Welcome to The Platinum Board

We are a Nebraska Husker fan community. Please either login or register for an account

  • Welcome to The Platinum Board! We are a Nebraska Cornhuskers news source and community. Please click "Log In" or "Register" above to gain access to the forums.

NU QB position since 2010

Irv

Wide Receiver
Elite Member
Messages
3,042
Likes
15,688
Was thinking about all of the complaints about how mediocre we have been at QB for so long, and one thing that really stands out is just how few guys have been the named starting QB (not counting injury starts) since 2010. We have done a terrible job of recruiting legitimate competition for a guy once he got the job early in his career.

Starting in 2010, we have only had 6 different opening day starters, and 2 of those were the lost 2 years. There were only 4 different opening day starters from 2010-2021.

2010-2013 Taylor Martinez
2014-2016 Tommy Armstrong
2017 Tanner Lee
2018-2021 Adrian Martinez
2022 Thompson
2023 Sims

It's kind of amazing to have that kind of consistency without having any great success at the position. Yes, some guys were better than others, but no one in that group is so special that they should have started their entire career without threat of losing their job to a better guy.

I guess you can quibble and say we dabbled with Smothers or McCaffrey midseason, but all they did was show the weakness of subsequent recruiting. We have to get a lot more aggressive about having a QB room with options.
 
Last edited:
Perhaps NU's less-than-stellar performance since 2010 might be a factor in why top-tier quarterbacks are hesitant to choose this program. Your list serves as a vivid reminder of how bad the QB room has been. While a few of those quarterbacks were serviceable, none achieved notable success.

Recruiting two quarterback prospects willing to compete for the starting role becomes a challenge when genuine quarterback talent isn't eager to join/transfer to NU.
 
Was thinking about all of the complaints about how mediocre we have been at QB for so long, and one thing that really stands out is just how few guys have been the named starting QB (not counting injury starts) since 2010. We have done a terrible job of recruiting legitimate competition for a guy once he got the job early in his career.

Starting in 2010, we have only had 6 different opening day starters, and 2 of those were the lost 2 years. There were only 4 different opening day starters from 2010-2021.

2010-2013 Taylor Martinez
2014-2016 Tommy Armstrong
2017 Tanner Lee
2018-2021 Adrian Martinez
2022 Thompson
2023 Sims

It's kind of amazing to have that kind of consistency without having any great success at the position. Yes, some guys were better than others, but no one in that group is so special that they should have started their entire career without threat of losing their job to a better guy.

I guess you can quibble and say we dabbled with Smothers or McCaffrey midseason, but all they did was show the weakness of subsequent recruiting. We have to get a lot more aggressive about having a QB room with options.


And yet I would argue Nebraska is easily 2-0 right now if Taylor, Tommy or even Adrian were the starting QB's this season. Despite all their problems, they made big plays and none of them had a Defense this good outside of Taylor in 2010.
 
And yet I would argue Nebraska is easily 2-0 right now if Taylor, Tommy or even Adrian were the starting QB's this season. Despite all their problems, they made big plays and none of them had a Defense this good outside of Taylor in 2010.
Adrian had a pretty good defense in 2021 and he only managed 3 wins so I dunno

Tommy would lead us to 10 wins with this defense though
 
Was thinking about all of the complaints about how mediocre we have been at QB for so long, and one thing that really stands out is just how few guys have been the named starting QB (not counting injury starts) since 2010. We have done a terrible job of recruiting legitimate competition for a guy once he got the job early in his career.

Starting in 2010, we have only had 6 different opening day starters, and 2 of those were the lost 2 years. There were only 4 different opening day starters from 2010-2021.

2010-2013 Taylor Martinez
2014-2016 Tommy Armstrong
2017 Tanner Lee
2018-2021 Adrian Martinez
2022 Thompson
2023 Sims

It's kind of amazing to have that kind of consistency without having any great success at the position. Yes, some guys were better than others, but no one in that group is so special that they should have started their entire career without threat of losing their job to a better guy.

I guess you can quibble and say we dabbled with Smothers or McCaffrey midseason, but all they did was show the weakness of subsequent recruiting. We have to get a lot more aggressive about having a QB room with options.
throw up team america GIF
 
Perhaps NU's less-than-stellar performance since 2010 might be a factor in why top-tier quarterbacks are hesitant to choose this program. Your list serves as a vivid reminder of how bad the QB room has been. While a few of those quarterbacks were serviceable, none achieved notable success.

Recruiting two quarterback prospects willing to compete for the starting role becomes a challenge when genuine quarterback talent isn't eager to join/transfer to NU.
I don't buy that as being a factor. it might hurt with the highly-ranked guys, but there are plenty of G5 schools that find productive QBs every year. QB, as much as any position is about talent evaluation, development and finding guys that fit the scheme.

I'd argue the constant changing of coaches, scheme and lack of identity are as much to blame as anything

Look at Jalon Daniels at KU. he's a better QB than anything we've had in over a decade and he was a 2-star with no other P5 interest and ends up at arguably the worst P5 team at the time. then he gets the right OC and he's a star
 
You could definitely be right, but if this defense ends up being a top 25-35 defense with this offense that says something. We have to just let the season play out.
I'll agree to that. The 2021 defense had to deal with 2AM turnovers too but wasn't as bad as this start. They certainly still had some problems too. I tried to find where they ended up ranking earlier but gave up.
 
I'll agree to that. The 2021 defense had to deal with 2AM turnovers too but wasn't as bad as this start. They certainly still had some problems too. I tried to find where they ended up ranking earlier but gave up.
The biggest thing which frustrated me with that defense is when the offense would finally come through, the defense would let up a score. Frost teams were the worst at complimentary football.
 

Theme customization system

You can customize some areas of the forum theme from this menu.

  • Wide/Narrow view

    You can control a structure that you can use to use your theme wide or narrow.

    Grid view forum list

    You can control the layout of the forum list in a grid or ordinary listing style structure.

    Close sidebar

    You can get rid of the crowded view in the forum by closing the sidebar.

    Fixed sidebar

    You can make it more useful and easier to access by pinning the sidebar.

  • Color combinations cannot be used

    Color combinations are not available to you, this area may be restricted by administrators. Please contact the administrator for more information.

    Color gradient backgrounds
Back