Nebraska Football: It’s time for Adrian Martinez to be pushed

The best thing for Nebraska football and Scott Frost is to push Adrian Martinez after a rough start to the 2019 season.

Now, hear me out, I am not saying they need to push the talented quarterback out the door. Instead, they need to bring in someone — anyone — that can push him for the starting job.

Competition breathes competition and fuels competitive fire.

Right now, Nebraska is serious lacking that, especially at the quarterback position.

Martinez looks lost out on the field and that was never more evident than his most recent outing – as there is no way you can call it a performance in the least bit. He completed just 8-of-17 passes and threw three interceptions, totaling just 128 total yards from scrimmage.

Heck, at one point, he seemed to be completing more passes to the Buckeyes than his own teammates.

Martinez was rattled by the Ohio State defense and seemed overwhelmed by the atmosphere of the game. Yes, he is still a very, very young sophomore, but at this point in his career, he should be looking better, not worse.

Blame Frost for that.

Nebraska had brought in a couple guys that could push Martinez including Patrick O’Brien and Tristan Gebbia. Both, though, left because they felt as if the Martinez-Frost combination would never be broken up while they were on campus.

While he was at UCF, Frost seemed to be a quarterback guru, getting the most out of Justin Holman before handing over control to McKenzie Milton. Can Martinez be the next McKenzie Milton? Maybe, but he needs to have a push in that direction.

Thanks to the new transfer rules and the ever-expanding transfer portal, Nebraska can go on the market in search of just that kind of player.

In recent years, Justin Fields, Jalen Hurts, Tate Martell, Kelly Bryant and Austin Kendall just to name a few have taken advantage of the transfer portal and found new homes. For Fields and Hurts, it is definitely working out, while Martell is now at a new position and both Bryant and Kendall are seeing the field.

Players today want to gain valuable on-the-field experience, so they are looking for a place to do that. Houston’s D’Eriq King recently opted to redshirt with the intent to return to the Cougars next fall.

But what if Frost can get someone close to him to listen to a sales pitch? King’s future might be at wide receiver in the NFL or another position other than quarterback. Who knows a little bit about that? Frost, as he was a quarterback at Nebraska but stuck around in the NFL for six seasons with several teams while playing safety and on special teams.

Say Frost starts talking to King, tells him he will have the chance to take the quarterback job from Martinez, with the idea that he’ll use him on offense elsewhere if not. That might be enough to get him to transfer from Houston to the Big Ten and play for Nebraska.

If not King, maybe the odd-man-out at Frost’s old school, UCF, would be interested in leaving sunny Florida for Lincoln, Neb.

Either way, the Cornhuskers need to improve their quarterback position if they want to be real threats to the Big Ten title.