offense trumps that, considerably. Brion is probably the best passer on the team (I know some people are high on Kellogg...but he really isn't going to start, not in this offense, is he?), but it isn't saying a lot. I guess he's what you'd call a still-developing passer, who still has a lot of early growing up to do both in his skills and in his knowledge of the offense. Basically, it wouldn't be good news for us if he had to start this year, that's my take.

A healthy Taylor in an offense designed for him - I think we can lay it to a lot of Big 10 teams that way. But absolutely I do consider Brion the QB of the future.

I've heard mixed on every QB this spring, so there has been some opinion that Taylor has really been improving in the Spring. You're right, we did not see any of it and we probably should have. On the flip side, he's still being hampered by the injury. That in itself could be a growing concern to keep an eye on. But there's a long way to go until fall and Taylor has only shown so far that he's inconsistent as ever. Not too surprising, not promising, not end of the world yet either.

Perhaps he really isn't to blame and between all the other responsibilities that Husker QB has to contend with, there is simply no room to improve passing mechanics. If so, then perhaps we ought to think twice about bringing in QBs who don't arrive with solid passing fundamentals so they can just spend time in film study, the weight room, and learning the plays at practice.

I agree with this so much. This is my whole point on 'project QBs'. Every kid is probably a project in many senses, as the jump from HS to CFB is huge. But when you take marginal passers, you have to realize that you are projecting them to develop into more than marginal passers...and that can be a tough hurdle to overcome.

Not that there isn't hope for Taylor to post up good numbers through the air if we are able to exploit teams the way we did last year before he got injured. But if we recruit exclusively players with the passing backgrounds of Taylor or Cody out of high school, we are going to see this as a chronic issue with our QB depth chart. Look around and wonder, where are the passers?

 

[Roark]

God, reading the comments on that video make me wish I still had a YouTube account.

 

[ZRod]

I was also doing it for fun; it's his freaking job. If he can't figure out how to set his feet when he throws, is it because he just doesn't have it in him no matter how hard he works, or because he doesn't care? Because it's got to be one of the two.

Right, it's not because he's a student athlete who has classes and life outside of football... He puts in the hours and effort at practice, the weight room and film studies I'm sure, otherwise I guarantee you Bo would not have him on the field come Saturdays. Not to mention he's got to keep his grades up to even qualify to play. Your asking a 20 year old kid to sacrifice even more of his life than he already has when the vast majority of guys his age are out getting drunk and chasing tale. I think I'll give him a little leeway in his throwing motion and if he decides to work on it... hey, that's ok with me too.

Well, I think it's too bad that our starting QB is apparently too busy to figure out how to improve his throwing motion, hips, feet, or any of the half dozen other problems with his throwing abilities. Perhaps he really isn't to blame and between all the other responsibilities that Husker QB has to contend with, there is simply no room to improve passing mechanics. If so, then perhaps we ought to think twice about bringing in QBs who don't arrive with solid passing fundamentals so they can just spend time in film study, the weight room, and learning the plays at practice.

Did I say there wasn't room to improve? No. But a majority of coaches would rather not touch a quarterbacks throwing motion unless something is catastrophically wrong with it. Going back to free throws for a second, you develop a rhythm and sometimes when you mess with the rhythm you screw a lot more things up than you had wrong before. Look at Tebow (as much as I don't want to use that name) Meyer never touched his motion and he got through college just fine if I remember correctly, even got a few awards and won a couple big games. It was only when people started evaluating him for the pro's that he bothered to look into it. And it took him more than a summer to get things changed, in fact he's probably still working on getting that motion down. Now does Taylor need work yes, but is that the biggest offensive problem from last year I doubt it. Look at dropped balls line play and the like as well. But like Zoogie says the fact that Taylor knows the plays and has a year under his belt really does mean a lot more than a year of running the scout team.

 

[Hujan]

I was also doing it for fun; it's his freaking job. If he can't figure out how to set his feet when he throws, is it because he just doesn't have it in him no matter how hard he works, or because he doesn't care? Because it's got to be one of the two.

Right, it's not because he's a student athlete who has classes and life outside of football... He puts in the hours and effort at practice, the weight room and film studies I'm sure, otherwise I guarantee you Bo would not have him on the field come Saturdays. Not to mention he's got to keep his grades up to even qualify to play. Your asking a 20 year old kid to sacrifice even more of his life than he already has when the vast majority of guys his age are out getting drunk and chasing tale. I think I'll give him a little leeway in his throwing motion and if he decides to work on it... hey, that's ok with me too.

Well, I think it's too bad that our starting QB is apparently too busy to figure out how to improve his throwing motion, hips, feet, or any of the half dozen other problems with his throwing abilities. Perhaps he really isn't to blame and between all the other responsibilities that Husker QB has to contend with, there is simply no room to improve passing mechanics. If so, then perhaps we ought to think twice about bringing in QBs who don't arrive with solid passing fundamentals so they can just spend time in film study, the weight room, and learning the plays at practice.

Did I say there wasn't room to improve? No. But a majority of coaches would rather not touch a quarterbacks throwing motion unless something is catastrophically wrong with it. Going back to free throws for a second, you develop a rhythm and sometimes when you mess with the rhythm you screw a lot more things up than you had wrong before. Look at Tebow (as much as I don't want to use that name) Meyer never touched his motion and he got through college just fine if I remember correctly, even got a few awards and won a couple big games. It was only when people started evaluating him for the pro's that he bothered to look into it. And it took him more than a summer to get things changed, in fact he's probably still working on getting that motion down. Now does Taylor need work yes, but is that the biggest offensive problem from last year I doubt it. Look at dropped balls line play and the like as well. But like Zoogie says the fact that Taylor knows the plays and has a year under his belt really does mean a lot more than a year of running the scout team.

Tebow is a bad example. I'll spot you Vince Young, too, since his throwing motion was unorthodox. But those two guys--Tebow and VY--had impressive physical frames in addition to their running abilities. Tebow as 6'3" 245; VY was 6'5" 235. Martinez is what, 6'1 and 200?

Point being, when you get a QB who is a physical specimen and can move the chains with his feet, maybe you leave good enough alone and not mess with his throwing motion. Not to mention that despite their sub par mechanics, VY and Tebow could make all the throws they needed to. Haven't seen Martinez be able to do it. Perhaps it's because, unlike VY and Tebow, he doesn't have the arm strength to make the throws despite less-than-ideal mechanics.

 

[knapplc]

Tebow is a bad example. I'll spot you Vince Young, too, since his throwing motion was unorthodox. But those two guys--Tebow and VY--had impressive physical frames in addition to their running abilities. Tebow as 6'3" 245; VY was 6'5" 235. Martinez is what, 6'1 and 200?
Point being, when you get a QB who is a physical specimen and can move the chains with his feet, maybe you leave good enough alone and not mess with his throwing motion. Not to mention that despite their sub par mechanics, VY and Tebow could make all the throws they needed to. Haven't seen Martinez be able to do it. Perhaps it's because, unlike VY and Tebow, he doesn't have the arm strength to make the throws despite less-than-ideal mechanics.

Did you know there were similar criticisms of Vince Young on Texa$ message boards as we're seeing about Martinez after Young's Freshman year? VY had/has awful mechanics, was ripped for throwing side-arm, and was panned as a running QB with below average throwing skills. Texas was excited about his potential, but leery of his passing.

Kinda like Nebraska is with T-Mart.

Young's Redshirt Freshman stats:

Passing

84/143, 6 TD, 7 INT

Rushing

135 ATT/998 Yards, 7.4 AVG, 11 TD

To compare, Taylor Martinez' Redshirt Freshman stats:

Passing

116/193, 10 TD, 7 INT

Rushing

162 ATT/965 Yards, 6.0 AVG, 12 TD

Those are very comparable stats. Will T-Mart lead Nebraska to the heights Young did for Texas? Hard to say. T-Mart may not even start this year, if Carnes has anything to say about it. But if you're comparing the guys, it's hard to find too much fault with Martinez' Redshirt Freshman year, especially compared to Young's.