Chart time! Let's find out how good this Martinez kid really is.
Below is a graph showing both passing yards (vertical axis) and rushing yards (horizontal axis) for Husker quarterbacks over their entire career. This is notable for a few reasons. First, Adrian has already surpassed many Husker QB career totals. In his freshman year. Let that sink in.
Specifically, he already has more career passing yards than:
Now all this is commendable, but has he RAN for more yards that Scott Frost? Or PASSED more than Jerry Tagge? No, of course not. But again, we're talking about Adrian's numbers in a freshman season against guys who had 2-4 years under their belts. If Adrian plays four full years at Nebraska, things could get interesting. This raises a valid point, though, in terms of comparing numbers over a career versus averages for a single season. Guys like Taylor Martinez and Tommy Armstrong were four year starters and had much more time at the helm to pack on the stats.
Actually - side note - take a look at how far our Armstrong, Taylor Martinez and Eric Crouch are from the rest of the pack. Anyone who wants to crap on T-Magic, specifically, should remember that he passed for more yards than any Husker ever until Armstrong followed him up, and he damn near caught Crouch on the ground. T-Magic was only about 400 career yards shy (that's like only 8 more ypg) of catching up to our last Heisman winner. But overall, in terms of sheer yardage those three are in a class by themselves.
Unless....
We look at single-season averages:
Holy crap.
Adjusting for averages puts Adrian majorly ahead of the game. Call up the 1995 Gators because Adrian is running more than Touchdown Tommie. He's actually within ~200 yards of Eric Crouch. And, yes, I realize Crouch's running numbers spiked dramatically in his JR/SR years en route to a Heisman, but it's impressive to think Adrian is within 20-25 extra yards per game of Crouch's pace. In fact, assuming we play at least 13 games (a bowl, a CCG, whatever), Adrian only needs to run 70ypg to outright surpass Crouch's totals.
Also - hot damn, that Jammal Lord kid could trample over some defenses, averaging almost 1300 yards per season.
Back on Adrian: in the air, he's out-throwing every single Husker QB except Zac Taylor and Tanner Lee. And while they both were solid quarterbacks, we're talking about a difference of ~500 yards per season. That's less than 50 yards per game, which I suspect we could see as Adrian and the WRs mature.
If Adrian keeps up this production over 4 years, he'll certainly wipe the floor in career passing numbers. And likely be Top 5 in career rushing. That's a big IF, but this kid has the potential to outgain just about any other QB we've ever had.
Below is a graph showing both passing yards (vertical axis) and rushing yards (horizontal axis) for Husker quarterbacks over their entire career. This is notable for a few reasons. First, Adrian has already surpassed many Husker QB career totals. In his freshman year. Let that sink in.
Specifically, he already has more career passing yards than:
- Mike Grant
- Brook Berringer
- Zac Lee
- Sam Keller
- Scott Frost (yes, he's already thrown more yards than Frosty did in two years)
- Sam Keller
- Tanner Lee
- Zac Taylor
- Vince Ferragamo
- Dave Hum
- Zac Lee
- Brook Berringer
- Joe Ganz
- Mike Grant
Now all this is commendable, but has he RAN for more yards that Scott Frost? Or PASSED more than Jerry Tagge? No, of course not. But again, we're talking about Adrian's numbers in a freshman season against guys who had 2-4 years under their belts. If Adrian plays four full years at Nebraska, things could get interesting. This raises a valid point, though, in terms of comparing numbers over a career versus averages for a single season. Guys like Taylor Martinez and Tommy Armstrong were four year starters and had much more time at the helm to pack on the stats.
Actually - side note - take a look at how far our Armstrong, Taylor Martinez and Eric Crouch are from the rest of the pack. Anyone who wants to crap on T-Magic, specifically, should remember that he passed for more yards than any Husker ever until Armstrong followed him up, and he damn near caught Crouch on the ground. T-Magic was only about 400 career yards shy (that's like only 8 more ypg) of catching up to our last Heisman winner. But overall, in terms of sheer yardage those three are in a class by themselves.
Unless....
We look at single-season averages:
Holy crap.
Adjusting for averages puts Adrian majorly ahead of the game. Call up the 1995 Gators because Adrian is running more than Touchdown Tommie. He's actually within ~200 yards of Eric Crouch. And, yes, I realize Crouch's running numbers spiked dramatically in his JR/SR years en route to a Heisman, but it's impressive to think Adrian is within 20-25 extra yards per game of Crouch's pace. In fact, assuming we play at least 13 games (a bowl, a CCG, whatever), Adrian only needs to run 70ypg to outright surpass Crouch's totals.
Also - hot damn, that Jammal Lord kid could trample over some defenses, averaging almost 1300 yards per season.
Back on Adrian: in the air, he's out-throwing every single Husker QB except Zac Taylor and Tanner Lee. And while they both were solid quarterbacks, we're talking about a difference of ~500 yards per season. That's less than 50 yards per game, which I suspect we could see as Adrian and the WRs mature.
If Adrian keeps up this production over 4 years, he'll certainly wipe the floor in career passing numbers. And likely be Top 5 in career rushing. That's a big IF, but this kid has the potential to outgain just about any other QB we've ever had.
