What is Taylor Martinez’s Mindset?

The biggest question moving forward for this 2010 Cornhuskers team, is the title of this very post.

What is Taylor Martinez’s mindset?

I was absolutely floored when “The Wildman” took the field in replace of T-Mobile on Saturday. Shocked, appalled, awed, bowled over, stunned, startled, stupefied, and yes, even flabbergasted. Those are the words that come to mind (via thesaurus.com) when a Heisman favorite gets benched in the biggest game of the season.

Bo Pelini couldn’t handle the poor decision making of the young freshman that day, and elected for the infinitely less explosive, but more efficient, Zac Lee. The move worked to a degree. Lee matriculated the ball down the field (that means at a very slow rate), but his teammates didn’t respond in kind when Lee made the necessary plays to win the game (very commendable effort by Lee I must say).

How did Bo feel about his move the next day?

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"You look back, Taylor wasn’t the only problem. We were just looking for a spark. It’s a tough situation. He’s a young guy. You live and learn as a head coach. You don’t know if that’s the right decision to make, but it was a decision that was made and you move forward."

You sense some regret in those words, but not an all out admittance that it was the wrong move. I supported the move, in the same way Bo did, in that the team needed some sort of spark. Pelini had access to what would’ve been my decision maker, the ability to look T-Monster in the eye and see if he wanted more.

I will be heavily analyzing that look in his eye from the get go on Saturday. It won’t be easy. Husker fans would much rather see Kansas or Iowa St. on the schedule this week, but they go on the road to play an undefeated Oklahoma St. team that smells blood. Not an easy task, especially for a 20 year old kid.

This game could easily be a microcosm of the rest of T-Mart’s career. He is chalk-full of talent and potential, but has yet to face much adversity in his career as a Husker. This would definitely qualify as adversity.

Overcoming adversity is a great test for a quarterback, hell, it’s a great test for a man. Martinez will go on to much bigger and better things in his career, and this game could well serve as his launching pad.

I think all Big Red fans know we have a good quarterback for the foreseeable future. Saturday might confirm if we have one that is truly magical.

Go Big Red