Would you have benched Martinez for a series?

T-Magic & Co. led 21-3 late in the half, but were not able to hang on in this loss to UCLA. He is kind of like former Clemson QB Charlie Whitehurst. Both Martinez and Whitehurst are pretty good quarterbacks that never could reach the level of the big stage while starting almost their entire careers at their respective schools. Whitehurst, though, had a positive ending to his 9-4 senior campaign by knocking off Tennessee in the Peach Bowl some 9, 10 seasons ago. Maybe Martinez can have a solid finish for NU. He faced a tough-nonconference opponent. Hopefully, the defense can improve. They are talented, and I was very impressed with them even though the box score won't reflect them as having a good performance versus UCLA.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
It's time to bench Martinez and see exactly what we got in Armstrong. Right now Bo's judgement of who is good is questionable at best. If they aren't going to run the offense in what Martinez can do either they need to change the offense which they won't or find a qb who can run your system. I don't care if Martinez is a senior that is no excuse to keep starting him.
if martinez is legitimately hurt, then it will be tme.
hurt or not bo would be smart to see what he has in Armstrong this season. Doubt that happens cause Bo is too stubborn. For all we know Armstrong could run this offense better than Martinez but we won't know for sure.
I know for sure. Martinez is killing us. Armstrong would be a big step up. Just in the smarts department it would be a 1078% upgrade.
 
Taylor martinez is consistently inconsistent. His timid 2nd half play wasn't getting us anywhere and spearheaded the deflation of our team. Im so sick of hearing about his stats. his passing stats don't show that he will run for a 3 yard gain on a 3rd and 7 giving us no chance at a 1st. great taylor. thanks taylor. either that or he will throw it to someone in the flats with someone in their face. Great, another completion for a yard when we needed 8 aaaaaaand again were punting. get armstrong in the game PALEASE!

 
It would make sense to get Armstrong going to get a jump on next year, but I think Kellogg III would be the better QB at this point. Of course Bo will stick with Martinez though.

 
Taylor is as much the problem as the coaching staff. This team has WAY more problems than just the defense, just the offense, just Bo, just Martinez...........MANY changes need to be made. And sitting Taylors a$$ down may have got his head on straight, but it sure as hell wouldn't have helped the defense do it's job, or helped Beck with his offensive play calling abilities, or helped Pelini in doing his damn job........teaching these men to play football with HEART!

 
Just saw this in the paper today: “We moved the ball pretty well. We just didn't finish,” said Martinez, who wore a walking boot on his left foot, the result, he said, of a minor ankle injury that happened before the UCLA game. “When we did get close, something always happened.”

Walking boot? Why? Why? He was injured BEFORE the game.

 
I've seen absolutely no evidence that we would run or pass any better with Kellogg or Armstrong, and frankly both looked a little jittery in no-pressure mop up duty.

Remember when we thought letting Cody Green start was a no-brainer?

Still, setting pride aside, Beck and Pelini need to find playing time for Armstrong. That's planning for your future, not taking a slap at Martinez.

 
No I would not have. I would let him play the calls for a series, make his own decision and see where that takes us. If that doesn't work out then I would consider it.

 
I've seen absolutely no evidence that we would run or pass any better with Kellogg or Armstrong, and frankly both looked a little jittery in no-pressure mop up duty.

Remember when we thought letting Cody Green start was a no-brainer?

Still, setting pride aside, Beck and Pelini need to find playing time for Armstrong. That's planning for your future, not taking a slap at Martinez.
It was against So. Miss, but Kellogg moved right down the field until Newby fumbled...actually looked like a Husker team for a while.... so I differ with your assessment on replacing the trainwreck.

 
Just saw this in the paper today: “We moved the ball pretty well. We just didn't finish,” said Martinez, who wore a walking boot on his left foot, the result, he said, of a minor ankle injury that happened before the UCLA game. “When we did get close, something always happened.”

Walking boot? Why? Why? He was injured BEFORE the game.
What game was he watching?

 
Having Taylor drop back and asking him to make run/pass decisions and occasionally take off for a scramble is not making use of him as a running QB, in my opinion. Running the zone read 15 to 20 times a game is.
Do you really think he is a running QB anymore?
He is an atrocious running QB with a lot of speed. And now that seems to be gone as well. No reason for him to be under center any longer.
Martinez only ever got the job because he was briefly the best running QB in college football, for a few games his freshman year. Now he is neither a good runner or game manager. -13 yards rushing. Time to move on. Beck is not calling 15-20 zone options a game because Tm can't run the play worth a damn anymore.

I remember heading into the 2011 season bowl game against South Carolina, I had to decide whether to go see NU play while visiting sunny Florida in winter. Because of my complete lack of optimism that we'd any important game with TM at QB, I stayed home.

Nothing has changed since then, in fact it only seems worse.

 
I'm not sure where to find them but I'm really interested in Taylor's 1st half stats vs. 2nd half stats.
All that really mattered was the 3rd quarter. Martinez was 5/6 for 15 yards passing on our first drive. From there he went 1/6 for the rest of the quarter for 3 yards. He threw 5 straight incompletions over the course of our first 3 drives, and rushed 3 times for -5 yards. His inability to complete a single pass downfield and avoid catastrophic negative yardage plays doomed us.

His numbers for the 4th quarter were 4/7 for 56 yards and 1 rush for -6 yards. That was where he hit Abdullah on a short pass that went for 40 yards, we had nothing going downfield all second half.

So the final 2nd half tally is 10/19 for 74 yards. 4 rushed for -11 yards. Keep in mind this guy only plays because he was thought at one time to be of of the best running QBs in college football. We don't play him for his passing ability. Now that the running game has bottomed out, there is no to reason to stay married to him as the only QB worth playing when the game is still in doubt. Yet the game will almost always be in doubt with him at QB. Rather ironic, but to say Armstrong would just come in and be a turnover machine is silly. As long as Armstrong was capable of leading us to 3 and outs we'd be breaking even.

On a couple of drives in the middle of the 3rd and 4th quarter when we could have made this respectable,TM went 1/6 for 1 yard passing and those were 3 and outs. We had three 3 and outs in the 2nd half, and the two in the 3rd quarter were back breakers.

 
Back
Top