Nebraska Cornhuskers stick with Taylor Martinez at starter
The Nebraska Cornhuskers have made it clear that Taylor Martinez is still the club’s starting quarterback, despite being benched against the Texas Longhorns on Saturday 16 October.
Martinez struggled throughout the Cornhuskers rivalry game against the Longhorns and was only able to put up 13 points. The quarterback was dreadful in the 20-13 defeat to Texas, only attempting 12 passes and completing just four of them, for a total of
63 yards and a passer rating of 33.3 before he was benched. In addition, Martinez, who is generally strong on the ground in the Cornhuskers option offence, was stifled, only able to garner 21 yards.
The freshman was replaced by last year’s starter Zac Lee, who was able to produce a little more on the offensive end. The lack of production from Martinez coupled with the solid play of Lee lead many to speculate that Martinez could be dropped on the depth
chart. Nevertheless, the Cornhuskers were quick to get behind the youngster, noting that he is still the starter for the club.
Nebraska’s offensive co-ordinator Shawn Watson quelled any rumours of Lee taking over as starter when he spoke about the game.
“I sensed frustration out there," said Watson. "There were a lot of things happening to him that he couldn’t help. He was in a situation where it started snowballing on him. We went with Zac because Zac had the experience and maturity to handle it. Taylor
is still our starting quarterback.”
The loss was devastating for the Cornhuskers, who were in the running to claim the top spot in the Bowl Championship Series standings with a win. Unfortunately, the loss bumped the team all the way down to 16th.
Nevertheless, the Cornhuskers can take solace in the fact that they have two games remaining against ranked teams, in the Oklahoma State Cowboys and the Missouri Tigers.
The Cornhuskers next game is at Oklahoma State on 23 October.
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