Chris Klieman has a plan for how to use Kansas State QB Adrian Martinez at Sugar Bowl
Adrian Martinez has faded into the background ever since Will Howard took over for him as Kansas State’s quarterback.
That tends to happen when the new guy leads a team to its first conference championship in a decade and the old guy is wearing sweat pants, watching games from the sideline.
But that doesn’t mean Martinez is ready to quietly ride off into the sunset as a K-State football player. He wants to finish his college career with a bang against Alabama at the Sugar Bowl. And Chris Klieman wants to help him do exactly that, even though Howard remains locked in as the Wildcats’ unquestioned QB1.
“I would love to see him play,” Klieman said of Martinez. “Will is going to start. He’s the guy in the bowl game. But I would love to have Adrian get an opportunity to play in this bowl game. If he’s healthy, that’s the plan, is trying to get him some snaps in there.”
All signs point to Martinez being active for the Sugar Bowl.
Though he hasn’t played since suffering an injury against Baylor on Nov. 12 he has remained involved with the team by participating in warm-up drills before games and serving as a captain during the coin toss. His body has healed enough that he was even able to return to practice earlier this week.
Klieman said Martinez threw the ball around on Monday and took some reps with the second-team offense. He looked good.
“We eased him back into it,” Klieman said. “We’ll see how he came out of it. We will probably give him a few more reps these next few days and push him a little bit more.”
If Martinez is deemed healthy enough to play in the Sugar Bowl, he could add a new wrinkle to K-State’s offense.
The Nebraska transfer is a dual-threat passer who is capable of beating teams with both his arm and his legs. He is a much more mobile quarterback than Howard, and he ran for 615 yards and 10 touchdowns this season in addition to the 1,261 yards and six touchdowns he put up as a passer.
Imagine Martinez coming into the game and running a wildcat package against Alabama. Or handling goal-line work alongside Deuce Vaughn. Maybe offensive coordinator Collin Klein could think of a formation that utilizes two quarterbacks.
On a less exciting note, Martinez could also serve as Howard’s backup should he suffer an injury.
Klieman said the Wildcats would consider a similar strategy for Martinez against TCU had he been healthy for the Big 12 championship game. But that felt more like gamesmanship than anything else. There is a much better chance that Martinez actually plays in the Sugar Bowl.
One could argue that K-State owes it to him after what he accomplished for the Wildcats early on this season. Martinez also badly wants to be on the field.
Remember, Nebraska was never invited to a bowl game while he was with the Huskers.
This is an important game for both K-State and Martinez.
“Even after he got hurt against Baylor and we knew he was going to be out for some period of time, he and I talked,” Klieman said. “I just said, “Adrian, I know how important it is for you to be ready to play in a bowl game. I want to make sure that you are going to push yourself to get to that bowl game,’ not knowing what his plan was going to be.
“That was what he had earmarked. He said, ‘No coach, I want to play in a bowl game.’”
This story was originally published December 20, 2022 at 12:53 PM with the headline "Chris Klieman has a plan for how to use Kansas State QB Adrian Martinez at Sugar Bowl."