Adrian Martinez stood on the home sideline with his helmet half-on, chin strap dangling around his eyes and a small smile on his face Saturday evening at Memorial Stadium.
He greeted some teammates and coaches with high-fives, took some words of encouragement from others. To his right, director of player development Ron Brown, a man who’s seen this spectacle many times before, gave a knowing grin and nod toward the freshman experiencing it for the first time.
Martinez, at that point, had completed literally everything in the run-up to his first collegiate snap, on his team's first offensive series of his first collegiate gameday. He dropped his lid the rest of the way, got the most-certainly pre-rehearsed play call, this time for real, from coach Scott Frost — the specific play will remain a secret for now, but, "you can just say it was going to be a good one," Martinez said — and trotted onto the field.
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That, of course, is as far as Martinez and the Huskers made it against Akron. Mother Nature took over from there.
Nobody knows what would have happened had the 18-year-old actually played a full game with his teammates. Nobody knows what that debut to the Frost era would have looked like. As kickoff against Colorado approaches, still nothing about the Huskers' 2018 campaign is definite.
But, boy, the coaching staff seems to have a pretty good idea of what they think is coming.
"You can tell when a kid is ready; I think he was ready," Frost said Monday. He thought the same of his team overall and has doubled down now that the preparations for Colorado are nearly complete, saying Thursday, “These guys are as ready as they can be and as prepared as we know how to make them.â€
Martinez and others said during the delay that they’d play Akron in the team’s indoor practice facility, “which would have been epic, but probably not safe,†Frost said. The coach admitted to being a bit “antsy†before kickoff and that going through all the pregame machinations will only help against the Buffs. Martinez didn’t disagree, but said he would have been fine anyhow, thank you very much.
“I felt like I was prepared and ready to go regardless,†he said. “I felt like I didn’t need that little extra help, I guess you could say. I felt like I was ready to go. I was excited, I wasn’t nervous.
Quarterbacks coach Mario Verduzco, a man who tells it like it is, agreed.
“He was probably more relaxed than I was, I think,†Verduzco said. “He felt really good. He did. Then obviously what happened, happened, and then when I got a chance to talk to him on Monday we were talking about looking forward to Colorado and how he felt.
“I think he feels even more relaxed because he’s kind of got that out of the way, you know? The hotel business, what we do pregame, what we do in the hotel and all that sort of stuff. So I think he even feels more relaxed this week. But we’ll find out. We’ll see.â€
We will, at long last.
It’s a fool’s errand to try to put a measurable value on either team’s Week 1 experience heading into Saturday. If Nebraska starts fast and plays well, how much of that is because they’ve been through the warmups and game-week preparations already? If Colorado comes in and knocks off the hosts, how much blame will be laid at Akron’s feet?
The ultimate answer doesn’t really matter. Husker fans are finally going to get their first look at the Frost-led Huskers and the overhauled defense and the young signal-caller. It’s been a weird week, but Martinez, it seems, is always level-headed and maybe even more-so in front of a roiling crowd.
“He’s ready,†Frost said. “I don’t know how he’s going to respond when he gets that first snap, but I’ve got a pretty good idea he’ll be calm. I think there’s going to be a mistake or two, but we’re going to have to deal with that and go out and make plays to make up for it.â€