Nebraska Football: Will Adrian Martinez win BIG Freshman of the Year?

Adrian Martinez has had an incredible season for Nebraska football, but is he a shoo-in to be the Big Ten Freshman of the Year?

Postseason awards aren’t the most important thing in the world, however, for a team like Nebraska football without a bowl game or conference title to look forward too, postseason awards can still bring pride to a program that hasn’t had a lot to celebrate in the last year.

Well, when it comes to the Nebraska football team, few players have as good a shot at winning some postseason honors than freshman quarterback Adrian Martinez, who appears to be one of the front-runners for Big Ten Freshman of the Year.

Martinez is third in the Big in total offense per game with an average of 291 yards. He’s also third in the Big Ten with 235 yards passing. Martinez has thrown for more than 2,300 yards and he has 15 touchdown passes along with 542 rushing yards and seven touchdowns.

Three different times this year, Martinez has been named Freshman of the Week in the Big Ten or shared the award with someone else. Yet, he is not alone in winning the award multiple times. Rondale Moore of Purdue, who has 91 receptions for 1,023 yards and 10 touchdowns, has won the award twice on his own and shared it once with Martinez, giving him three total.

However, there is another freshman that has put together a great year in the Big Ten and that is Maryland running back Anthony McFarland, who is fresh off a monstrous game against Ohio State. For the season, he has rushed for 1,022 yards and four touchdowns. He has also won Big Ten Freshman of the Week twice, including last week.

So, with a week left to go, the final performance of each player could decide who wins the award. If Martinez has another stellar outing and beats Iowa on the road, he would make a very strong case. The Hawkeyes defense is tough and beating Iowa at Kinnick Stadium would be a huge achievement. And if Martinez has a good statistical game on top of winning, it should really add to his case.

A game with 300 total yards and multiple touchdowns would be good. And If JD Spielman is back in the lineup, which is still unknown, it’s totally possible. A strong day with his legs, which might also be required, would be huge too.

Martinez isn’t going to hit milestones like 3,000 yards, 20 touchdown passes (most likely he has 15) or 1,000 yards rushing. However, he will easily get over 3,000 yards of total offense and already has 22 touchdowns. Beyond that, if he helps the Huskers win four of their last five Big Ten games, he will certainly be worthy of consideration.