Martinez Is Pelini’s Starter ‘If We Had a Game Today’ at LinesMaker

Martinez Is Pelini’s Starter ‘If We Had a Game Today’

For those curi­ous as to the state of Nebraska’s quar­ter­back posi­tion, last year’s starter Tay­lor Mar­tinez (no rela­tion) still sits atop the depth chart.  For now.

The Corn­huskers entered spring prac­tice under first-year offen­sive coor­di­na­tor Tim Beck by declar­ing the quar­ter­back com­pe­ti­tion wide open despite the fact that Mar­tinez had started 12 games in 2010.  After the 15 spring ses­sions, Mar­tinez has been given a (very) tepid endorse­ment by head coach Bo Pelini over the likes of junior Cody Green and red­shirt fresh­man Brion Carnes.

And a reminder that the bat­tle for the start­ing job has yet to fully play itself out.

“Our phi­los­o­phy in our pro­gram is it’s always an ongo­ing com­pe­ti­tion,” Pelini said dur­ing an ESPN inter­view by way of the Lin­coln Jour­nal Star. “You know, I think if we had a game today, Tay­lor Mar­tinez would be our quar­ter­back. We’d feel real com­fort­able with that.

“But we don’t play a game for a long time and we ask our play­ers to com­pete every day, and the competition’s always on. So you never know what’s going to hap­pen going into the fall.”

While it was Mar­tinez is the incum­bent, it was Carnes who stole the spring game show and pos­si­bly closed some ground in the com­pe­ti­tion head­ing into the sum­mer.  Carnes com­pleted 11-of-15 passes for 173 yards and two touch­downs in the glo­ri­fied scrim­mage.  Mar­tinez, on the other hand, was just 4-of-13 pass­ing and threw an interception.

“He’s a tal­ented young man,” Pelini said of Carnes fol­low­ing the spring game. “The light … it’s flick­er­ing. It’s just got to stay on. I can say that about a lot of young guys, though.”

Pelini, who said he “could care less about the sta­tis­tics in a spring game”, was also asked whether Carnes could push Mar­tinez and Green for the start­ing job in sum­mer camp.  ”Absolutely,” the coach responded.

Still, given Martinez’s expe­ri­ence, it’s be more than a lit­tle sur­pris­ing if any­one other than the incum­bent were under cen­ter for the Corn­huskers’ first sea­son in the Big Ten.

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