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Over the next two weeks, the Journal Star is taking a position-by-position look at the Huskers, what was learned early in March and what to look for whenever NU returns to the field.

Quarterbacks

Scholarship players: Juniors Adrian Martinez (21 starts) and Noah Vedral (2), redshirt freshman Luke McCaffrey and freshman Logan Smothers.

One storyline

The storyline, really, between now and September — regardless of when football is actually practiced again — in the Nebraska quarterbacks room is going to be about the race for the starting job.

Head coach Scott Frost made it clear at the outset of spring ball that there would be a competition for the job, and that Martinez entered spring with the lead. The question about whether McCaffrey or Vedral can wrestle the job away will remain an open one, but Frost said he thought Martinez had mentally bounced back from a sophomore campaign that saw his passing numbers regress nearly across the board.

“I can't say a lot other than he seems like he's in a good place right now,� Frost said. “I've lived this. When a team struggles, the team's struggles are the quarterback's struggles, and the quarterback's struggles are the team's struggles. He cares as much as anybody on our team and wants to win as much as anybody on our team. He takes that hard just like I would or just like you would.�

One of the interesting things, on a more micro level, that came from that March 9 news conference blitz was offensive coordinator Matt Lubick and quarterbacks coach Mario Verduzco discussing where they thought the quarterbacks needed to target improvement. When the offensive staff did its self-scout, it was clear that it thought Martinez and the NU quarterbacks missed too many chances in 2019.

“I think just the read-and-key part of it and being comfortable with that,� Verduzco said. “…Whether you’re playing JV football or you’re a 12-year veteran in the NFL, you can always get better at that part of it. We’ve identified that piece of it going into spring. Then being masters at the protection part of the game, because we have some control over our protections.�

Verduzco called Martinez’s performance in the read-and-react department “pretty good,� for 2019, but said there was plenty of room for growth going into Year 3.

“There were some times when he could have maybe helped himself and helped his team by being a little bit more disciplined with his eyeballs and where they belonged,� Verduzco said. “Some instances where, ‘Man what are you doing with your eyes?’ We’re sitting together watching tape and, in his brain as he would sit back and reflect on that particular snap, ‘I don’t know.’�

Improvement in that department — from Martinez or any of the others — will be a significant part of who shows they can run the offense most efficiently.

One quote

Verduzco, when asked how to keep four highly scholarship quarterbacks happy in an era when transfers have become more and more common.

“I don’t know. We’re going to find out together. We seem to think we do a pretty good job of evaluating the guys that are here in terms of explaining why they’re No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 on the depth chart. We seem to think we’ve gained their trust, so they trust us. So I think that will stem off some of it, but I won’t know until we find ourselves in this position.�

One thought

The Journal Star’s Steven M. Sipple recently posited that a long break in action will make it even more difficult for one of the challengers for the quarterback job to unseat Martinez, given the junior’s experience and the potential decrease in time between whenever the team reconvenes and the beginning of the regular season.

Here’s another: This is a tough break for Smothers as much or maybe more so than any of the other guys. The freshman worked to get to campus early and was just starting to get fully healthy after being injured at the end of his high school career. Plus, consider that part of the reason Martinez and McCaffrey each got in position to play as freshmen was because of mechanical adjustments they were able to work on with Verduzco.

“I couldn’t work with Adrian, couldn’t work with Luke until we started spring ball in terms of getting their stroke squared away,� Verduzco said. “So Logan has a few things we have to get taken care of.�

Now that work is delayed.