Adrian Martinez

[Enhance]

Not coming at you or anything, but you are illustrating my whole point -- you're blaming one guy for the actions of 11. "Decision-making" (or all the other generic stuff people have been trotting out as criticisms of Adrian for the past year-and-a-half) isn't just on a quarterback. If you, as the quarterback, know that against Cover 3 a post route is supposed to settle into open space on a hook curl, but you don't trust your receiver to do that so you hold the ball, is that a bad decision on you? You could just wing it out there where the receiver is supposed to be and possibly have it intercepted and have "made the right decision" but hurt the team. A lot of the things Adrian did wrong last year can be directly attributed to either 1) not trusting those around him to do what they were supposed to or 2) being injured. Based on who we're seeing on the field this year (Warner and Falck are "trustable" options) and what coaches have said about "getting better around the quarterbacks", this stuff was a big issue. But for some reason every time fans saw the offense not working or Adrian miss a throw it was "aDrIAn'S rEGreSsInG, bENCh HiM" instead of looking with some context at the real causes. Now that some of those things are being fixed and he's playing better, it's "Adrian needed to be pushed". It's all bologna, always was bologna, and we never learn.

And Luke was not running the same offense as the other two QBs. He was essentially running a version of the Wildcat. He had a very small package of plays and was not asked to make reads down the field as Adrian and Vedral were. If you want to argue Vedral was better than AM, I think that's much more fair. But Luke's production at QB was always a flash in the pan if you actually wanted to look at it critically.

TBH I'm not sure how you read Guy's post and took that his him "blaming one guy for the actions of 11."

Few have said Adrian is exclusively at fault, or even suggested as much. Horrible snaps, inconsistent line play, receivers not getting open, penalties... there are a lot of things that hold back this offense and have virtually nothing to do with Adrian. But, he too has had his struggles and made poor decisions. Frost and he have both said this.

As for the calls to bench him... Frost seemed to think it was the right move, correct? So he must've felt that Adrian was not giving them the best chance to be successful at that time. AM was able to fight back and steady the ship. I don't see what's wrong with acknowleding this.

 

[Aliens05]

This isn't as much as about Martinez specifically as it is just the offense as a whole.

One thing I would really like for them to implement into the offense is out of the shotgun formation, Luke as a HB to one side with mills as a HB to the other side. There would be countless option plays, playaction option plays, etc we could run out of the formation, heck with Luke and martinez in the backfield they would both have the potential to throw on any given play. Even aside from Luke I'd like to see mills and rhamir back there or some sort of combination, I feel like it would make the offense potentially much less predictable.

Anyone know if this even in Frost's playbook, or why we dont try something out of this formation?

 

[Hilltop]

This isn't as much as about Martinez specifically as it is just the offense as a whole.

One thing I would really like for them to implement into the offense is out of the shotgun formation, Luke as a HB to one side with mills as a HB to the other side. There would be countless option plays, playaction option plays, etc we could run out of the formation, heck with Luke and martinez in the backfield they would both have the potential to throw on any given play. Even aside from Luke I'd like to see mills and rhamir back there or some sort of combination, I feel like it would make the offense potentially much less predictable.

Anyone know if this even in Frost's playbook, or why we dont try something out of this formation?

I'm guessing we see some formations similar to this once the majority of the team understands basic plays.  We still have guys out of place occasionally on basic zone reads.  Maybe if we get a bowl game that allows more than 5 days prep time, otherwise it will be next season assuming we have a normal spring and fall camp.

 

[ndobney]

This isn't as much as about Martinez specifically as it is just the offense as a whole.

One thing I would really like for them to implement into the offense is out of the shotgun formation, Luke as a HB to one side with mills as a HB to the other side. There would be countless option plays, playaction option plays, etc we could run out of the formation, heck with Luke and martinez in the backfield they would both have the potential to throw on any given play. Even aside from Luke I'd like to see mills and rhamir back there or some sort of combination, I feel like it would make the offense potentially much less predictable.

Anyone know if this even in Frost's playbook, or why we dont try something out of this formation?

It is but Frost has decided to do away with all of his creativity since coming to Nebraska. Qb draws are about all you will see for the foreseeable future

 

[Undone]

I kind of see the argument that Frost could potentially be more creative and throw some more trickeration in there.

But on the other side of that coin, if we had pulled off the wins at, say, Illinois & Iowa I sort of doubt it gets brought up.

In my opinion our offensive struggles are due way, way more to poor interior offensive line play and dumb penalties. In other words, our team still struggles with some of the basics in Year Three...so expecting that trickeration or more play creativity can make up for those gaps is probably a bit misguided in my own opinion.

 

[MyBloodIsRed16]

trick plays usually work best off of a play that you run really well... we don't have any of those

 

[Hilltop]

It is but Frost has decided to do away with all of his creativity since coming to Nebraska. Qb draws are about all you will see for the foreseeable future

I'm sure he decided to completely abandon his complete offensive identity for no reason other than to drive you to post on this message board... No way it could have anything to do with the drastically limited schedule, and tons of inexperience.

 

 

[Enhance]

But on the other side of that coin, if we had pulled off the wins at, say, Illinois & Iowa I sort of doubt it gets brought up.

I tend to agree with this.

Sort of makes me think about offensive play-calling in general. I think fans have a tendency to question playcalling or label a play as a "bad call" when it doesn't work, even though the call itself may have been a good one. But, 1-2 players make a mistake, perhaps even causing a cascade of additional mistakes, and boom... bad play, even though the theory may have been sound.

There's obviously something to be said about making the right call at the right time though, particularly based on the flow of the game. I have had some concerns with that over the last few years... particularly on some of those swing passes or bubble screens that go nowhere. Frost has at times treated those as bread and butter plays but it doesn't seem like the execution is there enough.

 

[Stone Cold]

So now we dont like adrian,

 

[ndobney]

Adrian Martinez has a poor work ethic and lack leadership. They go hand in hand a lot of the time. 

 

[Bledred]

While we are at it ...

Well done on the inept coaching and broken plays/drives.

Congrats on the predictable ineffective play-calling.

Way to go on the failure to adjust at all.

Kudos to the players and coaches on the many penalties.

Haazah! for losing to a team that would not beat a single SEC team (except maybe Vanderbilt) and has one of the worst defenses in the entire country.  

 

[krc1995]

I’ve never rooted for a QB to be good more then I have for Martinez. I am incredibly sad that being a good person/teammate does not automatically mean that you will be a good QB and able to carry an inept coaching staff on your back along with a bunch of freshman.  But so many other issues as well. 

 

[Bigred_inSD]

Adrian Martinez has a poor work ethic and lack leadership. They go hand in hand a lot of the time. 

Adrian is a great leader and every player in the locker room would go to war for and with him.  As for work ethic and what's going on between the ears?  Shrug emoji 

 

[krc1995]

I kind of see the argument that Frost could potentially be more creative and throw some more trickeration in there.

But on the other side of that coin, if we had pulled off the wins at, say, Illinois & Iowa I sort of doubt it gets brought up.

But we don’t win any of the close ones. I guess you can argue Penn State, but we tried to give that one away. 

 

[Undone]

But we don’t win any of the close ones. I guess you can argue Penn State, but we tried to give that one away. 

Against Northwestern we were on their 2 yard line, down by 8. We call a run play to Mills, McCaffrey had gotten us into the wrong set and the play gets stuffed due to being in the wrong set and the blocking assignments being off. On the next play, McCaffrey bounces a pass off Benhart's helmet and they intercept it.

Against Iowa we were only down 6, middle of the 4th quarter. Taylor-Britt lets a punt reception bounce off his pads and they recover.

Against Minnesota, our backup QB throws an interception after coming in for just a couple plays. We have an 8 yard shanked punt. We don't block on a passing play and Martinez gets the ball knocked out of his hands.

So look at this litany of bulls***. Does more offensive creativity overcome it? I suppose it's possible. But the root of our issues are sloppy play, dumb penalties, and turnovers rather than it being that Frost is "lacking creativity on offense."