Adrian Martinez named Huskers' starting QB

Two days after being voted a team captain by his teammates for the second straight year, junior quarterback Adrian Martinez solidified his spot as Nebraska's starting quarterback to open the 2020 season.

After an offseason full of speculation over whether redshirt freshman Luke McCaffrey could unseat the two-year starter as the Huskers' No. 1 QB, head coach Scott Frost put that discussion to bed - for the time being, at least - by confirming that Martinez would be the starter at Ohio State on Saturday.

"Adrian is our quarterback," Frost said.

It remains to be seen if McCaffrey will still have a relatively prominent role in the offense to start out, whether it be rotating in at times with Martinez or even having a package of specialized plays.

There's also the question of how long Martinez's leash might be should he struggle this season, either at Ohio State or on through the first few games?

Because of injuries and inconsistent play, Martinez has ridden about as wild of an individual career roller coaster as anyone on the roster.

The hype surrounding Martinez following his impressive freshman campaign in 2018 was as great as we've seen for a Husker in some time. But injuries and a multitude of other issues turned his sophomore season into a disaster.

The former four-star out of Fresno (Calif.) Clovis West missed two starts to injury in 2019 and threw for 1,956 yards and 10 touchdowns while rushing for 626 yards and seven scores.

His average of 62.6 rushing yards per game was the highest by a Husker quarterback since 2012, and his 258.2 yards of total offense per game ranked third in the Big Ten.

But there is no arguing that Martinez regressed in a major way last year. If he continues to struggle or is forced to miss any more time to injury, McCaffrey could make future depth chart decisions very interesting down the road.