Kansas State Wildcats hope to get Adrian Martinez on track as a passer against Tulane
There are more than a few valid reasons to explain why Adrian Martinez has thrown for just 154 yards as Kansas State’s starting quarterback this season.
South Dakota mostly used its safeties in deep pass protection, allowing the Wildcats to run for 297 yards in a 34-0 victory in Week 1. Then a thunderstorm passed over Bill Snyder Family Stadium while the Wildcats once again mostly kept the ball on the ground and ran for 235 yards in a 40-12 win over Missouri in Week 2.
K-State football coach Chris Klieman has been quick to remind everyone that the Wildcats simply haven’t needed to rely on their passing game yet. So they haven’t asked Martinez to do anything special.
“No one has lost any confidence in the passing game within the program,” K-State receiver Kade Warner said, “just because of how the flow of the games have gone.”
Still, it has to be at least a little unsettling for fans to see Martinez rank as the nation’s No. 142 passer with only one game left before Big 12 play arrives.
Since transferring in from Nebraska, where he threw for 8,491 yards over the course of four seasons, he is only averaging 4.4 yards per pass with the Wildcats. The vast majority of his throws have been checkdowns, and he failed to connect with Phillip Brooks on his lone deep ball in Game 1.
It should come as no surprise that K-State (98 yards per game) currently ranks last in the Big 12 in passing yardage. Every other team is averaging 212 yards or more.
Changing that narrative might be a priority against Tulane on Saturday.
“It would be awesome,” Warner said. “Anytime you can pop off a big one like that and have an explosive play and show that you can efficiently move the ball down the field, I think that is definitely a major boost in confidence for everyone here.”
The Wildcats will need to throw the ball more effectively than they have in their first two games if they hope to be successful in the Big 12.
For that reason, they could go out of their way to emphasize passing in their final nonconference tuneup. Klieman says the Wildcats have only scratched the surface of what they can do when they throw the football.
“We’re just wanting the opportunity to do it more than anything,” Klieman said. “I don’t know if we need to prove it ... I’m still excited about some of the things we are going to do in our passing game.”
Martinez is hopeful that offensive coordinator Collin Klein will give him a few opportunities to throw for big gains against the Green Wave. But he is also content to keep being a game manager, so long as the Wildcats keep winning.
“It would be good for us as a unit,” Martinez said. “But I don’t feel like I need that kind of validation or that kind of a confidence boost. I feel good about our capabilities, and when it happens and the defense gives it to us it will be great.”
This story was originally published September 14, 2022 at 1:35 PM with the headline "Kansas State Wildcats hope to get Adrian Martinez on track as a passer against Tulane."