Nebraska football: Athlon gives Adrian Martinez starting nod, not much love

In Athlon’s recently released College Football quarterback rankings, Nebraska football QB Adrian Martinez was named the starter, but wasn’t ranked high.

Athlon just released it’s comprehensive list of where every starting quarterback for all 130 teams ranks heading into the 2018 season. While it might be a little early, it’s never too early to wonder where Nebraska football‘s entry might fall.

It’s also never too early to wonder who Athlon believes will be the Cornhuskers’ starter. It turns out the well-regarded publication has picked Adrian Martinez as the winner of the quarterback derby.

That’s the good news, for those actively rooting for the true freshman after a stellar spring game. The bad news is that Athlon is not particularly sold on what he’s going to do as a true freshman.

Ranked just 68th in the country, Martinez falls behind such prolific passers as Kenny Pickett at Pitt. To be fair, the ranking isn’t terrible when talking about a quarterback who has never played a college football game.

He ranks just behind USC’s JT Daniels. He’s not among the worst of the worst either, considering he’s just outside the top half of the rankings.

Where the list could be seen as problematic for Husker fans is that there are almost no Big Ten quarterbacks behind him. At the moment, it appears Athlon believes Martinez is no better than the 10th best quarterback in the conference.

Again, it’s hard to get mad at that ranking with so many unknowns at Nebraska. Will he even be the starter? What will the offense really look like? How much will it lean on the quarterback position?

All fair questions. Ranking number 68 also means that Martinez has something he can work for.

When looking at some of the names, especially in the Big Ten that have been ranked ahead of the potential starting signal caller for the Nebraska football team, you’ve got to think several of them have a bullseye on their backs.