Nebraska quarterback Taylor Martinez doesn’t often divulge a whole lot to the media. But the sophomore talked to CBSSports.com’s Dennis Dodd about last season’s most controversial moment, when head coach Bo Pelini got in his face during a loss to Texas A&M. Martinez re-injured his right ankle during the game and called his father, Casey, in the locker room after being examined. After he emerged from the locker room, Pelini poked his finger in the chest of the quarterback. Here’s Martinez’s recollection of events, via Dodd: “I went back to the lockerroom. I couldn’t move at all. It was so painful, my left toe and my right ankle. I was in so much pain
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Martinez says Pelini ‘misunderstood’ call
Filed under Football by on Jun 29th, 2011. Comment. 
Martinez, who grew up in the West Texas town of Ballinger, was the Cards’ strength and conditioning coach for almost three years before joining Mack Brown’s staff at UT. Martinez will serve as an assistant under new Longhorns strength and conditioning… Source: Kens5.com San Antonio
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Former UIW coach enjoying new job on Brown’s UT staff
Filed under News by on Apr 5th, 2011. Comment.
I first (briefly) stated my argument on Twitter : No team in college football was more interesting on and off the field for more reasons in the last year than Nebraska. A lot of those reasons for interest were positive for the program. Others were negative. But I would argue that no team had more headline-worthy happenings on campus than the Huskers in the past year. I hear the arguments for USC (coaching change, sanctions), Notre Dame (coaching change, student death, anticlimactic realignment) and Florida (Urban Meyer postseason flip-flop, “You’re a bad guy” media incident, offensive collapse, coaching change). I disagree. A refresher course on the past 12 months in Nebraska football, for those who have forgotten: Spring 2010: Starting quarterback Zac Lee is forced to sit out spring practice, and rumors about the progress of a redshirt freshman, Taylor Martinez , start to emerge. Martinez validates those rumors with a memorable spring game performance that leaves fans buzzing. May-June 2010: Realignment r umors build into reality, and days after Big 12 spring meeting s close, Nebraska leaves the Big 12 for the Big Ten , by far the biggest move of the summer’s realignment. It becomes official on July 1, 2011. August 2010: During fall camp, linebacker Sean Fisher (broken leg) and cornerback Anthony Blue (torn ACL) were injured during a closed practice, and rumors of their injuries leaked onto message boards. As a result, media members tried to reach family members, at one point, while Fisher was undergoing surgery. As a result, coach Bo Pelini banned the media from accessing his team for three days. Sept. 4, 2010: No starter was officially announced before the season opener against Western Kentucky, but the speedy Martinez was announced during starting lineups to a raucous reception from the fans. He becomes the first freshman to start a season opener in Nebraska history. On his first career career carry, he runs for a 46-yard touchdown. Nebraska wins 49-10. Oct. 7, 2010: Martinez had considerable buzz after rushing for 496 yards and eight scores in his first four games, but his coming out party was a nationally-televised, Thursday night game against Kansas State. He ran for four touchdowns, 241 yards and led the Huskers to a 48-13 road conference win over the bowl-bound Wildcats. That’s Heisman-type stuff, and for the first time, he realistically threw his name into the Heisman race (alongside shoo-in Heisman winner Denard Robinson ) and then-No. 5 Nebraska was looking like a very real national championship contender. Martinez would not score another rushing touchdown the rest of the season. Oct. 16, 2010: Nine days later, they hit the first of many speed bumps. Texas’ free fall lessened the impact of what looked like the biggest game of the year , but the Longhorns, who finished 5-7, were still able to remind Nebraska of the mysterious mojo they have over the Huskers. Martinez struggled, was benched in the fourth quarter and Nebraska suffered its first loss, 20-13, at home, in a shocker. The loss moved Nebraska to 1-9 against Texas since the Big 12 began in 1996. Oct. 30, 2010: Roy Helu Jr. runs for 307 yards to help beat Missouri and gives the Huskers control of the Big 12 North. Martinez suffers a sprained ankle late in the first half and doesn’t play in the second half. It eventually proves as one of the biggest moments of Nebraska’s season. Nov. 6, 2010: Martinez sits against Iowa State with an injured ankle, and the Cyclones erase a 24-10 lead to send the game into overtime. The Huskers score first, but intercept a wobbly pass on a fake punt to win the game , 31-30, and maintain control of the Big 12 North, which they eventually win. Nov. 20, 2010: Nebraska is flagged a school-record 16 times, compared to Texas A&M’s two. The worst of the 16 flags is a phantom roughing the passer call that extends Texas A&M’s game-winning drive in the 9-6 win. The biggest news, though, has little to do with the on-field action that resulted in a second loss. Martinez starts, but re-injures the ankle early and heads to the locker room. There, he returns a call from his father in violation of team rules. Upon learning this information, Pelini screams inches away from a stone-faced Martinez while jabbing his chest with a finger.
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None more ‘interesting’ than Nebraska
Filed under Football, News by on Feb 8th, 2011. Comment.
It’s a difficult task to narrow down a season into 10 moments. My definition of the “top” 10 is the 10 moments that we’ll look back on from this season and remember them, good or bad. So, here goes. 1. A&M makes the switch. College football can be a cruel game. Texas A&M entered the season with the Big 12’s Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, Jerrod Johnson , hoping to lead the Aggies to their first Big 12 title since 1998. But offseason surgery sapped the zip from his throwing shoulder and produced an ugly start to his season, leading the Aggies to switch to Ryan Tannehill . Tannehill set the school record for passing yards in his first start, a win over Texas Tech, and helped the Aggies finish the regular season with six consecutive wins and a berth in the Cotton Bowl. 2. Texas’ loss to UCLA. The red flags were there. Texas looked uninspired in wins over Wyoming and Rice, but looked dominant on defense in a road win over Texas Tech. Then the cellar-dwelling Bruins and their Pistol offense came to town. The Longhorns got rolled 34-12 in their own stadium. The loss shocked just about everyone, but it was a sign of what was to come : a 5-7 season the Texas faithful would rather forget. 3. Don’t call it a comeback. Actually, you could probably call it a comeback. It was no Cam Newton in the Iron Bowl, but Landry Jones helped rally Oklahoma from a 17-0 deficit to Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship to knock off the Huskers, 23-20
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Top 10 moments of 2010 in the Big 12
Filed under Football by on Jan 18th, 2011. Comment.
Taylor Martinez ended any notion that he won’t be a Husker for the 2011 season. “To dismiss any rumors on my thoughts of transferring I’d like to state that I am anxious to get back to Nebraska Sunday evening and look forward to getting healthy and getting my strength and speed back,” Martinez said via his father, Casey Martinez, in an e-mail to ESPN.com. “I also look forward to using these past year’s experiences and challenges to help me become a better all around person, football player and leader. I feel that with the players that we have coming back, along with the new talent that is coming into the Husker program that we will have great success for many years under coach [Bo] Pelini.” Rumors of an impending transfer for the Corona, Calif., native has persisted throughout his struggles over the second half of the season after he injured his ankle against Missouri and aggravated the injury against Texas A&M. The redshirt freshman started 11 of 13 games for the Huskers, becoming the first freshman in Nebraska history to start the season opener in the process, and sounds anxious to end those rumors and move on to his sophomore season.
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Taylor Martinez says he’s staying put
Filed under Football, News by on Jan 6th, 2011. Comment.
Martinez like the concept was trending on Twitter. South Dakota State made things difficult for Martinez and Nebraska , causing them to readjust. The previous week’s problems seemed like a blip on the radar as Martinez would nearly dissect Kansas State’s… Source: Bleacher Report
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Taylor Martinez: A Nebraska Cornhuskers Captain or Cancer?
Filed under News by on Jan 5th, 2011. Comment.
No, Washington isn’t joining the Big Ten or Big 12. It just seems a bit like it to the Huskers. Nebraska will play its second of three meetings with the Huskies in a 12-month span on Wednesday night. The Huskers made the trek to Seattle in September and beat the Huskies 56-21 behind a 383-yard rushing day that saw Roy Helu Jr. , Taylor Martinez and Rex Burkhead all top 100 yards. Good luck finding a team who loses with those kind of numbers. Nebraska didn’t come close. So what about this time? WHO TO WATCH: Washington quarterback Jake Locker . Locker’s descent down the 2011 draft board began with nothing less than a nightmare outing against Nebraska’s secondary, which finished the season as one of the nation’s most fearsome. Cornerbacks Prince Amukamara and Alfonzo Dennard are both certified lockdown defenders, and Locker managed to complete just 4-of-20 passes against the Huskers. After 13 games, they’re one of just three defenses in the country who prevented opposing quarterbacks from completing more than 50 percent of their passes. Along the way, they ruined an impressive number of impressive passers’ days. So what happens this time? There isn’t a lot of reason to believe a banged-up Locker will do much better, but you never know. If he has a day like he did back in Seattle in September, this one will be over early. If he learns from those experiences and looks like the prototype NFL quarterback most pegged him to be, it might be closer than the two-touchdown line set on the rematch. WHAT TO WATCH: Martinez’s mobility. The freshman quarterback began the season as one of college football’s most electric talents, but since a career-high 241-yard, four-touchdown rushing night in a lopsided road win against Kansas State on Oct. 7, Martinez hasn’t reached the end zone and has run for more than 100 yards just once. He suffered an ankle injury against Missouri and never looked as fast or elusive as he did during nonconference play or against Kansas State. He should, in theory, be near 100 percent when the Huskers take the field, but there’s no guarantee. His play against Washington will establish plenty of momentum — good or bad — heading into 2011. WHY WATCH: The snide comments are a little too easy with this one. “We’ve already seen this episode. Late December is when reruns air, right? etc, etc.” September’s rout aside, these are two different teams than the ones that met back in Seattle. Martinez didn’t quite make the progress as a passer as coaches hoped he would , but he could have another special performance in store with a month to prepare. The same goes for Locker, who’ll get his second swing at the Blackshirts. Nebraska played pretty average football down the stretch after playing the part of national title contender early in the year. The Huskers lost two of their three final games and struggled on offense against Texas A&M and Oklahoma, both losses and Martinez’s last two starts. After being blown out by three ranked teams in the middle of the season, the Huskies closed with three wins, including two on the road in conference play. PREDICTION: Nebraska 34, Washington 13. Locker does well with an early set of scripted plays via coach and playcaller Steve Sarkisian, but the Blackshirts take over once the game hits a more natural flow.
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Holiday Bowl: Nebraska (10-3) vs. Washington (6-6)
Filed under Football by on Dec 29th, 2010. Comment.
There are all kinds of reasons for Nebraska to be unhappy with its bowl placement. It already beat Washington 56-21 in Seattle earlier this year. It beat Arizona 33-0 in the Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl last season, and plenty of fans made the trek to San Diego this time last year. Only 7,500 of the school’s allotment of 11,000 have been sold, and I don’t blame Huskers fans for being a little underwhelmed with the bowl destination. But they’re here. The game’s going to be played. And who has to step up for the Huskers to win? It’s pretty simple. Quarterback Taylor Martinez . There’s plenty of talk about Martinez’s ankle, which never looked like it fully healed after originally getting injured against Missouri. That said, defenses got a read on how to slow down Martinez before he got hurt. Texas did it. Missouri — Roy Helu Jr. ’s 307 rushing yards aside — didn’t let Martinez do anything or go anywhere without being hounded by defenders. The point is, after somehow throwing for over 300 yards and five touchdowns against Oklahoma State — he didn’t throw for more than 170 yards or more than one touchdown pass in any other game in 2010 — Martinez was mostly ineffective. Part of it was the ankle. Part of it was defenses making him complete difficult passes, which, more often than not, fell incomplete. Despite his threat to run that forced defenses to keep an eye on him as much as Nebraska’s receivers, Martinez completed only 58 percent of his passes. Only Kansas’ Jordan Webb and Colorado’s Cody Hawkins competed a lower percentage of throws.
Filed under Football by on Dec 22nd, 2010. Comment.
I hit on my upset special last week when I picked Texas A&M to beat Nebraska, but I’ll pause and give you a few seconds to plead your case about why it shouldn’t count… …I’m counting it anyway. For the second consecutive week, my only miss came courtesy of those plucky Boulder Buffs, so maybe it’s time to start picking them to win. We’ll see. I’m headed to Stillwater this week for Bedlam, a.k.a the Big 12 South championship game between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, but here’s who I’ve got this week in the rest of the games across the conference: Last week: 5-1 (.833) Overall: 71-18 (.798) THURSDAY No. 17 Texas A&M 20, Texas 13: This is my pick of the week. Come back later this afternoon for a video of my explanation. FRIDAY No. 15 Nebraska 19, Colorado 13 : Nebraska’s defense is playing better than it has all season. Its offense is playing as poorly as it has all season. It’s anyone’s guess as to if or how well Taylor Martinez plays on Saturday, but he won’t be the same Martinez that routinely racked up 125 yards on the ground early in the season. Without being able to plant on that ankle, Martinez’s passing mechanics suffered against Texas A&M as well. Nebraska finds enough offense to win with Rex Burkhead and Roy Helu Jr. , but it’s close against a Colorado team that’s finally utilizing its apparent talent. SATURDAY No. 14 Missouri 31, Kansas 14: Kansas is getting better, and played a great first half against Oklahoma State last week. The Tigers offense is good, but they don’t have the number of high-level options Oklahoma State used to blow out the Jayhawks in the second half. Don’t be surprised if Turner Gill has something up his sleeve for this game, and pulls it out to help put some points on the board early. Kansas State 41, North Texas 17: The Mean Green got a nice bump after firing Todd Dodge earlier in the year, but that bump isn’t going to put them over Kansas State. They don’t make running backs like Daniel Thomas in the Sun Belt. The Wildcats overpower the home team and head to a bowl game with a better taste in their mouth than after last week’s loss to Colorado. Texas Tech 47, Houston 24: Houston has lost its last three games, and given up 42 points a pop doing it. That streak won’t end in Lubbock against the Red Raiders. Taylor Potts goes out on a high note heading into a bowl game. No. 9 Oklahoma State 47, No. 13 Oklahoma 38 : Expect this one to be well worth the price of admission. Oklahoma State’s defense has made big strides down the stretch, and they’ll be the difference this week. Mike Gundy gets his first win over the Sooners with the most on the line and on the biggest stage. Couldn’t ask for a better time. I’ll be back on Friday with my three keys to this game for each team. Regular season complete : Baylor (7-5), Iowa State (5-7)
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Big 12 predictions: Week 13
Filed under Football by on Nov 24th, 2010. Comment.
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Taylor Martinez ’s ankle didn’t make it to the second quarter. Nebraska leads, 3-0, but Mike Caputo stepped on Martinez’s tender right ankle and sent him limping badly to the sideline, where he took a seat. Cody Green stepped in for the Huskers, but Martinez’s shoe is off and he doesn’t look entirely likely to return. Until he’s able to, expect lots of runs from Rex Burkhead and Roy Helu Jr. , and some Wildcat with Burkhead.
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Martinez goes down, re-injures ankle
Filed under Football by on Nov 21st, 2010. Comment.
