Taylor Martinez - A Victim of Unrealistic Expectations?

What he did accomplish is pretty incredible. Leading a team to a 10 win season as a freshman? How can you complain? Sure, I jumped on the “bench Martinez” bandwagon for a bit. But I was honestly surprised at how he played. The main thing I feel he lacks is leadership. I don’t think he’s fired up on the sidelines or in the locker room. If he played with more passion, he would be good. Scary good.

I am a fan of Martinez, but agree that he should have been benched a lot sooner in the UT, A&M, OU, & Holiday games. The stats show that he is something special…when healthy. I am excited to see him in the NU program for the next few years…especially with the new blood bringing him some stiff competition for the starting job.

Maybe I missed something, but what did he do to make people hate him so much and call him a jerk? Maybe I just drank to much red magic koolaid!

….dumb ass play calling. Period.

Players can be mediocre. Players can be egotists. Players can be followers. Players can be not perfect. It’s the coach’s responsibility to keep the wheels on the bus. They did not do that. It’s shocking and puzzling that Mr Tuff Guy, Mr No nonsense, Mr Pelini let this debacle go on and on. Maybe, just maybe he isn’t head coach material.

We fans cannot continue to try to take a kid like TM down for his actions or his play. He does not seem like a diva to me. He seems like a very shy or intreverted kid that is away from his comfort zone…dad and the CA lifestyle. He probably has some homesickness and Bo and company are trying to make him feel like this is his new home. The comment he made about this being his team….was not from a position of dominance but is probably what Wats and Bo have tried to drill into his head to get him to take ownership of it and lead it. He just “parrotted” what he is suppose to take on as ownership.

The kid is extremely talented. Give him some upfront blockers and he’ll roll next year. Will he ever take the reins….we do not know. Maybe he will mature into it. He may be hesitant being a freshman and trying to lead (or boss in his eyes) seniors around because he is the QB. If the press and fellow bloggers and posters will give the kid some credit, like this article tries to do, maybe that will be a great leap into the right direction.

I hope he does not transfer. I hope Wats stays but down sizes the playbook and uses what is working. I hope Bo likes his job enough to stay and has fun with it. The press and us fans can help in that regard. Get off his backside and alow him the opportunity to make the changes he needs and lead his way, with honor and the kids best interests in his heart.

I think Martinez returning kicks would be sweet!

When Martinez obviously got stuck in a drop back, 5-wide out, pass from the pocket (the newest offensive identity of the month) with (courtesy of the WCO) no backfield blockers or fullback : he obviously didn’t know what he was doing. He looked like a deer in the headlights. After the OU game Martinez picked up right where he left off. After that first weird scramble and the crazy forward pitch he should have been taken out and the coaches should have been horse whipped. BUT THEY KEPT HIM IN! and KEPT HIM RUNNING THAT PLAY!

How many sacks should it take before you change something, personnel or at least give him a blocker? Why was Cody Green dropping back for a pass in the end zone with no backfield protection?

Martinez’s second weird, clueless forward pitch when he pitched it to the defender and it bounced back and he caught it was, according to the statistical rule book: his first career pass reception. Seriously! He should have been taken out. 5 sacks later we lost the game and were humiliated by a team we whipped with 56 points earlier in the year before they watched the tape on the naked zone read run.

You put in Martinez as a drop back bootleg passer, you put in Cody Green instead of experienced Zach Lee to run the two minute offense, and you put Legate on the sidelines the whole game because we have no use for a lead blocker or any pass protection in the pocket, you put the greatest field goal kicker in the history of the college game (ESPN’s words not mine) on the bench because you can’t get him within 60 yards of the goal posts and a three man rush is sending T-Mart flipping end over end in a 20-yard, body slam sack?

Washington has the 103rd worst run defense and T-Mart was what, -23 yards rushing?

Martinez, like Alex Henery may be the biggest waste of talent Nebraska may have ever seen fly by.

Imagine if we had [insert famous available coach or offensive coordinator] on the sidelines running our offense what an incredible year this could have been.

We really should have won EVERY game easily. You could almost say we threw every loss.

By the way, the SDSU Jackrabbits have a losing record and are unranked in the I-AA.

The play calling, the type of offense and the blocking scheme all lay at the feet of Wats. If TM cannot execute due to the pourous line and does not have the fleet feet of a Crouch or Vince Young in his Freshman year does not mean he will not develop them in the later years. Getting him the experience along the way is critical for development and maturing.

Bo may not be (high value) HC material at an elite program like NU (yet) but we knew that when we hired him, we knew it would be under TO’s guidance and direction. That will happen this off season and continously over a period of years but Bo will grow from the hard knocks of this season. It took TO how many years to be near perfect? Bo has a lot of emotion and character and VALUES! Just like Wats. Are we fans so hungry for wins that we should expect less for the overall benefit these coaches bring to the table? They will get the X’s and O’s and the personnel to meld for some great runs for the divisions, conference and national titles. It just won’t happen each year and it won’t happen if we throw any of them under the bus or get rid of them.

This years adversity will give them something to work on in the off season and something to solve before the fall. I like who/what we have, it’s just a matter of maturity (at many levels) and learning from the mistakes. As painful as the loss to Udub was in the HB I think it will be a great motivator for next season.

I feel there should be no excuses for the penalties, turnovers, and poor play calling. It is coaching. The Pelini’s have a sound defensive program, but where was the quarterback pressure this year? And, I havent seen any comments from Bo from the Oklahoma game or Washington game, maybe its because I live in California. And am I the only one that is not impressed with Martinez as a leader?

The problem with Nebraska’s offense was not with Taylor Martinez at quarterback but
with the offensive line, there penalities, and all the offensive backs not holding the football. The offensive play calling became to predictable, and receivers lacked speed
and dropped too many balls!

Come from many different backgrounds and develop at different rates. Not many of us, successful as we might be now, were leadership quality at 18 years old. We may look back and find leadership qualities but for the most part 18 year olds do not exhibit those skills until they are groomed to do so. People need to realize he is a freshman QB and will experience all the woes that come along with it. Watching the major bowl games this week all I heard was announcers talking about “This offensive line has worked together as a unit now for nearly 4 years. Between the 5 of them they share 140+ starts” and I realized that all the top 10 teams have offensive units that are 2-3 years in the making. Some fans had us playing a NC game after the Okie State game…with a freshman QB and a patchwork Oline. Give us a few years, with coaching improving along with atheletes, and we might legitimately have a shot at the top 3-5 spots.

Great posts huskerfan416! You display veteran wisdom and insight. It’s obvious you’ve been around football awhile and understand things don’t happen overnight. Patience, perseverence, and growth through adversity are what take good teams and good players to the next level. The defense has arrived ahead of schedule! We are blessed to have the Bros. Pelini at the helm of one of the nation’s best defenses and should be pinching ourselves with gratefulness. The D is loaded with depth and new talent going forward. There will be no drop off next year (even without Amukamara, Hagg and Gomes). As for the offense, yes, it’s been exasperating watching them struggle with penalties, turnovers, poor execution, bad decision making and the inability to find a consistent identity. Obviously, the youth, inexperience and injuries of TM were a big factor (especially as the competition got tougher). Wats’ coaching a hybrid of WCO/ZoneRead and Wildcat didn’t help either. He was coaching out of his comfort zone. The O will be the offseason focus for sure. The ineptness will be addressed at every level including the assessment of individual coaches. In time, they will land in a better place. Bo (and perhaps T.O.) will make sure that happens. The biggest difference next year, however, will come with TM himself. Not in talent or being healthy again…but in his development as a leader. He will grow tremendously from the adversity of this year. If he truly means what he said about wanting to “become a better leader” and works hard at it, he will gain the respect of his teammates. He’ll learn to enter the huddle, make eye contact, inspire his teammates and learn what it really requires to lead a team. The offense may not put up 50 pts a game, but it will take a significant step forward. There will be an identity with the scheme, more passion, more discipline and a budding leader at the helm. Yeah, I’m sure some of you are rolling your eyes right now, but it’s coming. Growth and maturation through adversity will reveal a remarkable new product in 2011. Watch and see. Remember, it took T.O. 20 years to win a title. Bo will get there much, much sooner. In the meantime, our players and coaches need our support and loyalty. Let’s rally around them as true fans!