This shouldn’t come as a big surprise, but the early reports coming out of Nebraska’s spring on quarterback Adrian Martinez are strong at this point.
The California native will be going into his fourth season as NU’s starting quarterback and led the way for the Huskers quarterback group in their near 130 play scrimmage this past Friday.
The questions are behind Martinez, where freshmen Logan Smothers and Heinrich Haarberg, along with walk-on sophomore Matt Masker are all battling for the No. 2 job.
Related: Monday nuggets | Frost video | Player video
“I thought the quarterbacks had a good day on Friday,” Frost said. “Adrian’s play is improving. He’s doing some good quarterbacking right now. Behind him it’s going to be interesting. I was really impressed with (Martinez) on Friday.
“I thought Logan Smothers probably had his best day at Nebraska on Friday. Matt Masker continues to do great things and really has control of the offense. (Heinrich) Haarberg has been impressing everybody with his athletic ability and just his arm strength. He’s got a long way to go learning it, but he’s working hard at that and doing a good job and his talent definitely shines through quite often. We are going to let those guys keep competing, and they are all getting a bunch of reps.”
Frost also added that Martinez has made improvements in every area, and it is shown with his approach both on and off the field this spring.
“Physically he looks great,” Frost said of Martinez. “He’s been healthy. He looks leaner and he looks faster. I think he did a good job in winter conditioning putting in work with Zach (Duval). When he takes off with it right now, he looks like a 4.4 guy – a guy that can really run and be a weapon. I think he did a lot of work in the off-season. Mostly I just think Adrian is in a good place mentally right now. I think he’s real comfortable and playing with a lot more confidence.”
A big piece to getting this offense going will also be at the wide receiver position.
NU is going to count on several different newcomers and inexperienced players in the program to transform that position.
Frost said top to bottom Friday was one of the best days he’s seen from a wide receiver group in his four years in Lincoln. Leading the way right now has been FCS All-American and Montana transfer Samori Toure, who has been extremely impressed with his new quarterback.
“It’s going good. Real smooth,” said Toure of his relationship with Martinez. “Honestly better than I expected. I would think not until the end of spring ball would you get on the same page, but I feel like since I got here, we’ve had some seven-on-seven’s and we got some extra work before spring ball. So as soon as spring ball started, we were already on the same page, and kind of clicking.”
