Gregory Shamus - Getty Images
Like it or not, Taylor Martinez is Nebraska's quarterback barrying injury.. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
We here at CornNation have been disappointed in some of the reaction to the Capital One Bowl loss. While yes, discipline is something that needs to be addressed, there's much more that hasn't been discussed. But hey, that doesn't make for good talk radio, so we get hours and hours of wallowing online. We're not going there. Instead, we're going to look at the team. What do we have to look forward to, and where are the holes? We'll start under center, with quarterbacks.
Taylor Martinez (starter), Jr.; Brion Carnes, So.; Ron Kellogg III, Jr.; Tyson Brokemeier, RFr.; Bronson Marsh, RFr.
Tommy Armstrong, HS Verbal
Mike: Barring an injury, Taylor Martinez will be the starting quarterback going into the 2012 season. In other breaking news, water is wet and Steve Pederson doesn't know how to hire football coaches. Really, the question is more about the backup quarterback situation. When the offense is designed to have the quarterback run the ball, injuries are going to happen...and Nebraska has little depth at quarterback. Brion Carnes looked very promising in the 2011 spring game, but less so in mop up duty in two games. He completed 2-of-2 passes for 26 yards, but lost six yards on two carries.
At the start of spring practice last year, it appeared that depth was not an issue at quarterback. That allowed Jamal Turner to switch to wide receiver, where he starred in the spring game and showed some impressive flashes at times in 2011. It's unlikely he'll switch back. Then Kody Spano suffered a career-ending shoulder injury and Cody Green transferred to Tulsa. Bubba Starling put on a Nebraska jersey for picture day, then signed with the Kansas City Royals to play baseball. It'll be important to get some depth on the bench at quarterback, as it's unreasonable to expect Martinez to go injury-free the rest of his career.
Andy: The treatment of Martinez can be expected to mirror last years' through 2012 spring & fall practice and begs the question - why isn't this position open to challenge or competition? It is often said by the coaches & players at NU that you have to win your spot every week..except at QB. I'm not buying the company line that Carnes is, oh, so raw and has so much to learn still. Baloney. This kid was a four year starter in Florida 5A at one school and looked very developed and mature running the spread in his high school film. Nothing I've seen of him in spring and brief appearances changes that opinion.
And by the staff's own admission, Martinez is still very much a work in progress who is still working on mechanics, learning the offense, etc. and is still raw in many ways himself. Why does he get to learn on the job while Carnes must be shielded from the playing field while he develops, to the point of only be allowed brief appearances in two games?
Yes, I'm not a coach and don't see him in practice every day, but still.
It seemed as if Bo & Beck almost went out of their way not give him snaps in games against punching bags, big wins or blowouts. Your starter is a running QB with a history of injury. What possible reason is there not to give your backup as many snaps and as much experience as humanly possible - especially when there are no other QB's on scholly?
I hope I'm wrong on this, but it's almost like a minor version of the Ron Prince/Josh Freeman dynamic - Freeman's tender psyche and aversion to competing for a position, traits Prince played on when recruiting him (along with, um, other "family considerations"), led Prince to not pursue recruiting other QB's of any talent or consequence in his stay at KSU and to make sure the ones he had rarely saw the field, so as not to alarm Josh that even token competition might be looming.
The situation is probably not that extreme here, but I still find it odd that Carnes' exposure was so limited following his impressive spring performance. How was that strong enough to bump him past Cody Green, helping precipitate his transfer, yet resulted in him seeing the field less than last year's 3rd stringer?
Tommy Armstrong has committed but likely won't provide any immediate threat to compete for time, but Devin Fuller might should he come on board. I know this is a day and age in which players transfer left and right the minute the minute their ballyhooed high school career doesn't translate into a college starting job ( see McGuffie, Sam and Gabbert, Tyler), but what will send many others running is the perception that they are not even being allowed to compete for the job.
Mike: The Brion Carnes I saw way-too-briefly this fall looked nothing like the Brion Carnes that impressed me in the spring. I do agree that Nebraska needed to get Carnes much more experience this season, but I don't think the coaching staff is avoiding challenging Martinez. I do think Nebraska needs to turn up the recruiting on quarterbacks because if Carnes isn't ready, somebody else needs to be.
Jon: One thing you guys haven't mentioned is offensive coordinator Tim Beck's play calling. Your OC is supposed to focus on your strengths and downplay your weaknesses. After a full season with Beck calling the plays - tell me - what plays did he have designed to show off Martinez' strengths? What plays (other than handing the ball to Rex Burkhead) did Beck have that allowed Martinez to be a playmaker? (BTW, those are not rhetorical questions - I'd like to see answers in the comments section, even if your answer is "None".)
If there's one thing that's still irking me about Nebraska's offense it's Beck's first season of playcalling. I'll do some separate articles on that, though.
0 recs | 55 comments
Who are Armstrong and Fuller?
I am guessing recruited QBs. Are they any good?
I am on the Martinez bandwagon and completed strapped in. Not once this year did I call for Carnes to come into the game, even when Martinez was throwing 3 INTs vs. Wisconsin or making poor throws. First of all, with this mechanics stuff, I do not care how he throws the ball. Some dude from Florida has horrible mechanics and is now playing in the postseason for the NFL. As long as Martinez can get the ball to the WR, with limiting INTs, and giving the WR a play, I do not care what he looks like throwing the ball. I loved his throw to Bell for the first score in the bowl game. It was perfect, but if you go back and look how the ball was thrown, ugh, ugly. I just care about the result. The ball got there. Jon, I am completely backing your analysis of Beck. I wish there were more plays that are designed with Martinez’s strengths in mind. I also think he was being held back a bit this year compared to last. Wait, I know that because the coaches said they were going to hold him back, to limit injury risk.
And yes, if Carnes had presented as a better option than Martinez, he would have been put into the game. I have to believe that the coaching staff will go with their best player at any position. I am not buying into the conspiracy theory that the coaches have Martinez cemented at the QB position.
CCE718 - January 6, 2012
In response to Jon ...
One play that was dialed up for Martinez that always impressed me was the zone read, where the handoff goes outside and the keeper goes up the middle. Martinez has a lot of straight line speed but isn’t very elusive – but if the keeper was open, it was always good for 10 yards because he’d catch the defense shifting momentum if they overpursued.
I think its tough to scheme Martinez because he can’t make people miss him – if they brush him he’ll fall over. He has trouble making the first guy miss to take the edge, so he is limited to runs up the middle where he risks injury but can rattle off a bunch of yards.
On the other hand, I think he has gotten much better as a passer in that his decision making is improved. Remember that Martinez was 3 completetions away from setting the record – and the streak was started and ended with drops. Poor hands and route running from the receiving corp made Maritnez look worse than he is – bring back Nate Swift and we probably don’t lose to Northwestern because he can actually catch the !#$* ball.
Andy06r - January 6, 2012
setting the record for consecutive completions*
Andy06r - January 6, 2012
I agreem, his decision making has improved, improved a lot, actually.
His athletic ability is what it is. Like you said, straight line speed, but his passing mechanics will always limit his completions – that and dropped balls.
CornFists - January 6, 2012
The problem he has
right now is breaking the stigma. People see him as a bad passer, but he just has to keep improving before they are talking about him like they do Dennard at Mich. He has the speed, less the elusiveness, and is improving as a passer. I’m excited to see him next year and the year after.
AdamTheTitan - January 6, 2012
Likewise
We, here on our couches and it the seats watching the games, have been disappointed with the product on the field after 4 years.
Fair enough? There’s still no excuse, and the tired argument “look, it’s a young team” isn’t working anymore. It’s been a young team for 4 years now, how does that work?
CornFists - January 6, 2012
I'm not so sure
that this isn’t how it’s always going to be.
By that I mean this – I expect that Nebraska football under Bo Pelini will have better seasons than four losses, but I also expect that over the long haul, we will have, say, a 7-5 season here and there. That’s just how it’s going to go, largely due to turnover and scholarships being limited much more than they were under Osborne (which is just one reason why comparing the two is bloody idiotic).
I don’t think last year’s team was necessarily young other than Martinez. And last year’s team made it to the conference championship game, but didn’t win it, then played poorly in their bowl game – would you consider that a failure?
This year’s team, by comparison, saw an enormous youth movement. My biggest beef is about the offensive line – but that unit this season might have been one of the youngest we’ve ever fielded.
Whether Bo Pelini is the head coach that becomes the next successful whiz bang guy is immaterial to me. I hope that he can do it, but I’m skeptical.
Jon Johnston - January 6, 2012
I struggle with that point of view myself
and time will tell. But we can only speculate from what we’ve seen so far…
I don’t mind a 7-5 season, as long as it not a 9-4’s (up year) counterpart. Conference championship and BCS game is all I care about. That and beating Iowa every year, of course.
CornFists - January 6, 2012
Why can't we ask for both?
Obviously you can’t ask for a championship every year, that’s not realistic unless you’re Boise State and you beat up on the little sisters. Sure, right now it feels like we will forever be stuck with 9 or 10 wins and 4 losses. But it’s better to be this close every year than to be Iowa…They’ve had a couple great seasons in the past decade with BCS bowls, but those years are surrounded by seasons of mediocrity where they aren’t even ranked. To me, those seasons are absolutely intolerable, and I definitely would rather have a consistent 9 or 10 win team than a team that randomly wins 11 or 12 games and follows it up with 7 wins.
Bo’s worst season so far is 9-4. His best is 10-4. That’s pretty consistent, and as a fan base at least every season we’ve been a couple of what it’s away from winning championships and making BCS games. I chose to be optimistic, and after 4 seasons there is nothing to lead me to believe that we will go 7-5, and I won’t believe it until it happens. I do however think that one of these years things will go our way and we will win 12 or more games. Under Callahan I would have never said that because he had no consistency and we were never actually close to winning 12 games. Sure, we had 9 wins one year…but we also had 5 losses, and what followed was the 2007 debacle.
Pelini isn’t a perfect coach, and he’ll be the first to tell you that. He’s still learning and still growing. He’s a young, fiery coach and next year we are just as close to winning having a championship and BCS game as we were this year. Iowa can’t say that.
Billgrip - January 6, 2012
Hey, I'm on board and will give it a few more years before I set fire to my husker speedo
but let’s see some god damn improvement next year!!! : )
CornFists - January 6, 2012
You can ask for a championship every year. You should. That's what being a fan entitles us to.
However, we should temper that with post-season, rational assessments of the team rather than throwing everyone under the bus.
After a while, the bus is just rolling on bodies!
Salt Creek and Stadium - January 7, 2012
IAWTP
theise - January 8, 2012
I cant take another 2 years of Martinez at QB
I would rather suffer a bad year under Carnes that leads to him being a better QB than going with Martinez for another 2.
Amonra - January 6, 2012
The problem with this view
is that we still have no idea whether Carnes would in fact end up being a better QB than Martinez. We have speculation, and the fact that a lot of people know that Martinez’s throwing motion is funky. The coaches see them every day in practice, and you have to believe that Pelini understands the pressure to produce. He’s not going to bury someone on the bench that can help the team.
SccrHskr - January 6, 2012
Pelini also made Beck the OC
Does that mean Beck is the best OC out there and no one else would have been bettter?
Amonra - January 6, 2012
No
notice I didn’t say Martinez is the the best, no one is better. I said we’re making assumptions that Martinez is worse than Carnes once he has a little more experience. We have absolutely nothing to prove that except our hunches.
We also don’t know if there were other OCs willing to come to Nebraska, or that would implement the offense that Pelini wants. We have our own opinions on it. Regardless, that’s an entirely apples to oranges comparison. Your point was about Martinez, and the logic there doesn’t make sense to me.
SccrHskr - January 6, 2012
My point was
that Pelini might not always make the best descisions and just becuase he makes one doesnt mean no one can question it.
Amonra - January 6, 2012
Again
never said you couldn’t question it, I was pointing out that the reasons we have for questioning it are pretty weak. We just don’t have any facts to point to Carnes being better.
SccrHskr - January 6, 2012
It means Beck was the best option that didn't result in nuking the offensive staff.
Pelini is building cohesion on his staff. Nebraska would spend the money to get an established OC if that’s what Pelini requested.
Salt Creek and Stadium - January 7, 2012
Lol
I want to make sure I read that right. You would rather bench a guy with 25 starts, a guy who is one of the fastest QB’s in the country in an offensive system built for speed, for someone that’s best experience is making a few good passes against second stringers in a spring game? You would be okay with having ANOTHER season with a completely inexperienced QB and the frustrations that come with a first year starter, and throw away any shot we have at winning a championship that year, just to see if he’s better than the guy we have now?
You’re so confident that you know better than the coaches who have decades of experience and are being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars and are at practice every day? Again, based on his performance against second stringers in a spring game. Let’s not forget that our secondary was absolutely atrocious and inexperienced at the beginning of the year, and they were probably even worse in the spring game.
It’s funny how the grass is always greener on the other side…
I agree that Carnes should have gotten more snaps this year, but there is no legitimate basis for saying that he should be the starter. The Martinez hate is going too far. We’ve got a QB who has started 2 seasons and has shown flashes of brilliance amidst his youthful mistakes. He’s been asked to run two completely different offenses under two different OC’s in two years. With more another offseason of maturing with the same OC and same offense, there’s a lot of reason to believe that he will take another big step next year. So please withhold your judgement, be a better fan and support your QB. He deserves it.
Billgrip - January 6, 2012
A better fan?
Really, I need to be a better fan and just swallow what ever the big wigs tells us is right?
Hell bring back Callahan then, cuase I had no reason to say that he should be fired. I was being a bad fan.
Martinez is an awful QB, if he is soooooo fast then make him an RB or WR and put his talent to use there. Cuase he cant throw the damn ball to save his life.
Amonra - January 6, 2012
Actually there was a lot of reasons that Callahan was fired
In four years the most games he won was 9 in a season, and that was the standard we’ve always held our coaches to. He went 5-7 in the last year and completely lost the team. There was no more pride, no more tradition, and the program was crashing and burning.
Martinez is not an awful QB. His completion percentage is just as good or better than Eric Crouch, Tommie Frazier, Scott Frost, and Turner Gill. I’m guessing you were okay with those guys.
Billgrip - January 6, 2012
OK Stats...
TM already has more INTs the Frazier, Gill & Frost had their entire carrers.
I couldnt find any stats on fumbles lost, but I would be willing to bet same is true.
Amonra - January 6, 2012
OK more stats...
First of all, Martinez has less interceptions than Frazier, but that doesn’t matter because you’re comparing apples to oranges. Of all of them, only Frazier started for most of his four years. Gill didn’t start until halfway through his sophomore year and Frost didn’t even play for Nebraska until his junior year.
Plus, the biggest difference is that the offense now is completely different than it was for those guys, and the numbers prove it. We throw the ball a lot more now than we did then. Just look at passing attempts.
Martinez already has 484 passing attempts in his career over two seasons, remember…two seasons. Let’s compare to the other guys-
Gill had 428 in this ENTIRE CAREER, Frazier had 509, and Frost had 445 (that includes his two seasons at Stanford).
So yes, Martinez threw the ball more in his freshman and sophomore years than Gill and Frost did in their entire career, and he’ll pass up Frazier’s attempts by the second game of next season.
As I mentioned, his completion percentage is higher than all of those guys, but since you are complaining about his interceptions, let’s look at interception statistics-
Gill threw 12 interceptions out of his 428 attempts, which is one pick for every 35 throws.
Frazier threw 18 interceptions in 509 attempts, which is one pick for every 28 throws.
Frost threw 12 interceptions in 445 attempts, which is one pick for every 37 throws.
And last but not least, Martinez has thrown 15 interceptions in 484 attempts, which is one pick for every 32 throws.
That’s better than Frazier and barely worse than Frost and Gill. But don’t forget that these are Martinez’s freshman and sophomore numbers compared against their entire career numbers. The Husker teams they played on were undoubtedly better and more talented than the teams Martinez has played on as well.
Numbers don’t lie, and I can play this game all day long. When it comes down to it, you are just another whining, arm chair QB who needs a scapegoat because you can’t accept that this isn’t 1995 anymore. Taylor Martinez is the best QB we have right now, and he’s done a fine job for a run-first QB in his first two seasons.
Billgrip - January 6, 2012
You and your numbers!
ESPN told me he’s a terrible QB so that’s the truth!
Salt Creek and Stadium - January 7, 2012
Didn't your momma teach you not to believe everything you're told...by ESPN?
One more stat I found and put up on my twitter last week- This season Martinez threw one interception for every 36 passes he threw. Meanwhile, ESPN’s golden god/man child Andrew Luck threw one interception for every 40 passes…which is better, but not a lot better.
Billgrip - January 9, 2012
I'm proud to say I've gone three months without watching Sportscenter or reading ESPN.com.
I’m sure this is what getting clean must feel like.
Salt Creek and Stadium - January 9, 2012
Really?
“When it comes down to it, you are just another whining, arm chair QB who needs a scapegoat because you can’t accept that this isn’t 1995 anymore.”
First, you picked the QBs to compare him to, so dont tell me its apples to oranges.
Second, I am not complaining that we didnt win the national championship, and I know its not 1995 any more. But does that mean I should just be okay with mediocraty? If thats the case, maybe I should just be a jNU fan and be happy with anything over .500.
If I am a whiny archair QB then that makes you a soap box preaching kool aid drinking homer.
Amonra - January 9, 2012
Please define mediocrity, then?
Yes, this season was a disappointment, but my god, we’re no where NEAR mediocre.
Salt Creek and Stadium - January 9, 2012
Finishing 5th in the B1G?
Thats right about the middle and I would call that Mediocre.
Amonra - January 9, 2012
In our first season?
Considering we would’ve finished #2 (at worst) in the Big 12, let’s lay off on nuking the program just a bit, eh?
Salt Creek and Stadium - January 9, 2012
I dont want to Nuke the program
I dont want to fire Pelini, I just want another QB.
Amonra - January 10, 2012
My biggest concern for Martinez is his own health
he going to get his head taken off running 90 degrees into B1G linebackers someday. South Carolina sure tried.
CornFists - January 6, 2012
I understand your concern
But let’s not forget that he did just make it through an entire season without getting hurt. Maybe he’s tougher than everyone seems to think. Sure he got hurt last year, but it was obvious that the he got rushed back into action before he was fully healed, and that made the injury linger. I seem to remember a guy named Eric Crouch who was about his size, ran fearlessly, and didn’t get hurt.
Billgrip - January 6, 2012
I also think the offensive line did a much better job this season of protecting Martinez.
Salt Creek and Stadium - January 7, 2012
Very true
And even though we technically lose three guys next year, for the most part that was a really young offensive line. Hopefully they will keep getting better.
Billgrip - January 9, 2012
The best kept secret of this season...
Rex Burkhead was actually our backup QB.
Hopefully next year there will be someone that will develop into a legitimate backup QB. That doesn’t mean he will be a better choice than Martinez, it just means that we wouldn’t rely on our running back to run the offense if Martinez went down.
Billgrip - January 6, 2012
Martinez is the starter
For the next two years…Its almost a lock. People need to get over the “his throws are ugly” argument…but he is making it hard for people to find reasons not to like him. My only criticisms left is that he still looks loose carrying the ball and he doesnt have much elusiveness. He is definitely not a scrambler.
Conspiracy* - January 6, 2012
I like his throws.
I mean, minor cardiac arrhythmias are healthy, right?
Salt Creek and Stadium - January 7, 2012
Martinez is no where near as bad as people say
My complaint about him is that he don’t always scan the field to find the best option as receiver. He is not a pocket passing quarterback, and honestly probably will never scan the field like other “passing” quarterbacks. I believe Martinez is our best option at quarterback, and honestly I believe he is one of the best in the B1G. There were too many dropped passes and that hurt, badly hurt, his passing numbers. Imagine if those dropped passes were caught, how good could his numbers be compared to what they are? How many of those losses could we have won? We could have moved the ball after the first quarter in the bowl, and we could have beat Northwestern.
GeogHusker - January 6, 2012
My biggest TM complaint since that's what we are doing
How can a guy with his athletic ability have no feel for the rush. Watching him in the pocket makes me think he is a horrible basketball player because he has no lateral movement. No start/stop, side to side, fake, dodge or anything. Watch Dennard Robinson, Russell Wilson or Braxton Miller move around in the pocket.
Robsa - January 6, 2012
Because he's not a pocket passer.
Or at least, being a statue doesn’t seem to be his favorite thing.
We should really work on his roll-outs and across the body passing – Martinez usually seems much more comfortable when he running around.
Salt Creek and Stadium - January 7, 2012
Martinez is not a four year starter
He just isn’t. Will he be the starter next year? If Devin Fuller doesn’t come to Nebraska he will be. Brion Carnes and Tommy Anderson will make a case, may even get some articles suggesting a qb controversy, but it will most likely be a writer and fans pining for a news story in what will be another looooong offseason. Unless Tommy Anderson has an insane Tom Brady competetive streak in him he won’t pass Taylor up on the depth chart. And Brion Carnes simply didn’t get enough time this year to get a good understanding of game speed. Brion Carnes lack of play time wasn’t the fault of the coaches, the opportunity simply didn’t present itself enough this year because our defense struggled against mediocre teams early.
The only time I can think of this season when Carnes should have been put on the field and he wasn’t was the Wisconsin game, but I feel Pelini made a decision and wanted Taylor to show some heart by finishing out a game in which he delivered his worst performance of the season. I would have made a different decision, but I respect Pelini’s expertise and therefore this specific decision.
Did Taylor improve this season? Yes, and no. His mechanic still emulate a polish catapult, his elusiveness is still that of Bob Denver’s pilot, and maintained the pocket presence of Helen Keller. He improved on checking down receivers but sometimes reverted when times got tough, he ran the no huddle pretty well for his first year, his attitude improved and so did leadership. And to be honest, if he didn’t improve his attitude I don’t think he would have still been on the team at this point in the season, his crass press conference demeanor, and his overbearing pageant mom like control his dad possessed over him we’re causing problems for the time. Luckily Pelini stomped that out.
His attitude change along with his strengthened leadership were the two biggest improvements he made this season and that’s the reason I’m 95% sure why he’ll start next season. The other 5 % is made up of the thought that his throwing ability severely limits the play calling of this team. Yes we have a great rushing attack, but games like south carolina proved that won’t mean anything when you are down and need quick scores to get back in the game. I’m not blaming the capital one bowl on Taylor, it wasn’t his fault, he threw one interception when Nebraska had already backed itself out of scoring range; but his start means the loss of a legitimate passing game.
Now this year we had to start; Cody Green hasn’t translated well to the college game, Carnes wasn’t ready, and when Green left the depth at the position this season was shot to pieces. This year we have a Carnes, Anderson, and potentially Fuller (who could take the starting position from Taylor, and if he doesn’t would be number two coming into the season). As I said Anderson is the least likely candidate to me unless he has a special something I haven’t seen in ten minute highlight videos with a Lil Wayne soundtrack (Thank god for the mute button). Carnes has a better arm than Taylor, better elusiveness, checks down receivers just as well as Taylor did Freshman year, and most importantly has pocket presence. Out of all the things that impress me the most from his high school videos is no matter what distracts him in the pocket he finds a way to get his eyes back down field while also acknowledging the goings on in the pocket. That is something he does a thousand times better than Taylor Martinez and if he starts, this will be a benefit. At the end of the day they don’t have the leadership and the experience of running the offense Taylor does which is to his benefit.
Now all this talk about starting over with a new quarterback, Pelini did that already, with Taylor. He had us thinking big xii title and if not the bcs championship at least the fiesta bowl. The two losses Nebraska had in the regular season of 2010 we’re not his fault, if our receivers caught the balls thrown to them in the Texas game, had we not gotten screwed over so badly against A&M (as reluctant as I am to ever say the refs screwed a team over in almost any situation except pop warner, they did that day), we would have gone into the big xii championship undefeated and even with a loss we would have made it into a bcs game. Nebraska did very well starting over with Taylor at quarterback. If we do the same (If it isn’t next year it will be the season after) we could end up with better results than we did in 2010. Or we’d at least start over with a young quarterback who can throw, have better elusiveness, but not the insane straight line speed of Taylor Martinez. Maybe that guy can be the one who gets Nebraska back to where it belongs, on top. Because I don’t Nebraska can with Taylor Martinez.
Either way I’ll support my team, my coach, and we will be better than last year.
But hey, that’s just my opinion.
dbcoop - January 7, 2012
I suspect you're right.
If Bubba Starling had picked Nebraska over baseball, would he have become the new starter?
Salt Creek and Stadium - January 7, 2012
Quarterback
Martinez will never get any better he is a running back not a quarterback and never will be he should be sent back to Califorina ,I was hopping he and Peline would both would have stayed in Florida and went to coach and play for Carl…..
sfsdhusker - January 7, 2012
wtf...
I don’t fully understand what you’re trying to say due to horrible english, but if you’re suggesting that Bo Pelini never came to nebraska you’re insane.
Conspiracy* - January 7, 2012
Has Martinez peaked?
First time poster here. Always follow the blogs, but finally decided to join just for this QB issue we are discussing.
Has TM peaked? That’s my issue. He’s done adequate as a Freshman/Sophmore (perhaps not as good as Frazier/Frost/Crouch in their first years), but I fear he has reached his ceiling for improvement. I think that’s what others are trying to say in round-about ways. Sure he’s the best we have now, but if Carnes or someone other has a higher ceiling, shouldn’t the staff be trying to develop that more, especially in mop-up duty? Perhaps the staff knows that Carnes/other won’t be the backup next year either and chose to develop TM to his fullest this year. TM does not have good presence in the pocket, he is not as athletic as past QBs, and the play calling has not show-cased his strength (speed). He is not a good on-the-field leader, which is my biggest concern. Past QBs would’ve been gathering the O-line and been in their face about multiple penalities on the same drive. That’s probably my biggest concern. His leadership skills. Being able to make that big 3rd down play in crunch time is another. Great kid, but….
HomePC - January 7, 2012
Afraid you might be right
Yes he stopped doing the risky stuff from last year but he didn’t really add to his skills. I don’t care about his throwing motion but I do care about his inability to throw the ball over 30 yards. Kenny Bell would continually beat the DB by 4 steps then have to stop and wait for the ball. No reason for fast receivers if your QB can’t throw it far enough to take advantage.
Robsa - January 7, 2012
What have you seen that makes you think he didn't improve on his skills?
He’s more accurate this year. Made better decisions. Did pretty much everything better.
Conspiracy* - January 7, 2012
I mentioned not doing the risky stuff
Subtracting stupid plays was his improvement. Did he run better this year or read defenses better? Not really. They threw a lot more short passes this year that are easier to complete. (I’ll be the first one to defend his completion percentage due to the huge number of dropped balls) I can see a QB draw from a mile away. No disguise whatsoever. There is improving and growing as a QB and there is cutting out the bad habits. I’m looking at them as 2 separate things and you are combing them so we are probably seeing the same things.
Robsa - January 7, 2012
I agree except for the reading defenses part
I don’t know that our offense last year really involved reading defenses, but this year it was built around it. This year there were a lot of times where Taylor walked up to the line of scrimmage, looked at the defense, then changed the play…and I saw a lot of those audibles that he made work out well.
Billgrip - January 9, 2012
One thing
I never see mentioned when it comes to Martinez is how good he has been at disguising a hand-off. Go back and watch the tapes. His sleight of hand at times has been amazing.
And three…two…one…rip me on this, but I think he’s one of the best at the fake.
redvalley - January 7, 2012
That'll be handy for his magic career when he's done playing in the NFL.
T-MAGIC’S MAGICAL MENAGERIE
Salt Creek and Stadium - January 8, 2012
We need more of that
I know that last year we ran the zone read to death, even when it wasn’t working. But this year I feel like I didn’t see it very often, and that’s a real shame because as you said, his sleight of hand is incredible. The zone read play needs to be utilized in our offense so long as we have a QB who is great at running it.
Billgrip - January 9, 2012
I wonder if maybe the offense didn't grow fast enough to fold that in.
I feel like we were running really basic offenses, with a wild step every once in a while.
I’d expect us to fold in more zone read and option plays as Martinez and the offensive line grow into the new Beckfense.
Salt Creek and Stadium - January 9, 2012
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