Despite plenty of competition, Martinez is the QB to beat

On the surface, Nebraska’s quarterback room is as deep and talented as it’s been in recent memory. Yet as the Huskers kick off their first week of spring practices, Adrian Martinez remains the man to beat as the starter.

After a disappointing sophomore slump last year that was worsened by knee and shoulder injuries and needed offseason surgery, Martinez is back as the frontrunner to be NU’s top man under center in 2020.

But that doesn’t mean Martinez won’t have to continue to earn that title over the next five months.

Junior Noah Vedral, who started two games last year and has appeared in seven career games, is back. So is highly-touted redshirt freshman Luke McCaffrey, who shined in his limited action in 2019.

Nebraska also added another heralded quarterback recruit to the mix with early enrollee true freshman Logan Smothers, a four-star prospect who was rated the No. 4 dual-threat QB in the country last year.

Still, head coach Scott Frost said that as things stand right now, the job remains Martinez’s to lose.

“Adrian is starting out and he is our quarterback, and he is going to get the ones at the beginning,” Frost said. "But we are going to give some reps to Noah with the ones and some reps to Luke. Just like any other position, we are watching every snap they take and every rep they take.

“We are going to want the 22 best guys on the field at all times, and the quarterback is no different."

Martinez, who dealt with knee and shoulder injuries last season, will be limited to an extent this spring as he continues to recover to full health. But Frost said that only meant the 6-foot-2, 225-pound Fresno, Calif., native would not be made live for contact, and the quarterbacks wouldn’t be taking many hits at all in practice anyway.

“Just about everything, maybe short of goal-line drills where we would run the quarterback, we are going to be comfortable with him taking snaps," Frost said.

That means spring ball could feature a much better quarterback competition than some had anticipated, and that Vedral and McCaffrey will get their shots to go head-to-head with Martinez from the start.

The big question for McCaffrey, though, is whether he could see a role beyond quarterback this season. A former three-star athlete out of Highlands Ranch (CO) Valor Christian, McCaffrey lined up at wide receiver in the final two games of last season.

Quarterbacks coach Mario Verduzco insisted McCaffrey was a QB, and when asked his thoughts about him moving to receiver, Verduzco responded: “Other than smoke coming out of ears?”

Frost reiterated that sentiment to an extent but left the door open for McCaffrey to have some different roles if he didn't surpass Martinez as the starter.

"We talked to Luke about his role,” Frost said. “I think there may be a time to talk about something else for him for down the road, but right now, he is competing to be the quarterback. That's where he is in our eyes, so we want to give him every chance in the spring to do that. Come fall, if he is not the guy, then I'm sure there are some ways we can use him."

Barring a string of injuries ahead of him, Smothers will redshirt his first season. But Verduzco said the Muscle Shoals, Ala., native was 100-percent recovered from a rib injury he suffered during his senior high school season and has already impressed since arriving on campus in January.

On his first quarterback test, Verduzco said Smothers “ripped it apart,” and his athleticism has been everything the staff had hoped when they recruited him.

“He can run now, man,” Verduzco said. “That cat can run. He’s really pretty smooth."

Going back to Martinez, one thing Frost said he had noticed from his two-year starter was a much calmer and confident demeanor, certainly compared to last fall.

Knowing as well as anyone about the pressure placed on a Nebraska starting quarterback, Frost said Martinez looked more mentally prepared than ever to handle the role this season.

"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. I can say he seems like he's in a really good frame of mind right now."